THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 13 



choppers. The man remained ill for a long time, and never 

 fully recovered the use of his arm. 



The Dyaks all declare that the mias is never attacked by 

 any animal in the forest, with two rare exceptions ; and the 

 accounts received of these are so curious that they are given as 

 related by Dyak chiefs, who lived all their lives in the places 

 where the animal is most abundant. "No animal is strong 

 enough to hurt the mias," said one of the chiefs, "and the 

 only creature he ever fights with is the crocodile. When there is 

 no fruit in the jungle, he goes to seek food on the banks of the 

 river, where there are plenty of young shoots that he likes, and 

 fruits that grow close to the water. Then the crocodile some- 

 times tries to seize him, but the mias gets upon him and beats 

 him with his hands and feet, and tears him and kills him." The 

 chief added that he had once seen such a fight, and that he 

 believed the mias was always the victor. 



Another chief relates that the mias has no enemies ; no animals 

 dare attack it but the crocodile and the python. He always kills the 

 crocodile by main strength, standing upon it, pulling open its 

 jaws, and ripping up its throat. If a python attacks a mias, he 

 seizes it with his hands, and then bites it, and soon kills it. The 

 mias is very strong; there is no animal in the jungle so strong 

 as he. 



THE LOMBOCK SUICIDES. 



IN the island of Lombock, which is separated from Java by a 

 narrow strait, there is a singular people who are peculiar in their 

 remarkable disposition to commit suicide ; yet the word is a mis- 

 nomer, for they do not kill themselves, but invite death in a manner 

 that is unaccountably strange. The least misfortune, such as loss 

 at gaming, inability to pay debts, insults, sickness, loss of friends, 

 and similar annoyances of life, often provoke them to " run a 

 muck," as they call it. The person thus troubled seizes a sword 

 or spear and runs through the village killing everbody he meets, 

 making no distinction between friend or foe, age or sex, and 

 continues his indiscriminate slaughter until the people set upon 

 him and kill him in self-defense. There is some superstitious 



