246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that which results from a death, and that which follows the birth 

 of a child. They are distinguished as that of bad fortune and 

 that of good fortune, the former continuing three years and the 

 latter one month. Were the bride to approach any unclean per- 

 son, she would herself incur the danger of becoming an occult 

 cause of calamity among her relatives. During the first few 

 months after marriage she must carefully guard against exposure 

 to any influence adverse to good luck. 



A neighbor of a Chinese friend of mine had one daughter, 

 an only child, of whom she was passionately fond. The girl 

 was married off when sixteen years old. When the first four 

 months were nearly past, her mother's neighbor died, and her 

 visit to her old home had therefore to be delayed for a hundred 

 days. Before this period of the neighbor's daily worship of the 

 manes had passed, the bride's mother-in-law died, and she had 

 to go into mourning for three years. Just before she put off 

 mourning, she bore a son, and that made it necessary for her to 

 again delay her first visit to her mother's house. Her mother, 

 meanwhile, became subject to hallucinations, under which she fre- 

 quently saw her child entering her door. She said she could dis- 

 tinctly perceive her face, could discern every detail in her dress, 

 and could hear the jingle of her bangles. She would exclaim, 

 " O my child, you have come ! " but, when she clasped the vision, 

 she found only empty air in her arms. At last the daughter, who 

 had all these years been but two miles away, really came to visit 

 her mother. The two embraced each other and wept aloud ; and 

 thereafter the mother's hallucinations ceased. 



After the first visit, a married daughter may go to the home 

 of her parents at any time, and they, after the birth of her first 

 child, may occasionally go to see her in her husband's house. 



NATIVE LIFE IN BRITISH BORNEO. 



By D. D. DALY, Assistant Eesident.* 



^T^HE author gave in this paper a personal record of two explo- 

 -L rations which he undertook from the east and from the west 

 coast of North Borneo to countries and tribes in the interior, hith- 

 erto unvisited by the white man. Having left Sandakan, the 

 capital of the territory, in August, 1887, and ascending the Kina- 

 batangare, the largest navigable river, the first place of impor- 

 tance reached is Malapi, within twelve miles of the famous Go- 

 manton bird's-nest caves, and the depot for their product. The 

 nests collected here are valued at $25,000 per annum, and the 



* Abridged from the author's paper before the Royal Geographical Society. 



