ch. iv.] A Bad Dinner. 57 



remaining in the wound, which will often cause it 

 to become inflamed, and to fester in a troublesome 

 manner. 



We suffered a good deal from mosquitoes during the 

 night ; indeed sleep was nearly impossible, and in very- 

 shaded parts of the forest to-day the little pests fixed on 

 our hands and faces with a persistency that was very 

 annoying. We saw very few birds. A gorgeously attired 

 bee-eater was secured by Mr. Treacher as we paddled up 

 the creek; and " Bongsur," who used an old Tower 

 musket as a fowling-piece, secured a tiny spotted owl and 

 one or two other small birds common to this district. 

 We distinctly heard the whoops and yells of the Muruts, 

 who were out pig-hunting, as we came along, but did not 

 fall in with them. Just as we crossed the stream one of 

 the men picked up a fruit of one of the several varieties 

 of durian, which are here indigenous. It was about 

 the size of a cricket-ball, and only contained two of its 

 chesnut-like, pulp-covered seeds. The seeds were very 

 large in proportion to the quantity of pulp, but the 

 flavour was very delicious. 



We had a long walk back to the creek where we had 

 left our canoes, and reached the village about three 

 o'clock, just before the commencement of a heavy shower. 

 As it cleared up a little about five o'clock we took our 

 guns and had a stroll across the padi .fields behind the 

 houses, returning to dinner about sunset. I shall not 

 soon forget that dinner. Mr. Treacher had brought his 

 Chinese " boy " who had cooked the previous day. My 

 "boy" was a Madras Telinga to whom, of course, the 

 lard or pork fat which the Chinese use in cooking is an 

 abomination, so that my ingenious fellow, as it was his 

 turn to prepare dinner, made us a fowl cuny, using 

 rancid cocoa-nut lamp oil in which to cook the fowl. 



