. <= n°
yore, “Ve respennlt an Sea,
DAS ENDE DER GEBURT Oy ‘
by Ou fale of [3 abe
Vicki Baum
° "7
/
The somwhat puzzling origin of this manuscript though explained by Miss Baum
in her &mxwxaxd foreword would lead one to belief that it was used as a convé-
nient introduction to a product of her own fertile imagination, that is before
one has‘read the manuscript, after having read it however | at least am congin=
ced that Miss Baum was left this wanaseript by kha doctor Fabius and that she
edited and rearranged it, Though of soyrge not being acquainted with the origi-
nal she did a marvellous job and has, integrated the material in a remarkable fas~
hion, : _
Miss Baum tells us how she became first acquainted with Bali when she was shown
some beautiful photographs of the Island and the Balinese in 1916, At that time
the so-called civilized nations of the worl@ were engaged in a life and death
struggle which left little room for interest in the strange life of the people
on a small island, which in post-war period has been advertised by ambitious
steamship lines as the nearest approach to paradise on earth, However Miss Baum
wexskken revisited Bali in 1935 when she made the acquaintance of this remarkable
doctor Fabius, who was greatly beloved by the natives for his medical care and
help and his symaipkky sympathy with and understanding of Balinese folklore, Co-
ming back to the United States she wrote several letters to doctor Fabius, but
received no answer, The reason was, that the doctoy, Avery old man had died in
the meantime, She did inherit from him however a small Japanfse valise, which
contained a volumnuous manuscript, The first part of this manuscript with sun=
dry changes is the work at hand, It makes, one of the most remarkable books kxhaxe
it has ever been my prkukXage privilege, under its simple surface is a deep philo~
sophy of almost universal content. \b,és much an epic of the soil as THE GOOD
EARTH and the GROWTH OF THE SOIL, and in spite of its length holds one spell~
bound from beginning to end, There was a tempting opportunity to make this book
conform Rranxkan kak tourist's and travel eulogies about Bali, It does however
nothing of the kind, It is a beautiful book of epic scope and will stand in an~
nals of modern literature as one of the outstanding works in colonial litera+
ture, Not a single false note has been struck and the reading of it moves one
to the core in sympathy with the suffering of a subject people, whom the Dutch
colonial gmaxexnammn government had the grace finally to consider as an extraor-
dinary people, whose customs and religion should preserved with the only excepe
tion that some of the cruel customs such as widow-burning and torturing of —
criminals should be abandonned, Anybody who can read this book however without
at the end feeling a great love for the Balinese must be completely blind to
the beauty of one,/the earthylast remaining primitive cultures.
The story is simply the story of the peasant Pak, but it involves considera-
bly more than a mere narrative of his own life, The khma theme opposes the sim~
ple daily tasks and pleasures of the serf with the arrogant wealth and foolhar-
dy bravery of the rajah, Wkkk The book is more than a noveljit is taken from
real instances in the life of the Balinese and the last war of the rajah Alit
with the Hollanders in 1207, The book stretches from 1904 to 1907, The his-
torical incident of the shipwrecking of a Chinese merchant vessel flying the
Dutch flag on the coast of Bali, its subsequent plunder by the Balinese after
they had saved the Chinese are at the heginning and at the end the punitive
expedition of the Dutch Fast Indian army, In Between we become thoroughly and
most movingly acquainted with Balinese life from the highest to the lowest and
with never a let-up in interest.
In the introduction we find the aged doctor Fabius in conversation with Pak
who is now an old man at peace with the wot®d and as it says at the very end
of the book "with his heart with a happiness, which is unknown to @™ white
man," We have completed the perfect cycle, as indicated in the quotation from
the Bhagavad-Gita at the outset of the booksg"The end of Birth is Heath, Death's
End is Birth, This it has been ordained." After this introduction comes the
story proper, The first chapter is entitleds THE SHIPWRECK OF THE SRI KUMALA
In this first chapter we are introduced to Pak, our principal hero, his young
sister Lambon, the Balinese dancer, his ugly but sensbble wife Puglug, his old»
30
father wise in Brahmin widdom, khe His neighbor, the much venerated Brahmin
priest, the Pedanda, Ida Bagus Rafi, his song the best dancer of the South Ba~
linese territory under the reign of rajah Alit, Raka. Ashknexe A Chinese boat
is shipwrecked and that is khe where the trouble starts which gives the Dutch
colonial government after three years a welcome excuse to send a punitive ex
pedition to this still independent part of the island, Local authority is the
Punggawa who directs the rescue of the shipwrecked and places some Balinese
guarddalong the coast én order to prevent the plundering of the wreckage, Pak
@s one of the guards, A sinister figure in all this is the Chinese Njo Tok
Suey who takes care of the interests of the shipwrecked Chinese, The principal
Chinese's name aboard the ship is Kwe Tik Tjian®. Strange doimgs occur during
the night after the shipwreck, Pak on guard has gone to sleep. A disreputable
character in that neighborhood is the fFiBherman Bengek of hoarse voice, be~
cause of a throat affliction, He participates in the plundering of the Chinese
vessel and as Pak halts him on his way back from the wreck, he bribes him with
three valueless China plates, which according to Pak, the innocent have a beau
tiful design of roses on them, Pak's mouth is thus sealed and he buries the kk
three plates as a great treasure,
The second chapter entitled THE PURI, concerns itself with palace and palace
grounds of Haja Alit, The Legong dancer Raka is his best friend, The palace
is full of harem intrigue, The prince has no children side Brahmin philosép~
her, bored with life and an opium addict. He is ugly and Raka is beautiful,
The Chinaman has complained to the Dutch authorities about the plundering of
his ship, He wants compensation, The haughty rajah bas ample money to compen=
sate the Chinaman, but there is a principle involved and he is proud, The
Dutch authoririties, through the intermediary of the controller Visser try
to collect, The rajah is polite, but lends a deaf ear, The argument is conti-
nued in the chapter Buleleng, which is the residence of the Dutch colonial
authorites. We meet the Redident, a Rukehkxman Dutchmen, whose seaman's ex=
perience has little patience with the intricacies of Balinese diplomacy.
40
Boosmer, his assistant however is for direct measures and feels that the Dutch
“authorities should send troups and finish this irksome matter for ever with.
stern measures against the incomprehensible rajahs and their little apprecda=
tion of the benefits of Dutch colonial rule,
Next chapter takes us again back to the simple PEOPLE OF TAMAN SARI, that is &
the peasants, like Pak who make up the population of this rural peasant communi«
ty, Pak has his troubles, he wants to take a second wife, His wife has énly born
daughters and moreover she wants an assistant in her daily tasks. She intrigues
to get for his second wife, the industrious, but pimplefaced Dasni., Pak however
has an eye for something more comely and wants the handsome Sarda for his second
wife, Man has more or less his own way in a Balinese household and Pak has his
way as he builds her a handsome new house in the walls of which he places the
three fateful plates. A great honor is Pak's share, his sister, the dancer
‘Lambon wk is chosen as one of the new concubines of the Rajbh,
In the following chapter entitled THE BIRTHDAY a son is born to Pak and the
Kajah celebrates his birthday, when he treats his Dutch guests, who come to
negotiate with the Palinese prince over the compensation for the Chinaman's
shipwreck, to a feast of dancings and colbrations,
Thereafter comes a chapter in which the fortunes of Pak take a turn for the
worse, His brother Meru has cast an eye on one of the Rajah's concubines with
the result that he has his eyes put out’ as punishment, his rice harvest spoils,
there is a rat plague and sundry other misfortunes,
The chapter entitled Haka, tells us about the rajah's favorite and the superb
dancer he is, Unfortunately the dancer has fallen in love with Lambon, who is
now almost a prisoner in the rajah's harem, They have Cw, They
are not caught, but Beautiful Raka becomes a victim to the dredd leprosy,
Eventually he becomes an outcast from his community, incomprehensible as he is
the son of the holy Pedanda, he is followed into eile by his wife, "
One of the greatest’ attractions for the Balinese are cockfights, Pak obtains
a champion rooster, who goes from victory to vietty, in the end but to be con-
5)
fiscated by the rajah, Pak's heart has become more and more embittered against
the prince, First he has taken his sister, then his brother Menu had his eyes
put out, finally hdtakes his champion fighting cock,
For the funeral of neighboring deceased rajah a funeral show is put on in
which three of his widows are bé#ned alive with his corpse. This is in spite of
the agreement with the Dutch colonial authoritées in which the Balinese prin-
ces promised not do this again, Dutch patience has conveniently given out and
they have finally found a welcome excuse to send a punitive expedition to
South Bali,
In the final chapter we see the immolation of the rajah, his concubines
and faithfull followers who are no match to the trained Dutch colonial army,
The peasants, such as Pak however felt that the struggle was Rajah Alit's and
not theirs and in the end he returns to his sawahs, living his peaceful pea~
sants life, cultivating the ricefields.
This is but a bare outline of this magnificent book, 't is fragrant with
the flowers, the artistry, the harmony of Bali, At the end we feel we have
a thorough knowledge of all that makes the life of these extraordinary people
so fascinating, The very simplicity of the tale however conveys indelibly to
us that their struggles though in to us unfamiliar surroundings are very
much the same as ours, 'herefor the appeal of this book is universal and as
eternal as fo us the very existence of man, There is a breathless, urging
quality about this manuscript which makes one to go on and on and so comple~
tely different from all other books on Bali which for some reason or another
always seem artificial to us, This not a réy picture of a paradisical island
but the true tale of a people to whom we can feel deeply akin in spite of the
differentiation in our lives,
Personally | feel that with this volume Doubleday will publish one of the
most outstanding books in its publishing career,
A. vA, van Duym, 233 W14,NYC . |
