chap, x.] BIRD-FATALISM. 251 



very fine birds ; we can do nothing without him." Then 

 one of the M alays would reply, " To be sure, birds are like 

 mankind ; they have their appointed time to die ; when 

 that time comes nothing can save them, and if it has not 

 come you cannot kill them." A murmur of assent follows 

 this sentiment, and cries of " Butul ! Butul ! " (Right, 

 right.) Then Manuel would tell a long story of one of his 

 unsuccessful hunts ; — how he saw some fine bird and fol- 

 lowed it a long way, and then missed it, and again found 

 it, and shot two or three times at it, but could never hit it. 

 " Ah ! " says an old Malay, " its time was not come, and 

 so it was impossible for you to kill it." A doctrine this 

 which is very consoling to the bad marksman, and which 

 quite accounts for the facts, but which is yet somehow not 

 altogether satisfactory. 



It is universally believed in Lombock that some men 

 have the powder to turn themselves into crocodiles, which 

 they do for the sake of devouring their enemies, and many 

 strange tales are told of such transformations. I was 

 therefore rather surprised one evening to hear the following 

 curious fact stated, and as it was not contradicted by any 

 of the persons present I am inclined to accept it provi- 

 sionally, as a contribution to the Natural History of the 

 island. A Bornean Malay who had been for many years 

 resident here said to Manuel, " One thing is strange in 

 this country— the scarcity of ghosts." "How so?" asked 



