THE resident's TALES. 189 



My second visit to the Resident was for the pur- 

 pose of accepting his offer of a guide, and of making 

 arrangements for a day's shooting. I found him as 

 usual, sitting smoking in a large cool room. We 

 were soon in the interior of Borneo, the scene of his 

 former exploits. Some of these were of so san- 

 guinary a character, that they do him very little 

 credit; and many of his tales partook of the marvel- 

 lous. Among the Dyaks, natives of the interior, it 

 is a custom, he said, that when a man wishes to 

 marry, he must produce a certain number of human 

 heads. He related that he had once seen a very 

 handsome voung- woman, to whom a number of heads 

 had been delivered, swimming about in some water, 

 and playing with them. At another time he averred 

 that he saw a woman mix human brains with water 

 and drink it ! Mr. Gronovius also informed me 

 that the land on the western sides both of Timor 

 and Borneo was gaining on the sea, particularly at 

 the latter place ; and a report prevailed that on some 

 of the elevated parts of the former chama shells 

 had been found. In answer to my inquiries about 

 earthquakes, 1 was told that, only the last month 

 the island of Ternate in 0° 50' N. had been visited 

 by one, which had thrown down all the houses, and 

 that in 1690, the town of Coepang had also been 

 destroyed. From the Resident also, I received ac- 

 counts of three ports in Rottee, one on the north- 

 west side, another on the south-east, and a third, on 

 the north-east, opening into Rottee Strait. 



