CH. VI.] Snake-hunting. 137 



" While Mr. Veitch was away, my Chinese boy, ' Kim- 

 jeck,' got out the cooking utensils to prepare dinner on 

 the shore, and the men who stayed behind amused them- 

 selves by looking for flowers (' cheri bunga ') ia the low 

 forest and on the sandstone rock near our landing-place. 

 I had to lie in the boat beneath the awniag, feeling very 

 sick, and with a spHtting headache — feverish symptoms 

 which all travellers in tropical forests alike must suffer. 

 I was just dozing off to sleep when I heard much yelling, 

 and my boy, who had joined the men, returned down the 

 jungle path at full speed, shouting ' Ular ! Ular ! 

 Tuan ! Sayah mow etu snapang lakas skali ! ' ' Trima 

 kasi ! ' he ejaculated, as he snatched my gun and dis- 

 appeared with the agility of a young goat. The gist of 

 the matter was, he had seen a snake and was off to shoot 

 it. After listening for ten minutes to the most deafening 

 shouts and yeUs, mingled with many ejaculations of ad- 

 vice and caution, and the reports of both barrels echoing 

 through the forest, I was rather disappointed to see them 

 return with a small snake, not larger than the English 

 viper. On my expressing my surprise, and observing 

 that, by the noise, I thought it was a snake big enough 

 to swallow a buffalo, the men all agreed that what it 

 lacked in size was amply compensated for by its fatal bite 

 — or, as they expressed it, ' if that snake bit a man he 

 need not trouble about food any more, as he would have 

 no time to pray.' 



" The Muruts have a great love for gong music ; 

 and now and then a cheap German gun, or old Tower 

 musket, is obtained from Chiuese traders. Spears, blow- 

 pipes, krisses or parongs (swords), and their ghastly 

 baskets of human skulls, form then- only accumulated 

 wealth. These heads are used to ornament their dwellings 

 at their periodical seasons of feastiag, and when illumi- 



