FORMOSA 161 



ornamental work. In regular Malay style, they wore a loose 

 sort of petticoat twisted round their loins, and reaching to the 

 ankles, the rest of their dress consisting of the same sleeve- 

 less jacket as the men. 



The women were somewhat timid, but not so the men, 

 who at once asked to be shown foreign guns and pistols, and 

 who evidently judge of a man by the style of his weapons. 

 Their houses, by the way, are miserable affairs, having roofs 

 formed of split bamboo and walls of mud or thatch. As to 

 their language we could learn but little. It would seem, 

 however, they employ but a limited vocabulary, and that 

 different dialects exist in the tribes occupying territory com- 

 paratively adjacent. The tame savages, who acted as inter- 

 preters, when asked what so-and-so was called would point 

 North, and say, "Up there they call it by such a name, and 

 down here by another." 



The chief of the tribe we were visiting being absent in 

 the woods, we were disappointed in our plan for a further 

 advance into the hills, none of the savages being willing to 

 conduct us. After a short trip, therefore, on the second day 

 of our stay, to a spot where some natives were engaged in 

 cutting and splitting rattans ready to carry to market, we 

 decided to quit savage territory, and return to the Foreign 

 Settlement. 



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