Makassar, Indonesia
From the Philippines, we travel almost due south to Indonesia, heading for a port on the central island of Sulawesi, at the eastern end of the Java Sea.
Java itself is probably the most familiar word we owe to Indonesia: coffee grown and imported from the island of Java was first described in English in the mid eighteenth century, and has proved so popular over the centuries since that its name, java, has been used as a jargonish nickname for coffee generally since the mid 1800s. (And java patrol has been truckers’ slang for a coffee break since the 1940s.)
Where is Makassar, Indonesia? – Makassar, Indonesia Map – Makassar, Indonesia Map Download Free Photo Gallery
Also from Indonesia, bantam hens take their name from the seaport of Banten in western Java. Unlike the turkey vs Turkey problem that we encountered earlier in our journey, bantams did indeed originate in and around Banten: European travellers and traders in southeast Asia looking to restock their ships’ provisions before making the long journey home found the smaller-thannormal hens sold in the markets of Banten made a useful and easily kept source of fresh meat and eggs. Ultimately, the name of the port at which they were purchased passed on to the birds themselves. Bantamweight boxers, meanwhile – so called as they’re among the lightest professional fighters, weighing between 115 and 118lbs -have been fighting among themselves since the 1880s.
Another seaport on our journey is Makassar, the largest city and provincial capital of the island Sulawesi, which lies almost perfectly central in the Indonesian archipelago. An etymological curiosity, its name came to be attached to a product that originated there but ended up enduring in the language as something designed to keep that same product at bay. During the Dutch control of Indonesia in the nineteenth century, Makassar established itself as a major trade port through which many of the commodities produced in the eastern islands of the country could be exported – including pearls, rattan, teak, sandalwood and the raw ingredients of what would become known as Rowland’s Macassar Oil.
Alexander Rowland was an eighteenth-century London barber, who in the early 1780s began marketing his own brand of haircare oil made from a coconut or palm oil, imported from Makassar, mixed with a variety of other fragrant oils and colourants. From his barber’s shop in St James Street, London, Rowland began selling his so-called ‘Macassar oil’ as a treatment for men’s hair. According to advertisements, the oil claimed to strengthen and smooth the hair, while accelerating its growth and slickly holding whatever style the wearer wanted in place.
Within two decades, Macassar oil had become the go-to product for the capital’s most style-conscious gentlemen, and Rowland’s product had become so successful that the A. Rowland & Sons Company was formed to deal with the demand. But as the use of Macassar oil became ever more widespread, an unusual problem began to plague the nation
Because the oil did not dry like gels and other hair treatments do, the raw ingredients of Macassar oil were very easily transferred onto other surfaces – most notably headrests, cushions and the upholstered backs of chairs. To get around this problem, in 1852 the ‘anti- macassar’ was invented: a decorative, and often crocheted, detachable fabric covering that could be placed over the backs of chairs and headrests to protect them from the hair products of the gentlemen sitting in them. The antimacassar proved so popular that long after Macassar oil treatments fell out of fashion in the 1900s the word remained in place in the language for any similar item that was often now used – with the oily-haired problems of the past thankfully now gone – purely for decoration.
