ch. vi.] Snake-hunting. 137 



" While Mr. Veitch was away, my Chinese boy, ' Kim- 

 jeck,' got out the cooking utensils to prepare dinner on 

 the shore, and the men who stayed behind amused them- 

 selves by looking for flowers (' cheri bunga ') in the low 

 forest and on the sandstone rock near our landing-place. 

 I had to lie in the boat beneath the awning, feeling very 

 sick, and with a splitting headache — feverish symptoms 

 which all travellers in tropical forests alike must suffer. 

 I was just dozing off to sleep when I heard much yelling, 

 and my boy, who had joined the men, returned down the 

 jungle path at full speed, shouting ' Ular ! Ular ! 

 Tuan ! Sayah mow etu snapang lakas skali ! ' ' Trima 

 kasi ! ' he ejaculated, as he snatched my gun and dis- 

 appeared with the agility of a young goat. The gist of 

 the matter was, he had seen a snake and was off to shoot 

 it. After listening for ten minutes to the most deafening 

 shouts and yells, mingled with many ejaculations of ad- 

 vice and caution, and the reports of both barrels echoing 

 through the forest, I was rather disappointed to see them 

 return with a small snake, not larger than the English 

 viper. On my expressing my surprise, and observing 

 that, by the noise, I thought it was a snake big enough 

 to swallow a buffalo, the men all agreed that what it 

 lacked in size was amply compensated for by its fatal bite 

 — or, as they expressed it, ' if that snake bit a man he 

 need not trouble about food any more, as he would have 

 no time to pray.' 



"The Muruts have a great love for gong music; 

 and now and then a cheap German gun, or old Tower 

 musket, is obtained from Chinese traders. Spears, blow- 

 pipes, krisses or parongs (swords), and their ghastly 

 baskets of human skulls, form their only accumulated 

 wealth. These heads are used to ornament their dwellings 

 at their periodical seasons of feasting, and when illumi- 



