88 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. v. 



rodents. I asked Kurow how long the Dusun had eaten 

 rats ? His reply was that, " Once upon a time," a 

 horde of rats, far more than ever followed the ' Pied 

 Piper,' I should judge by his adjectives, came and ate 

 up all the rice and kaladi. A conference was held by 

 the then reigning chief in the head house, and his advice 

 was of the stern, practical kind. " Talking is of no 

 use," said he; "the rats have eaten all our rice: we 

 have no other food left to us ; ergo, we must eat up 

 the rats ! " " And so it was, and is to this day," said 

 Kurow; but I fancied I could see a sly twinkle in his 

 bright e} r es — just the same merry twinkle one expects to 

 see in anyone's face, after having related a palpably 

 improbable story with all due solemnity ! 



We pass several very pretty little rills, at which 

 drinking or washing was facilitated by spouts, made 

 of the leaf-stalk of the sago palm, and j)laced so 

 as to conduct the cool sparkling water on a level 

 with one's face. Flourishing rice and kaladi fields 

 became more plentiful ; and the tree ferns, which we 

 had first sighted after leaving Si Nilau, now became 

 more numerous. Just ere we reached Kalawat, we 

 noticed some splendid specimens in the jungle ; and now 

 and then even out in the clearings their great crowns 

 of fresh green plumose fronds being fully exposed to 

 the sun, and in some cases borne aloft on slender black 

 trunks, 20 feet or more in height. At the village of 

 Kalawat the houses are in one place backed by an 

 immense grove of these feathery plumed tall tree ferns, 

 above which the white stemmed betel-nut palm towers 

 aloft, its dark green foliage and pendent clusters of bright 

 orange fruit standing out clear and bright against the 

 cool blue sky. 



At Kalawat we rested awhile. The straggling dwell- 



