BRITISH BORNEO. 51 
Quakers’ meeting is no bad metaphor to describe a Malay 
bichara. Vhe Pangerans sit round in a circle smoking so- 
lemnly for some time, until a question is put to them, to which 
a brief reply is given, followed by another prolonged pause. 
In this way the business on which they have come is gra- 
dually approached. 
Their manners are as polished as their faces are immobile, 
and the way to a Malay’s heart lies through his pocket. 
To the outsider, Brunai is a city of hideous old women, for 
such alone are met with in the thronged market place where 
some hundreds of market boats jostle each other, while their 
inmates shriek and haggle over their bargains, or during a 
water promenade while threading the labyrinths of this 
Oriental Venice; but if acquainted with its intricacies, or if 
paying aceremonial visit to any of the leading Pangerans, 
many a glimpse may be had of some fair skinned beauty 
peeping through some handy crevice in the kajang wall, or, 
in the latter case, a crowd of light-skinned, dark-eyed houris 
may be seen looking with all their might out of a window in 
the harem behind, from which they are privileged to peep 
into the hall of audience. 
The present population of Brunai cannot exceed 12,000 to 
15,000 souls, a great number having succumbed to the terrible 
epidemic of cholera a year ago. The exports consist of sago, 
gutta percha, camphor, india-rubber, edible birds’ nests, gum 
dammar, etc., and what money there is in the city is almost 
entirely in the hands of the Chinese traders. < as us 
In the’ old days, when it enjoyed a numeraqus Chinese popu- 
lation, the surrounding hills were covered with pepper planta- 
tions, and there was a large junk trade with China. At 
present Brunai lives on her exports of jungle produce and 
sago, furnished by a noble river—the Limbang, whose valley 
lies but a short distance to the Eastward. One great advan- 
tage the city enjoys is a copious supply of pure water, drawn 
from springs at the base of the hills below the town on the 
left bank of the river. * ws < a 
“Such is a slight sketch of Brunai of the Brunais. If the 
Pangerans are corrupt, the lower classes are not, but are law- 
