262 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. xm. 



Tower musket on the last journe} r I made in this direc- 

 tion. I notice that such of my men as speak the Brunei 

 language can converse with the Dusun very readily after 

 a few days' residence amongst them. This fact was 

 noted by Mr. St. John, and from what I know of the 

 language myself after a year's residence, and aided by 

 vocabularies carefully collected, I believe the language of 

 these people is intermediate between that spoken in the 

 capital, Brunei, and that of the Sulus. Bees-wax and 

 caoutchouc or rubber are frequently offered for barter as 

 we pass through the villages. "Lapayang" welcomed 

 us in his own way by firing a salute, and a gong was 

 beaten to announce our arrival. I was sorry to find that 

 his father had died since my last visit, when he had 

 received us with many expressions of good-will, and told 

 us of Mr. Low's first visit to the mountain, which he 

 remembered Avell. As we had arrived before our supplies, 

 "Lapayang" brought us some rice and a fowl as a 

 present, and one of his sisters gave us some eggs and a 

 fine cluster of bananas. I felt thankful when we arrived 

 at Koung, since I knew the way from this place to the 

 mountain quite well, and had not to trust to lazy guides, 

 who have not the slightest idea of time or its value to the 

 traveller. My buffalo also had reason to be glad, for 

 here the plucky little beast had the luxury of good 

 herbage on which to feed, a much better thing for him 

 than the miscellaneous browsing afforded by our former 

 halting places. The river runs about fifty yards from 

 our quarters, and is very much swollen, having in many 

 places overflowed its banks. Capital shooting may be 

 had here at the large blue pigeons which roost in the 

 trees beside the river, quite close to the houses. 



August 12th. Again a lovely morning as we crossed 

 the ford just at the end of the village and pushed on for 



