30 BRITISH BORNEO. 
guessed when it is understood that every son and daughter 
of every many-wived noble is also a Pangeran. 
Some of these unfortunate noblemen have nothing where- 
with to support their position, and in very recent times I have 
actually seen a needy Pangeran, in a British Colony where he 
could not live by oppression or theft, driven to work ina 
coal mine or drive a buffalo cart. 
With the ordinary freeborn citizen of Brunai life opens 
under better auspices. The children are left much to them- 
selves and are merry, precocious, naked little imps, able to 
look out for themselves at a very much earlier age than is the 
case with European infants, and it is wonderful to see quite 
little babies clambering up the rickety stairs leading from the 
river to the house, or crawling unheeded on the tottering 
verandahs. Almost before they can walk they can swim, and 
they have been known to share their mother’s cigarettes while 
still in arms. All day long they amuse themselves in minia- 
ture canoes, rolling over and over in the water, regardless of 
crocodiles. Happy children! they have no school and no 
clothes—one might, perhaps, exclaim happy parents, too! 
Malays are very kind and indulgent to their children and I do 
not think I have seen or heard of a case of the application of 
the parental hand to any part of the infant person. Assoonas 
he is strong enough, say eight or nine years of age, the young 
Malay, according to the kampong, or division of the town, in 
which his lot has been cast, joins in his father’s trade and 
becomes a fisherman, a trader, or a worker in brass or in iron 
as the case may be. The girls have an equally free and easy 
time while young, their only garments being a silver fig leaf, 
fastened toa chain or girdle round the waist. As they grow 
up they help their mothers in their household duties, or by 
selling their goods inthe daily floating market; they marry 
young and are, asa rule, kindly treated by their husbands. 
Although Mahomedans, they can go about freely and unveiled, 
a privilege denied to their sisters of the higher classes. The 
greatest misfortune for such a girl is, perhaps, the possession 
of a pretty face and figure, which may result in her being 
honoured with the attentions of a noble, in whose harem she 
