AN EXPEDITION TO PENBISEN 269 



does not ensue from ptomaine poisoning seems little 

 short of miraculous. 1 



After some days we moved down to our old quarters, 

 and stayed there till our allotted time had expired, 

 when we sent down word to Sennah for the bearers 

 to transport our baggage. The carriers made their 

 appearance next afternoon, and amongst them were 

 some men from a neighbouring village, Tebia ; they 

 were the ugliest and most unprepossessing-looking lot 

 of natives that I have ever seen, and they were held 

 in some contempt by the Sennahs, but they were 

 certainly great people at getting about in jungle. Some 

 of them asked me why I was at such pains to put 

 together these collections of insects and reptiles : it 

 was the usual question almost always asked by natives, 

 and to it I made the usual answer that they were of 

 use for medical purposes ; no view but the strictly 

 utilitarian one appeals to a native, and this reply 

 always put an end to further inquiries. The Tebia 

 people on this occasion immediately volunteered to get 

 specimens, and I handed some of them killing-bottles 

 and tubes of spirit ; in a short time they were back 

 again with every receptacle choke-full of every variety 

 of animal from reptile to worm ; others joined in, and 

 before long I had the whole gang busily employed, 

 with the result that in about an hour I got more 

 specimens than the rest of us had been able to get 

 in a couple of days. We spent the afternoon in packing 

 up our gear, and Latip asked if he might have some 



1 The pickled pork is well cooked before it is eaten, and when 

 cooked, a good deal of the offensive smell passes off the cooking 

 may have something to do with its harmless effect on the people. 

 C. H. 



