236 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. xh. 



it was a bad collecting ground generally. The only steed 

 I could obtain was a large black bull, which I hired for a 

 bundle of tobacco. He was all right when I had fairly 

 mounted, but whenever I got off to shoot at a bird, or 

 gather plants, he became exceedingly restive, and the 

 only way to mount him again was to put the rope (by 

 which I steered him, and which was fastened to a twisted 

 ring of rattan cane in his nose) round the trunk or branch 

 of a tree, and then to pull his nose up to it by sheer 

 force, holding it firmly with one hand while I sprang on 

 his back. The few country people I met appeared 

 rather surprised, but I expect the bull was well known, 

 and so that served as a passport to me. Near the houses 

 on the shore a bushy euphorbia, with candelabra-like 

 branches, and a clump of yuccas were seen, both doubt- 

 less introductions. I returned about three o'clock. After 

 dinner I and Captain Cowie visited one or two of the 

 traders' houses, which resemble those of Sulu in internal 

 arrangement; large beds or platforms occupying the prin- 

 cipal apartment, covered with fine mats and pillows, the 

 valuables in boxes being piled up behind. In the morn- 

 ing we bore away for Sandak an, which we reached ere 

 daybreak the next day. The steam-ship America was in 

 the bay, having Baron de Overbeck. on^boardf. We 

 (Stayed' here one day for cargo of trepang, rattan, pearl- 

 shell, and birds' -nests. These edible swallows'-nests are 

 highly valued by the rich Chinese, and it Js^from a_cave 

 on the face of the sandstone rock^on Pulo Bahalatolois, 

 at the inouth of this h&jj that the £nest wliite neatslare 

 obtained. These rocks rise nearly perpendicularly from 

 the sea, and to reach the entrance to the cave a man has 

 to descend a distance of a hundred or more feet with the 

 aid of a rattan rope tied to a tree on the slope above. It 

 is dangerous work, as the least slip, and the man would 



