58 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. iv. 



We were rather hungry, and tried to get the stuff down, 

 but had to give it up as a bad job. The nasty taste was 

 most persistent, however ; and for several days coffee, 

 biscuit, rice, and even fresh fruit, seemed to have some- 

 what of the offensive cocoa-nut oil flavour about it. I 

 remonstrated with my "boy " about the matter, with the 

 usual result. " Yes, sah, that China boy bad man, sah ; 

 he tell me oil very good for curry, sah ! " I have no 

 doubt, but that the " China boy" enjoyed the joke with 

 " a smile that was childlike and bland," and doubtless he 

 related the story to his pretty Malay wife on his return, 

 with many " Ah yahs " and inward chuckling. We made 

 shift with biscuit and coffee, and a smoke destroyed the 

 bad taste for the time being. 



This was the evening preceding the commencement of 

 Ramadan, the " fast month," observed by all Mahome- 

 dans, and there was a great burning of gunpowder in the 

 village. Muskets and small cannon were being dis- 

 charged all over the place in honour of the event. 

 Salutes of this kind, and the festive firing of shot-guns, 

 however harmless it may seem in print, is in reality 

 sometimes a little alarming. The powder used in 

 charging may possibly be bad in quality ; but as a great 

 noise is thought to be the thing, any defect in its 

 quality is pretty well made up for by the quantity used. 

 I am not a very nervous person, but I once or twice felt 

 just a little anxious as the natives amused themselves by 

 firing a charge of five or six inches of powder from a 

 seven and-sixpenny German gun. I once saw some 

 Sulus firing a salute from some old dismounted brass 

 guns which were lashed on the floor of the wharf at 

 Sandakan. They coolly sat down beside the ordnance, 

 waved a bit of rope-} r arn until the smouldering fire at one 

 end brightened up into a glowing spark, and then plunged 



