SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



26 5 



swallows, several sorts of little birds, including one 

 like a chaffinch with a very sweet song. There 

 were many great dark-grey and white fish-hawks, 

 very many of the handsome Brahminy kites, a few 

 small brown hawks, and many most beautiful king- 

 fishers of at least three different species. The little 

 black-and-white "straits robin" and a species of 

 sandpiper were omnipresent. There were also a few 

 lovely green pigeons, an occasional great stork, 

 several big flocks of white egrets, a curious 

 white-faced water-hen, and many little sun- 

 birds, like living jewels flitting about. Every 

 day we saw some monkeys of two species, 

 one, a brown beast, is Macacus cynomolgus; 

 they walked about the mud in parties of two 

 to six, and were not at all shy, letting one 

 approach in a boat to within a dozen yards. The 

 other monkeys were some species of Semnopithecus, 

 and lived in the higher trees in troops of about half- 

 a-dozen. These were most agile and restless, and 

 difficult to get a good view of, so we shot some ; 

 they had very handsome fur, dark-grey on the 

 upper and paler on the lower parts, with black 

 hands and feet, round the brown eyes were most 

 distinct white rings and the nose was also white, 

 their average size seemed, head and body twenty- 

 one to twenty-three inches, and the tail twenty-six 

 to twenty-seven inches. 



We rounded one of the numerous corners and 

 came on some big buildings, and a wrecked steamer 

 in the channel, and at the next turn the river 

 divided, in the angle was a large town, Kota Star, 

 the capital of Kedah, and we saw the Sultan's yacht 

 lying alongside a quay ; at another quay our 

 steamer stopped, and we landed. It was rather 

 curious for the first time being in an independent 

 Oriental country, in a town without a single 

 resident European and where the Sultan has un- 

 limited power. The young Sultan, we found, was 

 away at Calcutta, and his uncle, the Tunkoo or 

 vizier, was regent ; he sent us a message after we 

 reported our arrival, that he could not receive us 

 till Monday morning, but meanwhile a court 

 official, an intelligent young Malay, was put to look 

 after us, and the Sultan's guest-house placed at our 

 disposal. We got two dilapidated old garries, with 

 big skeleton-like horses, and drove through the 

 city ; there are many Klings in it, but the bulk of 

 the population were the ubiquitous pushing Chinese, 

 though evidently the ruling race were the Mala> s 

 — lazy, fine-looking, muscular, swaggering fellows, 

 dressed in sarongs, a sort of long kilt, each with a 

 kris stuck in his belt ; these are very handsome 

 weapons, family heirlooms, and they say it is very 

 difficult for a foreigner to acquire a genuine one. 

 I was surprised to see Malay policemen dressed 

 almost exactly like those in Penang, and Sikh 

 soldiers equipped and armed with Martini-Henrys 

 like our Indian sepoys. We drove right through 



the town and then 'along a good high road to the 

 guest-house, a fine two-storied bungalow, simply 

 furnished in the European fashion. We had tea, 

 and then went for a walk in the fields round the 

 house till dark. At 7.30 we were served with 

 dinner by the Sultan's butler, a good, simple meal 

 of chicken in various forms. 



On Saturday I was up with the sun to make a 

 sketch of some Malay houses and saw a pair of 

 crow pheasants (Centropus rufipennis), the first since 

 I left India. We had arranged to spend the day in 

 visiting some caves in the Elephant Mountains, but 

 could not start early owing to the tide. At eight 

 o'clock we breakfasted, and about nine set out along 

 the road in the opposite direction to Kota Star Town 

 in the two old garries. When we had gone about two 

 miles we were stopped by a message from the 

 Tunkoo, saying that he wished to see us then instead 

 of Monday, so to his house, which was hard by, we 

 repaired. Here we were shown into a large upper 

 room, surrounded with verandahs and ornamented 

 with pictures of the Queen, Prince and Princess of 

 Wales, two German Emperors, King of Siam, etc. 

 Here we had to wait along time. At last the potentate 

 condescended to appear, — an intelligent, nice- 

 looking old Malay gentleman, with grey hair and 

 moustache, and very keen brown eyes, but he was 

 not becomingly dressed. His kit was all untidy and 

 unpipeclayed ; it consisted of a white sun-hat, loose 

 white Chinese coat, gay tartan sarong, white 

 stockings and canvas gymnasium shoes. A slovenly 

 attendant carried his umbrellaand a really fine kris, 

 with ivory and gold hilt. He left his hat in the 

 verandah, came in, shook hands all round, and then 

 we all sat down in a circle and a most desultory 

 conversation went on. The Tunkoo showed us 

 photographs of the King and Queen of China and 

 some rifles he was rather proud of, including 

 a Lee-Metford, which, being loaded, I thought 

 safer out of the way, so put it on a table, as neither 

 he nor the man he was exhibiting it to appeared to 

 understand it, and were fingering the cut-off and 

 trigger dangerously. 



It was curious to see the abject bows which the 

 Malay officials gave to the Tunkoo ; they seemed 

 pretty well afraid of him. The interview showed 

 no signs of concluding, so at length we said, " bully 

 piggy ? " (can we go?) and he answered " bully " 

 (you can) ; so we retired, and pursued our journey in 

 the garries. We were soon stopped again by a 

 Malay official, in a solar topee and karki suiting, 

 a Vanglaise, who had been instructed to show us 

 over the Sultan's summer palace, this was well 

 worth seeing: a large Italian-like villa on a little 

 hill surrounded by a fine garden, the rooms were 

 furnished handsomely, but inartistically, white and 

 gold French furniture, inlaid stone tables, mirrors 

 and looking-glasses in large quantities. The 

 pictures were mostly portraits of royalties, 



