Penjoe, the Slow Sea Turtle

It was a night of pure silver and black.

Here, on the white dune beach of Poelau Djemoer, with its black rocks where the surf pounded, there were no other colors in the bright moonlit night. The stars had receded into the black sky before the magic glow of the silver fire, and the sea was inky black, where only now and then a swell of flowing silver was heard watered.

Above, on a rock, stood the lighthouse; without this light the great Shipping in the Strait of Malaca, the global strait of Asia, is not possible. Besides the lighthouse keeper and his helpers, there lived on this lonely island just a few Malays, in a hut at the foot of the rocky hill; they collected turtle eggs, which they bought for a pair guilders per hundred in the large ports on the Sumatra coast sold.

It was just a month ago that I came across this place on one of my had been on business trips, and when I was in the Malays' hut, I had seen a large box half filled with turtle eggs, the stories that were told to me in South Sumatra came to mind had told about turtles and their eggs; when these animals came to were to lay eggs, they would be easily approachable are, yes, the egg hunters might help dig the hole in which the eggs are laid, in order to obtain speedy results come! And I had asked the Malays incredulously whether they would not come to me could witness their nocturnal encounters with egg-laying turtles. Sure, they said, and if I serve couldn't stay overnight? There was little chance, though, because it was that day there was heavy weather and a high sea, but it was not it was ruled out that some animals would come ashore during the night; it would be difficult to find, there were several nesting places and the men had to cross creeks with their light canoe to reach all to search for places. Could I arrange it so that I another time, also with a full moon, could stay overnight? if the If the sea was not so hollow, they could guarantee that I see turtles and watch them lay eggs!

That was really strong! I thought. It was strange, though, that that day they were not at all eager to convince me, that seemingly impossible things might actually be possible are.

And now it so happened that exactly one month later I went back to the south. The destination of my journey was the Chinese panglongs, the logging companies at Bengkalis, where Singapore annually produces more cubic meters of wood is removed than the entire annual production of teak wood in Java amounts; things had happened there between the Chinese among themselves, so serious that I immediately called a local wanted to conduct an investigation.

A schoolgirl on holiday experienced this part of the journey; I I had told her the story of my previous visit and she begged for Poelau Djemoer to be put on, now that it was a full moon again; she found It is "scary" but also "crazy" to ride on the back of a sea ​​turtle to drive around! The island was on the route, we would arrive late in the evening, and I could stay for a few hours turtles spend... if we are not given a good deal of attention nose had with all those stories. But this in itself was worth it. worth investigating.

No sooner had our little ship been at anchor than a man appeared on shore a little light that moved in rhythmic waves; we had been brought to the island saw approaching and there were people walking, who now certainly had a small canoe would drag the beach into the water to visit us.

Half an hour later the lighthouse keeper and two Malays were on deck. They had recognized the flute of the "Diana", it was a full moon, perhaps the governor was on board, who had promised so earnestly one day, when the moon was full, I would come to see turtles. Yet they were surprised that they had not been mistaken, they knew, that the regional administrator in Médan could rarely find time for journeys to the south, which took so many days.

“And what about the turtles?”

“Well, sir, as far as we know there are none ashore yet, but if you If you have some patience you will be able to see them, we expect they certainly did last night, because the sea is calm and it is now becoming the right time of year.”

“But how long would it take then?”

“We cannot possibly say that, but can we agree that a of us will wave a light at the beach, if there are penjoes on shore? We will keep watch here on board to wake you if you want to go to sleep.”

The men rowed back to shore in their small canoe, soon we only saw the dwindling light of the lantern which they held in had set the prow, pale red in the silver moonlight.

We decided to wait, a good book helps to kill time. First Two hours later a sailor came to warn us that the signal was on shore was given. Would we really see turtles now? Four men were already in the moored boat, half the crew; under the rowing was a hot topic of conversation, it was also news to them, although they often hear about it; and that the schoolgirl took part in went ashore, was apparently found very interesting. When we went to the beach As we approached, the surf turned out to be still quite rough, but the lantern on shore showed us the best place to land.

“Are there really turtles?” I asked anxiously.

“Yes sir, there are only two animals on shore, but we didn't want to disturb you wait longer. See, this is the trail of one of them, the other is a little further on.”

A track, at least half a meter wide, ran from the water, low white dune; in the middle it looked like the trail of a shore pulled prahu, on the sides were placed at regular intervals the impressions of grabbing paws. Indeed, here an animal from the dark sea left the safe home to obey the great law, the to create a brood, to satisfy. They, turtles, could not, as the fish, entrusting her treasure to the water; but her instinct showed her the way that her mothers and grandmothers had also taken followed, to lonely beaches where there was loose, deep sand to lay the eggs hide and stew them to life in the glowing heat of the sun. And they chose the deep night to secretly undertake the great expedition. The poor people, they don't know how clever the most dangerous of all animals is, and how searching is made easier for that person by the wide track, which they drag in the sand and which is only made by heavy is washed away by rain or gale force winds.

In moments when one will see wonderful things of Nature, it is either The human mind smiles; whether this proposition also applies to others I don't know if it applies to devout admirers of nature; well, I think for the second time in my life felt like this. Years before, when one I saw Rafflesia Arnoldi for the first time in the Barisan Mountains show, I followed with the same feeling a Malay, who this I had found a wonderful giant flower. I knew how great the joyful pride was for Dr. Arnold, when he was in 1818 at Poelau Lebar on the Manna River, “the biggest flower of the world”, and how delighted Raffles and Lady Raffles were, when Arnold with the great parasite entered their tent came in... now I too would see that wonderful flower. There it lay on the ground in the silent forest, almost a meter in diameter; the five beautiful chestnut-colored leaves, densely covered with cream “warts”, encompass the bowl, in which, like an altar, the central column lies; then my spirit no longer smiled but sank as it were for this miracle, in pious gratitude.

Here it was “only” a turtle and now the smile remained, because a feeling of amazement was predominant, although it was mixed with pity for the animal, which in an irresistible urge explores its surroundings seemed completely forgotten. She was busy; her clawed forelegs forcefully grabbed the sand along the flanks to the back of the body, and the two flat hind legs pressed the sand firmly into place.

“What is she doing now?” I asked.

“She has laid her eggs and now she is digging the hole and hitting the sand attached.”

We went close to the animal that was working at full speed, and I tapped her gently on the big head with a stick, wondering if she would pull him in; she protested a little, panting and groaning, but there there was not the slightest disturbance in posture or work; on the contrary, more Now more than ever, it was crucial to quickly hide her treasure. Grab! Grab! went before, and stick! stick! the hind legs hastened. Poor Damn, an ostrich at least hides its head and imagines itself than being alone, the turtle sees the greatest danger to himself literally into the eyes, and imagines that those eyes are not to see.

“You never harm these animals, do you?”

“No, sir, we are much too happy that they come here regularly, We recognize several of the animals by their color or by the shells that “cling to their shell.”

“But if you don't find the tracks because of rain or wind, or if you If you don't watch at night, how do you find the eggs?

“Then we look during the day for places where the sand shows traces to be disturbed, and we probe it with an iron ramrod; if we feel a harder spot, we carefully push through, and if we touch the eggs, then the tip of the stick is sticky and there will be grains of sand hanging on it. But sometimes we find nothing, it is much better to visit all the places they usually go at night; a a good part of the night we walk around and wade through the creeks that the separate parts of the beach from each other. Now we'll see how many eggs this turtle has laid.”

The men carefully dragged the all-defying mother some meters away from her nest; how much she weighed is impossible to say, but she mat from nose to tail exactly one meter. And now the harder spot carefully unearthed the nest. But we both felt sorry for the deceived mother and held her in this moment of deep humiliation and disappointment company... that's how man feels it; but the the turtle immediately started working again in the new place, her brain was apparently at least fifteen minutes behind, she had understood nothing of the maneuver, only that one thought animated it her: Dig! You're not done yet, hide your treasure! and the front paws grabbed again, and the other two closed up again, faster and faster; it finally dawned on her that she wasn't completely unobserved after all was on her beach! So furiously were the forepaws grabbing that we sand fluttered around her ears when we sat behind her.

The nest with eggs had now been exposed, we counted 108; eggs as ping-pong balls, but softer, several with the dent in them, which those balls show after some use. The schoolgirl insisted on the mother to show some of her eggs, but she didn't even look astonished and as she continued to struggle, she had lost all measure and time.

But now the men saw another specimen in the bright moonlight, even bigger and darker; she had obviously done her duty, and she walked, not twenty meters from us, back to the sea. We had our animal teased enough, the newcomer now became the center of our interest, and soon she had to meet the excited schoolgirl to show her strength as a riding animal; it turned out, under a different rider, that she could still hold her own even with a live weight of 90 kilos to move. This animal was, according to the men, a very well-known one old turtle, her back was covered with all kinds of growths, shells, which could only be cut with great difficulty using a strong knife loosened.

We had now seen enough, and soon, when we got home, we would have something to tell. But would others believe it now? Would one assume that it it is possible, as it were, to order wild animals from the deep sea to meet them, even take a ride on their backs?

“It's a pity I can't photograph this animal,” I said, suddenly dejected, to our friends from the island.

The men knew what to do, they laid the old turtle on his back, we could then come back early in the morning to make recordings. Very The animal will probably not find this temporary life pleasant have, although it laid its head down quite quickly, but I was so cruel to assume that they have no overriding objections to us could have a plan; besides, she might not be able to do it for a few hours understand that she was not exactly back to her usual self!

And so we managed to finish our nighttime adventure in daylight to capture the moment. I even managed to photograph it, whereupon our turtle dove into the safe haven; when she entered the water felt, the speed suddenly became very great, and the brain worked normal, because she looked at the man running next to her and fled him; that she made no difference between an evil hunter and I, the well-meaning photographer, cannot help the troubled wretch to blame.

It was only during the day that we discovered that the animal was part of a front leg was missing, and I was already thinking about sharks and such vermin. But the men told us that one night a Chinese man was with them been, and that the scoundrel had cut off a piece of the animal's leg chopped off, as he was crazy about the aroma of turtle meat. Also Europeans are not immune to turtle soup, but I believe no, that this delicacy is ever obtained by amputation. Well I think that the emotional center of our poor, slow Penjoe is at that fatal moment prompt will have worked.

“What will mother look like when she sees me on that turtle,” said the schoolgirl, "but how furious she will be at that false Chinese... such a creep!