180 



A NATUIiALIST'H WANDEHJNOS 



excellence that in any of the others, especially in its Balai, 

 where I was greatly interested in fiufiiTi^j what I may call a 

 veritable coat of arms, carved ont oi" an immense block of wood 

 and erected in the central position, where one wonld expect 

 an object with the significance of a coat of arms to be placed. 

 From what 1 could learn it had such a significance in the 

 estimation of the chief of the village ; for he told me tliat 

 only such villages as could claim origin from some distant 

 village could erect such a carving in their Balai. I am not, 

 however, master enough of the terras of )>lazt)nry current in 

 the College of Arms to describe it in fitting language. The 

 shield had double supporters ; on each siile a tiger rampant 



COAT OF ABSIS LS THt VI1.LAGE OF f'AIWAK-BLLAN. 



bearing on its back a snake defiant, upheld the shield, in whose 

 centre the most prominent quartering was a floral ornament, 

 which might be a sunflower shading two deer, one on eaeh side — 

 the dexter greater than tlie sinister. Above the floral ornament 

 was a central and to me nnintelHgible halfmoondike blazon- 

 ing, but on either side of it was an « ulai lidai " (Chorus of 

 bystanders : « Undoubtedly an ulai lidai but of what it was 

 the similitude among created things, beyond suggesting faintly 

 the liiieaments of a scorpion, 1 was not pursuivant enough to 

 recognise ; on the sinister of the two, however, was a man 

 " tandacking " (dancing). Below tlie tips of the conjoined tails 

 of the supporting tigers were two ornate triangles, the upper 



