this first fairly successful attempt upon the little dessa was systematically repeated, and every evening the inspiriting tones of the cymbal resounded on the green of kaligaweh, and every evening also the temptations described in the former chapter were renewed. all this might cost lim yang bing some money at first; but he knew well enough that he would be the gainer in the end and that his capital would soon return to him with ample interest. by degrees it became less and less necessary to allow the gamblers to win; and it was not very long before such a thing only happened now and again so that the hope of gain might not die out altogether. gradually the poor deluded people began to lose more and more; and one bundle of rice after another passed into the hands of the sharpers who, it must be said, gave liberal prices; and allowed somewhat more than the full market value for the produce.
but it was not only the spirit of gambling which had thus been aroused in kaligaweh; together with that degrading passion—perhaps in consequence of it—the abuse of opium began to increase to an alarming extent. six months, indeed, had scarcely elapsed before it became a notorious fact that a very considerable part of the population had taken to opium smoking; and—sadder still—that the opium farmers found powerful allies in the women of the dessa, who very soon began to perceive [87]the influence which the drug had upon their husbands, and who, instead of trying to arrest the unfortunate creatures on their road to ruin, rather encouraged their fatal passion.
one reason of this was, that the terrible effects of the poison did not at once manifest themselves. no—the enemy made his approaches in the dark, he advanced slowly but surely.
at first the quantity used was but very small, a couple of matas or so a day, not even as much as that, were for those primitive people who were wholly unaccustomed to the drug quite sufficient to procure blissful rest and delightful sleep, and to call up visions of the houris with which mohammed has peopled his paradise. double that quantity would produce exuberant gaiety and excite to the most inordinate passions. and that peace, that excitement, that bliss could be purchased at the opium-store for fourteen cents (about 2?d.) a mata. it was indeed dirt-cheap!
but—though in the beginning of his downward course, the opium smoker could rest satisfied with so moderate an allowance—albeit even this did not fail to make a breach in his modest budget seeing that the expenditure was pretty constant—presently his constitution began to get seasoned to it, and it took a much greater quantity of the poison to have the desired effect. at first a man would only occasionally indulge and take up the bedoedan (opium pipe) say, once a week; but gradually his nervous system began to grow accustomed to the stimulant, and then a craving for the poison began to be felt, so that already several men could be pointed out who, as soon as the influence of the narcotic had passed off, were dull, downcast, nervous and restless; and who, in consequence, felt utterly miserable. there was but one means to raise them out of their state of depression; and so they would take up the bedoedan again and swallow another dose of the poison. and thus by degrees it came to pass that at length there was with them scarcely an interval between one fit of intoxication and the next. that thus the prosperity of the dessa was inevitably destined to disappear did not admit of the slightest doubt.
not only was the actual expense of this habitual indulgence greater than the means of many would allow; but the fatal habit engendered other cravings which also had to be gratified, and which helped to sweep away the little that opium had left. moreover the love of work—never under any circumstances too strong in a tropical land—was first seriously impaired, then wholly extinguished, and, when not under the influence of the [88]opiate the smoker was a slovenly, drowsy, lazy and objectless being, wholly unfit for the least exertion, whom nothing could rouse into activity but fresh indulgence in the baneful remedy. indeed the sanitary condition of the people of kaligaweh had degenerated with such alarming rapidity, that the most casual observer could not fail to be struck by the change. if, in days gone by, a european visited the dessa—which it is true but very seldom happened—he could not fail to admire the healthy and sturdy look of its inhabitants; but now he constantly came upon men and women whose ghastly appearance could not but excite in him the deepest pity. there could be no mistake about it, at a single glance it was evident that he had before him the victims of the terrible opium-fiend.
those grey livid faces from which every trace of the oriental bronze tint had faded; that wrinkled skin which looked like parchment overheated without being scorched; those wasted angular features which gave to the head the appearance of an unsightly skull; those deep sunken eyes with their jaded look and the dark blue rings around them; those stooping forms and receding chests; that extraordinary emaciation of the upper body, of which every rib could be counted, and which conveyed an idea of transparency, for the specimens which one met had hardly a rag about them; barely a bit of dirty clothing wrapped round their loins to hide their nakedness; that deep distressing cough which came, with hollow sound, from the labouring breast and spoke of lungs wasted with disease whilst it seemed to shake to pieces the entire frame; those spindle legs, so poor, so meagre, that they seemed hardly able to totter along under the weight of the body they had to support; all these formed the stereotyped picture of defaced humanity and bore incontestable witness to the protracted sufferings and unfathomable misery which had reduced these poor blighted creatures to mere walking skeletons.
when later on singomengolo revisited the dessa where he first saw the light, and where, as a thanksoffering, he had planted the most terrible curse, his lip must have curled with a satanic smile. yes, all he could now see there; those cocoa-nut trees overgrown with moss and parasites; those orchards neglected and decayed; those unwatered rice-fields and half-tilled fields; those two or three oxen whose lean and sickly appearance spoke plainly of neglect and starvation; yes, all these things were his work. it was his fault that now the harvest was scanty and worthless; it was his fault that even [89]that wretched harvest had been pawned long before the ani anis had so much as begun their work; it was his fault that clothes, furniture, tools, everything, had been sold or pawned for next to nothing, and that all had been swallowed up in the bottomless pit of that national curse.
but babah lim yang bing the opium farmer and his friends ong sing beh and kouw thang the keepers of the pawnshop and of the gambling-booth were thriving wonderfully, and by their glorious aid the dutch treasury also was doing well in comparison, at least, with former days when those three noble sources of income contributed little or nothing to that unsatiable moloch, the revenue. gaily therefore might the dutch flag wave in the breeze, and proudly might the dutch arms display their manly motto “je maintiendrai” above the opium-den, the gambling-booth and the pawn-shop—that much worshipped trinity which forms the most elaborate system of extortion under which ever a poor conquered race has groaned.
among the first of the infatuated wretches which fell into the pit so carefully dug for them, was pak ardjan, the father of the mate of the schooner brig kiem ping hin. but a short time ago he was looked upon as a thriving and well-to-do javanese peasant, the possessor of a yoke of powerful oxen, now he had gambled, rioted and smoked away house and goods and had plunged his helpless family into the most hideous misery.
where was now the pleasant little cottage with its neat hedge of golden-yellow bamboo and its clean dark-brown roof of thatch made of leaves? where was that comfortable little house in which pak ardjan was wont to sit with wife and children, passing his days in peace and cheerfully looking forward to the future?
alas! the miserable hovel which now barely sheltered the once happy family was small, low, close, in fact a ruin. the single room of which it consisted was pervaded by that offensive musty smell which decaying bamboo generally emits. one look at the walls, the lower parts of which had already rotted away while the upper were rapidly crumbling under the attacks of the white ant, and one glance at the roof which was in one place bulging inwards and in another fast going to dust, was quite sufficient to account for the closeness of the air. on the bits of matting, which covered the still more filthy floor, the children were rolling about, many of them naked as they were born, while the mother and father, if he happened to be at [90]home, clad in rags which were never washed and were leaving their bodies in tatters sat crouching on the floor stupidly gazing at the scene of desolation before them. gazing! aye, if the stony mechanical stare could be called by that name. for the father had lost all consciousness of the hopeless misery of his family. the frightful selfishness produced by the abuse of opium: the constantly growing indifference to all things round about him, even to his own wife and children; the rapidly increasing love of idleness, and incapacity for work, for care, for exertion in fact of any kind which at length made him utterly unable to think of anything by day or night except of how he might gratify his passion and the other cravings it engendered, and for which he was driven to sacrifice everything. all this had clouded his sight, and as a man stone-blind he was tottering on the very brink of a precipice.
whilst he was in the first lethargic state brought on by the moderate use of the narcotic, he would be quiet, peaceful and contented, and would dose away and dream and build up for himself—for himself only—a paradise in which none but sensual pictures presented themselves to his eye and to his mind. then as he continued to smoke, and when he reached the next stage—the stage of frenzy—he would, regardless of his children’s presence, shamelessly pursue his wife round the cabin, for at such times she seemed to him the houri of his dreams, and then, in that wretched hovel at any hour of the night or day, scenes would be enacted such as the poor innocent children ought never to have witnessed. for, at such times the man was like a brute beast, wholly incapable of bridling his degraded passions.
then the final paroxysm would be reached, and the effect of the dreadful poison would begin to wear off; and then the wretched creature would fall into a state of utter prostration, of annihilation which for himself, and worse still for his family, was indeed a cup of woe. then the smoker would begin to tremble all over, then he became restless and uneasy, then his entire nervous system seemed to be out of joint, then every limb would be racked with pain—then he would moan most piteously, and cry like a child, sobbing and declaring that he was at the point of death and then—yes; then there was but one single means to relieve him and to bring him back out of that state of intolerable agony, and that was once again to grasp the pipe and to fight the disease with the poison which had caused it. then the wife had to run out to buy [91]opium—where the money was to come from, that was her business.
then one of the children had to knead and roll the opium-balls and another little one had to hold the lamp which, for that kind of smoking, is indispensable, and a third had to make strong coffee which was generally got by theft out of the government-plantations. and if, from sheer want of money, all this could not be done—nay even when it was not done quite quickly enough for the impatience of the nervous sufferer—then the wretched man would fill the hut with wailing and lamentation, with curses and revilings which drove its inmates to the verge of despair.
amidst such surroundings as these ardjan had grown up, and although he had not fallen as deeply as his father, yet in the years of his childhood, the age which is most susceptible of good or evil, his heart and mind had received the impressions which made it possible for him later on to take service on board a smuggling-brig, and to make him feel towards the company which employed him in its nefarious transactions, such loyalty as we heard him express in the djaga monjet before lim ho the son of lim yang bing the opium farmer at santjoemeh.
so long as ardjan, who was the eldest son, was but a child, the family was plunged in the depths of bestial degradation; but when he had grown up and, after having served awhile as a sailor in a government vessel, had gone on board the kiem ping hin, things began somewhat to mend at home in the dessa. this was especially the case when young ardjan, who had a very good head on his shoulders, was promoted to be mate of the smuggling brig. in that capacity he had constant opportunities of handling the cargo, and of such a drug as opium, which takes up but little space, he could very easily now and then appropriate to himself quantities of comparatively considerable value. this he did the more readily, and with the less reluctance, as his notions on the meum and tuum were of the vaguest description. the opium thus pilfered he used to deliver to his father who, in this manner, was enabled, not only fully to indulge in his ruling passion, but also to dispose of the superfluity to his neighbours. in this illegal traffic pak ardjan frequently made considerable gains, which, however, far from being of any substantial benefit to his empoverished household, would always be squandered with lavish extravagance. [92]
such was the state of things when resident van gulpendam gave lim yang bing the hint that pak ardjan was, in the estimation of the police, held to be a notorious smuggler.
from what has been said above it is evident that what the resident had said was true, the police had their suspicions, and had often been on the old smuggler’s track, without ever having been able to bring the offence home to him. it must be said indeed, that so long as ardjan was on board the kiem ping hin they made no very determined efforts to convict his father. equally true it was that pak ardjan, not knowing at the time that his son lay under suspicion of having brought on shore the discovered opium, had laid a formal accusation against lim ho, on account of the brutal manner in which he had treated his son. now, the old opium-smoker had taken this step, not because he felt any pity for his son, nor because he wished to be revenged upon the chinaman for the wrong he had thus inflicted upon one of his family—still less had he done so because he was anxious that the offender should receive condign punishment. oh no, pak ardjan was not actuated by any such motives as these.
a short time before his adventure at the moeara tjatjing ardjan had procured for his father a few katties of opium. so long as the supply lasted, the old man had not troubled himself in the least about the treatment his son had undergone; but when he saw that the supply was beginning to run low, then he began to look with apprehension to the future, and especially alarmed was he when he heard that ardjan had exchanged the hospital for the jail. his poor muddled brain fancied that he might hasten ardjan’s release by making a charge against lim ho; and he had been further encouraged to take the step by the advice of a pettifogging lawyer, who thought that, in an action against the rich son of the still more wealthy opium-farmer, he had discovered a very pretty little vein of gold. thus the charge was, in the proper form, laid before the court at santjoemeh and a prosecution against lim ho was ordered accordingly.
this matter the president of the council had put into the hands of his young colleague, van nerekool, and he, most anxious that justice should be done and that the miscreant should pay the legal penalty for his offence; and glad also, thus to be able to perform the promise which he had made to anna, the fair daughter of the resident, that he would do his best to save dalima’s lover, had readily undertaken the case, and was [93]confident that he would be able to bring it to a successful issue.
but, on a certain afternoon, while the sun was yet high in the heavens, pak ardjan had gone to have a look at his store of opium which he had secreted by burying it deep in the ground, and heaping over the place a heavy layer of stones. much to his regret he found, upon opening his store, that, at the most, he had but a couple of ta?l left. these he proceeded to carry home with him; for he had promised some opium-smoking friends to let them have a supply that evening, and, as they were good customers and paid him handsomely, he would not disappoint them.
when he reached home his children informed him that singomengolo had made his appearance in the dessa, and had been making sundry enquiries about him. the appearance itself of the man in the dessa, was nothing very extraordinary, nor was it, under the circumstances, strange that pak ardjan’s name should have been mentioned by him. but somehow or other an accountable feeling of distrust came over the old man which impelled him to try and hide the opium he had about him. now if he had been in his normal condition he would straightway have returned to the ravine and buried his treasure safely in its former hiding place, before further steps could be taken against him. but the fit of depression was on him, his nerves were again beginning to play tricks with him, his mental powers were, as usual after prolonged abstinence, growing confused—in short he was bordering on that stage in which he would need another dose of opium to pick him up. accordingly, he set aside a couple of matas for his own use, and, having carefully wrapped the remainder in nipah-leaves, he thrust the packets for concealment behind the attapa-leaves which formed the crazy roof of his cabin.
this done, it was the old story again, and the whole family had to set to work to minister to him in his disgusting opium debauch.
but as he lay stretched there on the bench, and just as he was beginning to light his third pipe, before that, therefore, he was wholly under the influence of the poppy-juice, singomengolo suddenly appeared on the door-step, accompanied by four or five policemen, and by the two chinamen, who kept the opium-store. the instant he crossed the threshold, the bandoelan knew what was going on within, although pak ardjan had started up, and with some dexterity, [94]had managed to hide his pipe under the filthy pillow which is inevitably present on every couch, and his children had secreted the lamp and the yet unsmoked opium.
the sickly sweetish smell, however, which pervaded the close stuffy room could not deceive anyone, least of all a bandoelan so thoroughly experienced as was the agent of the opium-farmer.
“there has been opium smoked here!” he cried in a peremptory tone, as he and his followers made their way into the cabin.
“oh no,” stammered pak ardjan in dismay, “oh no, indeed there has not!” while his wife and children, like so many frightened sheep, huddled together in a corner.
“guard the door and the windows,” cried singo to his policemen, and then turning again upon pak ardjan he repeated more sternly even than before, “you have been smoking opium, i tell you!”
“oh no, indeed i have not,” replied the unfortunate man.
“why there is the pipe,” cried the opium hunter, as he triumphantly drew the corpus delicti from under the pillow. “why here is the pipe, and quite hot too!”
pak ardjan already beside himself with fear felt completely crushed at this evident proof of his guilt.
“where is the opium?” asked singomengolo in threatening tones.
pak ardjan returned no answer.
“well, never mind,” said singo, “we shall soon find it,” and a horrid smile crossed his lips.
he made a signal to the chinamen, and to the policemen who were not engaged in watching the door and windows; and then ensued a search, we may call it a hunt, the description of which may well seem incredible to those who do not know that such frightful scenes are not at all of uncommon occurrence.
under the couch, under the mats which covered the floor, they searched, they rooted up the very floor of the cabin, they poked about under the stove and in the ashes of that very primitive kind of cooking-apparatus; pillows were rent open, and their contents scattered on the floor; the few boxes and baskets were torn open, and the noisome rags they contained were shaken and contemptuously flung aside; the poor miserable furniture, a few pots and pans, the rice-kettle, the tombok-block, the rice-panniers, even the sirih-box were turned over, but nothing—nothing could they find. [95]
singomengolo was angry. now he ordered a body-search to be made.
first they seized upon pak ardjan and, though he offered some resistance, he was, with sundry kicks and blows, very soon shaken out of the few filthy rags which hung about him, and, in his hideous leanness, he stood there naked before the eyes of his family. the sense of decency, which never leaves even the most utterly degraded, made the poor man cower down moaning to the ground trying to hide his nakedness from the eyes of his children.
then came the mother’s turn, and the turn of the children—some of them girls from seven to fourteen years of age. regardless alike of the mother’s feelings or of the innocence of childhood, the inhuman monsters proceeded in their search, and a scene was then enacted so hideous, so disgusting, that over it we must draw a veil.
the children cried, the girls sobbed and wept, the mother shrieked under this base and violent treatment, it was of no avail. but presently, one of the policemen rudely seized upon the eldest daughter, poor little sarina, a girl of fourteen; she, in her fright, dropped her sarong, and uttered a scream of terror. that cry made pak ardjan bound to his feet, madly he flung himself upon the cowardly wretch, with one wrench he dragged the fellow’s sabre from its scabbard, and with its edge he dealt the miscreant two such blows as sent him, sorely wounded and howling with pain, flying from the scene of his dastardly exploit. but the poor father thus goaded to madness and blinded by fury, whose withered arm and wasted frame could not endure any sustained exertion, was at once overpowered and disarmed before he could strike another blow in defence of his outraged household. they bound him most cruelly, they tied his ankles together and forced the rough and prickly gemoetoe-cords between his toes, which at the slightest movement, put the unfortunate man to excruciating torture. next they proceeded to handcuff him; but, as the manacles were much too wide to confine his shrivelled wrists, they drove in between the arm and the iron, rough pieces of firewood, and this caused such intolerable pain that a lamentable howl came from pak ardjan’s lips—a howl most like that of some poor beast in its dying agony.
but now the opium? the opium? hitherto none had been found.
singomengolo stood scratching his ear. he was, indeed, in a most awkward predicament. [96]
“what a rage the kandjeng toean resident will be in,” muttered he. but he did not mind him much. he would bluster no doubt a good deal and bark; but he would take good care not to bite.
but, what would babah lim yang bing think of it? might he not look with suspicion upon all this fruitless zeal.
and then the newspapers! what if they began to talk—and talk those confounded papers would there could be no doubt about it.
and the judges! what if they should take it up? they must take it up of course. pak ardjan had violently, and with arms in his hand, resisted the police—the opium police. and that was a crime which could not be hushed up. that was one of the offences which the dutchmen always punished with the greatest severity. yes, but then the fact would come out that there had been a visitation, a pretty severe visitation, and that nothing had been found. and then other matters might, and would probably, leak out. aye, they had handled the little girls a little too brutally. and those judges were such an inquisitive lot, they were sure to get to the bottom of it all. he was in an awkward plight. oh! had he but found the opium! or better still, had he but taken his usual precautions!
“and yet,” muttered he, as his hawk-like eye darted round the little hut, “i had such very precise instructions. i was to wait until pak ardjan had returned from the ravine, then—but would it not have been much wiser to surprise him in the ravine?—no, no—that would never have done—he might have sworn that he had found the opium there by chance, and those judges are so lenient, they will believe anything, and they never convict if there is the possibility of a doubt. no, no, the opium must—it shall—be found in pak ardjan’s own possession, that only will be conclusive evidence of guilt. but—i cannot find it—eh! eh!” he exclaimed, “what have we here?” with one bound singomengolo reached the corner where a slight bulge in the roof seemed to look as if it had quite lately been disturbed. the edges of the nipah-leaves did not look quite so dark in that spot as the others which had been exposed to the smoke. the bandoelan thrust his hand into the roof, he felt about for a few moments, and then, he drew forth two small parcels. these he hastily unwrapped and uttered a cry of triumph. it [97]was the opium which pak ardjan had tried to hide just before his house was searched. “you lie, you scoundrel!” roared he, to the wretched javanese, as he dealt him a blow in the face with the back of his hand, which made the blood to spurt from his lips.
but the latter replied not a word.
when the captured opium had been duly examined by the witnesses, the detected criminal was flung into a filthy sedan-chair carried by some natives who had been pressed for that service. thus under proper escort and guard, pak ardjan was conveyed to santjoemeh, and lodged in the jail.
a few days later resident van gulpendam laid a formal charge against pak ardjan before the court at santjoemeh. he was accused of opium-smuggling, and of having violently, and with arms in his hands, resisted the police in the execution of their duty; one of the officers having received serious wounds in the affray.
mr. zuidhoorn, the president, read over the charge, and as he read he could not conceal a bitter smile. “it is disgusting,” muttered he, “disgusting!”
