138 The Gardens of the Sun. [[ch. vi. 



nated by the flickering glare of ' dammar ' gum torches 

 the effect is melodramatic in the extreme. It was rather 

 difficult to make any use of these Muruts as collectors — 

 they showed no powers of discrimination whatever, while 

 the Kadyans, on the other hand — who are also aborigi- 

 nals, but have mixed much with the dominant Malays, by 

 whom they were years ago converted to the faith of Islam 

 — showed great aptitude, and were of real service ; and I 

 shall long retain pleasant memories of some of the Kadyan 

 villagers, especially ' Moumein,' of Meringit, who received 

 me into the little village he had founded with every de- 

 monstration of friendship, and rendered me much intelli- 

 gent assistance for many weeks. Of Malays generally one 

 may say that they live by lying and thieving in one form 

 or another, but the aboriginal races of Borneo, like the 

 Papuans whom Goldie met inland in New Guinea, are 

 gentle and hospitable to peaceably disposed strangers, 

 and it will be a great pity to see them exterminated in 

 the way their prototypes, the Incas of Peru, and the Red 

 Men of the West, have been." 



