1896.] •jU [Furness. 



a thick sheet of the inner bark of a tree (I think it was tlie tough inner 

 layers of the stalk of a banana), and his portion of fisli is placed on 

 another smaller leaf, or if the family is of the " Four Hundred " they 

 may have a pressed glass bowl. The daily meals in the houses (there 

 are usually only two meals a day) are somewhat private affairs, but they 

 always informed us when they were going to eat, probably so that we 

 should not pay them a visit at that time. They likewise always left us 

 to ourselves Avhen we ate. We carried with us a Chinese cook. 



After breakfast there were always parties of men and women setting 

 out for the clearings where the rice was planted, and armed with a 

 billiong (^the adze-Jike axe,. which they use) and their parang, and their 

 spear, the men go down and get the boat ready, and the women follow 

 after with the paddles, and hampers to bring back bananas or bunches 

 of tender young fern fronds, which they make into a stew. Then the 

 house settles down to the ordinary tasks of weaving cloth or pounding 

 the husks off the paddi by the women, and sharpening spears or deco- 

 rating parangs by the men industriously inclined ; but the latter are rare. 

 They usually spend their time in silly chatter witli their companions or 

 merely sit and think, aided l)y long draughts of smoke drawn deep 

 into their lungs from the strong Java tobacco cigarettes, which they roll 

 for themselves out of banana leaves. Men, women, and children all smoke 

 tobacco, which they grow for themselves, in part, and in part bring 

 from a bazaar far down the river. The boys, ever ready for sport, we 

 used to arm with butterfly nets and send them out in search of insects 

 of all kinds. They knew their haunts much better than we did, and 

 chasing butterflies in the tropics is not the best fun in the world. We 

 much preferred to sit in the shade of the house and fold the insects, 

 when caught, in paper and pack them away in our tins. 



Morning wore into afternoon, and then we would sit on the river bank 

 and watch from a high blufl' the young girls taking their bath and recrea- 

 tion. Here let me say a word in favor of their modesty. We never saw 

 the faintest conscious immodesty. We used to sit lost in admiration at 

 their skill in swimming. It was a sort of game of tag they were always 

 playing, only, instead of one chasing all, all chased one, and this one 

 would get off some little distance from the crowd and then suddenlj'- 

 disappear under water. Then the chase began. All swam as fast as 

 they could to the spot where she had vanished, some swimming with 

 a rapid overhand stroke, while others swam entirely under the water. 

 Then, possibly still in front of them, possibly far behind them, up 

 bobbed the girl who was " it," shaking the water from her eyes and giv- 

 ing a shout of derision at her pursuers. Down she went again and the 

 chase was renewed, all under water, so long, sometimes, that the sur- 

 face of the river became perfectly smooth, and no one would have im- 

 agined that in another moment it would be again bubbling up and 

 dashed into spray by a crowd of laughing, shouting, black-haired savage 

 girls. (We never saw the boys play in the water.) Back and forth, 



