Ldl THE EASTERN AUCEITELAGO. 175 



sea, led me across as pretty and picturesque a piece of country 

 as one could wish to travel through, winding round the head of 

 deep glens, with occasional gorges to right and left which have 

 left only three feet of ridge-path betv/een them, and alon<r \\ 



o -'« 



face of forest-clad precipices, hundreds of feet deep below 

 which flowed hidden streams whose murmur bubbled up from 

 among the trees as a pleasant music. In docccnding from the 

 plateau I found at about 2500 feet, grow ing in sandy soil whei-o 

 it seems best to flourish, several stems of the giaut arum 

 iAmoi'jjJiojjhailus titanum) one of the largest Icnown herbs. The 

 biggest of thess specimens measured seventeen feet In lidglit. 

 Descending from the northern face of the plateau, I Mas met 

 by the chief and undor-chiefs of the marga, at some distance 

 from the village of Sukau, where I was to spend the night; 

 and at the boundary of the village I was greeted by a crowd 

 of the inhabitants and a band consistiun: of three vouths — one 

 in the middle fingered a flute ^vhicll lie had newly cut from a 

 bamboo, the two others each beat a small bronze gong butli 

 of them cracked, ^vhich they carried in one hand susp^indcd 

 before them by a cord, tuikling it ^vith a short t\\'^g^ in the 

 other — who played me to the Balai to the notes perlinj^s of 

 their mar^-al anthem. Providentially the stateliness of the 

 occasion made conversation ont of place, otherwise, had it been 

 necessary to open my compressed lips, I would have shocked the 

 fathers of the people by the heartiness of my mirth, for never liave 

 I taken part in so ludicrous a procession AAith so solcnni a 

 countenance* Consider its composition : the musical advance- 

 guard as I have described; the central figure under a hat as big 

 as an umbrella, in garments the worse of repeated conflicts \\\i\\ 

 the thorns and thickets of the forest, seated on a small steed 

 caparisoned in a bridle with more knotted cords than leather 

 in its composition and in a saddle that required every artful 

 device to keep it from falling to pieces, his h)ng, greut-booted 

 legs almost trailing on the ground ; alongside on either hand 

 the mute chiefs in duly solemn countenances, followed by a 

 rear-guard of coolies with my baggage, and the general crowd 

 of men, women and children— and who would not have desired 

 to relieve his twitching pent-up risorins muscles ? 



Next morning I continued my way towards the Lake Ranau, 

 and at the marches of the Kroe and Talembang Residencies^, 



