66 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. iv. 



up an incessant din on five gongs which were suspended 

 in the centre of the public apartment. I asked to see his. 

 collection of heads, and after a good deal of talking, a 

 few dry old examples were brought ; but after we left I 

 was told that they had many more, including the one so 

 recently taken, but that they were afraid to let the fact 

 be known. This tribe had good reasons for secrecy in 

 the matter, since one man had been hung at Labuan for 

 a head-hunting murder a year or two previous to my 

 visit, and another would have suffered the same fate had 

 he not died in jail. They had actually crossed over to 

 the English colony to look out for heads, and ascending 

 a little river on the western side, had shot a man who 

 was coming down in a canoe. The shot, an old nail, 

 struck the shaft of the paddle, and passing through, 

 entered the man's body, after which they made off, but 

 were captured by the Government and tried for the 

 murder. This identical paddle was one of the first things- 

 I saw when I paid my respects to His Excellency the 

 Governor of Labuan, and when the story was narrated to 

 me it did not sound very cheering, seeing that I expected 

 to live among these tribes for some months at least. 

 However, I could never hear of a white man being killed, 

 except by the pirates from Tawi Tawi and Sulu, with one 

 exception, which was of a man who is supposed to have 

 been poisoned by his native mistress. St. John mentions 

 one tribe, however, who are peculiarly addicted to poison- 

 ing anyone who may be disliked by them. The nature 

 of the poison used is not exactly known, but it is very 

 generally supposed to be a peculiarly irritating fibre or 

 spiculse derived from some species of bamboo, the effect 

 of which is to cause a chronic state of sickness and 

 depression, followed by death. Whatever it may be, it 

 is a mechanical rather than a chemical irritant. When 



