CH. v.] Native Trading Parties. 109 



days. When we reached the Datu's village, he gave us 

 a fine goat, which our "hoys" promptly slew for 

 dinner, and, heing young, it had a deUcate mutton-like 

 flavour, and we thought it a great, treat after our hard 

 fare. 



A present^ of a revolver and some cartridges dehghted 

 our host; and the next morning, having obtained another 

 toat, and loaded the one we had, we pulled to^angeran 

 Eau's place, where we hired a prahu, and two days after- 

 wards reached Lahuan safely. 



During our journey to and from the mountain, we 

 met occasional parties of natives from the far interior 

 on their trading excm'sions, the women, as a matter 

 of course, carrying the heaviest loads, whUe the men 

 carried nothing, save a httle food in a hag behind them, 

 and their arms. Some had buffaloes with them. The 

 women, as a class, are strong and healthy, with small 

 hands and feet, and well-proportioned features — indeed, 

 in many cases, the young girls are very pleasing in face 

 and figure, and have lovely black hair, and the brightest 

 of expressive black eyes. Early marriages, childbearing, 

 hard labour, and exposure in the fields, however, soon 

 make shrivelled leather - skinned old hags of them. 

 Their drapery is nothing worth mentioning, and in such 

 a climate but little is requu-ed. Their manners are 

 gentle and dignified — often when we met them quite 

 suddenly they showed no surprise, even though they 

 had never seen a white man before. They make affec- 

 tionate wives, and tender mothers — indeed, I never sav^ 

 a child beaten or chided roughly during my stay in the 

 island. 



In the capital and elsewhere on the coast, young 

 Malay women are almost invariably kept secluded fi:'om 

 the gaze of strangers ; but here among these hills inland. 



