III.] OUR LIFE IN SULU. 45 



Datii and Ms wives, built of stones piled into a dome, and mounted 

 on a slightly-raised platform. A square of bamboos erected above 

 the graves was decorated with strips of white cotton. On the 

 whole, perhaps, these tombs were the most common objects observ- 

 able in Parang. It would have been interesting to learn what 

 proportion of the occupants had died in their boots, or rather would 

 have done so were such articles in general use in Sulu. 



The visit of the yacht on this occasion was a short one, but we 

 returned again overland a few days later. Indeed our movements 

 during the time of our residence among these interesting, but 

 perhaps rather untrustworthy people were rather erratic. At one 

 time we were the guests of the Sultan, at another engaging in a series 

 of pig-hunts with the Panglima of Parang. Then, after a few days 

 in Jolo among the Spaniards, we would ride out to the middle of 

 the island, where a solitary German — a prominent iigure in Sulu 

 history — has established himself, and still continues to live, in 

 spite of the ceaseless fighting that goes on around him. The eastern 

 peninsula of the island was the only part into which we did not 

 penetrate. The Maharajah of Loc and his adherents were too un- 

 certain for us to care to trust ourselves in their hands. 



From Parang to the Spanish settlement on the northern side of 

 the island is not much more than fifteen miles by sea, and as we 

 steamed along close to the shore we passed many canoes, whose 

 occupants shouted at us, and held up some object in their hands 

 that we could not make out. We stopped and found that they 

 were pearl-divers, and the articles they wished to dispose of were the 

 beautiful iridescent shells in which the pearls are found. The 

 banks in and around the Sulu Archipelago are almost as well 

 known as those of Torres Straits, and the Sulus are probably the 

 best divers in the world. I have seen few men better proportioned or 

 more athletic-looking — none certainly in this part of the world — and 

 clad only in a sharp-peaked Bornean hat and a narrow waistcloth, 

 their lithe figures showed to the best advantage. They had no pearls 

 for sale, and the prices they asked for the shells were too high 



