234 The Gardens of the Sitn. [ch. xn. 



guests, whether "unhidden " or not I cannot say, but it 

 is probahle certain kinds are attracted by foetid odours as 

 others are by sweet ones, while in many cases nectar or 

 pollen supply the little visitors with food. The bright 

 scarlet flowers of the erythrina trees in Labuan sheltered 

 myriads of tiny flies and beetles which, in their turn, 

 afi'orded food to large flocks of starlings and other birds 

 which were always attracted to these trees when they were 

 in bloom. Quite accidentally I came across the evidence 

 of a celebrated traveller in South America, Waterton, 

 who at p. 98 of his Wanderings, says " almost every 

 flower of the tropical climates contains insects of one 

 kind or other," thus bearing out what I have observed 

 to be universally the case in the eastern jungles and 

 gardens. 



On returning to the house I found Mr. Cowie had shot 

 a beautiful paroquet and two pigeons I had never seen 

 before, and he had directed his men to bring all the ferns 

 and plants he had met with on his way around the jungle 

 patches near the houses. Our birds and flowers securely 

 packed, we walked around the village and paid a visit to 

 a hospitable old hadji who lived here, apparently pros- 

 perous and happy. He told us that many of the women 

 had been much frightened on hearing that a white man 

 was coming to their village, adding that he had had great 

 difiiculty in assuring them that we were not Spaniards. 

 He had erected a neat little musjid, and his son, a tall 

 well-favoured youth, who had accompanied his sire to 

 Mecca, had just been married to a ^erj comely Sulu 

 girl. This hadji had a tradition that the aboriginals 

 of the island had been driven out by the Chinese emi- 

 grants many years ago, even before the Arab Sultans 

 and Datus became the dominant party here. He may 

 be right, since it is a well known fact that the Chinese 



