c«- IX- J A dusky Venus. 189 



had christened the "gipsy," a remarkably well made girl 

 with expressive eyes, high cheek-bones, and luxmiant 

 hair, all of which was, doubtless, altogether too much for 

 the tender susceptibilities of a young oriental. "We lay 

 close along side the pile wharf, and one night were awoke 

 by a woman's piercing shrieks, and the loud voices ot 

 several men, and on our going to see the cause we found 

 the youthful oriental in the hands of a couple of " Peah's " 

 coolies, who stripped this celestial Adonis, and tying liim 

 to a post by liis queue, they gave him a dozen or so with 

 a rattan, at which he did bawl most lustily, much to the 

 amusement of his captors. And she, the dusky Venus, 

 was handed over to Mrs. " Peah," who corrected her 

 privately in the women's apartment, and afterwards 

 chained the erring damsel in a space below her own bed, 

 so as to prevent her stealing out to midnight meetings 

 again during our stay. I do not think either of the cul- 

 prits were hurt much, and despite the yells of the " boy," 

 the rascal was jolly enough and full of bravado when he 

 came on board in the morning. 



The first morning after our arrival I and Mr. Cowie 

 took a boat at sunrise and pulled down to the market 

 place. Leaving our boat at the Orang Kayu's house we 

 walked through the narrow gateway, and crossing the 

 place where the market is held, just outside the barricade, 

 we followed the course of the river for some distance, and 

 obtained capital shooting at the large blue pigeons, evi- 

 dently the same species as that so common in Borneo. 

 We should have had much better sport, only that about 

 a dozen of the " lads of the village " followed like curs 

 at our heels, and they ran riot as soon as ever they 

 saw a bird fall, and in their eagerness to clutch it they 

 did a good deal of damage to a long-tailed rufous brown 

 pigeon which I shot here for the first time and wished 



