2l6 



The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. xi. 



and a small bag I left accidentally at the headman's 

 house containing two or three dollars, a knife, ammuni- 

 tion, and other trifles, was handed on board in the morn- 

 ing untouched. From what I saw of Sulu and the 

 inhabitants it appeared to me very evident that civilisa- 

 tion had formerly been much higher than it is at present. 

 This is especially to be seen in their old buildings and 

 manufactures. Thus the oldest of the dwellings had 

 beautifully carved woodwork over the windows and doors, 

 and had been erected of wood and with much more care- 



ful taste and labour than is now devoted to the same kind 

 of work. 



Nowhere else in the East did I see more evidence of 

 tasteful purpose in design than here in Sulu. Here is a 

 little sketch I made of a carved wood heading to the door 

 of the Sultan's Istana. Motive two conventional alliga- 

 tors holding a disc on which is written a Malay inscrip- 

 tion in Arabic characters, the whole surrounded by open 

 work. Some old knives were also most beautifully de- 

 corated, the blades being of splendid finish, and the hilts 

 and sheaths of hard wood, carved very artistically. In 

 Brunei city I had noted a few lattice windows in the 



