VIII.] A BANDIT BUTLER. 159 



bracelets and rows of gold plaques hung upon the breast, trotted 

 about with evident delight. These latter ornaments, which are 

 inscribed in rehef with verses from the Koran written in Bugis 

 character, are made in Macassar, and are often of beautiful work- 

 manship. 



We learnt from an initiated Dutchman that lager beer and 

 sagucir were being dispensed to a favoured few in a corner. The 



A GOA CHIEF. 



latter is a sweet palm wine, not unlike cider, and is made from the 

 juice of Arenga saccharifcra, — a tree which, with its thick fronds 

 and heavy pendulous masses of globular green fruit, soon becomes 

 a familiar object to the traveller in Celebes and the Moluccas. 

 Our servitor had a history. Now the major-domo of the king, and 

 a most important personage in his way, he had seen many vicissi- 

 tudes. By birth he was apparently part Malay, part Portuguese, 

 and part negro, but of however many nationalities he may have 

 been, he was at one time in affluent circumstances. An unlucky 

 speculation lost him all his money — nearly £4000 — and he took to 

 the road, or rather to the mountains, where for eight years he 



