OHAT. XVI l] 



A MALAY MNNEH 



245 



handsome boys neatly dressed in white and witli smoothly 

 briished jet- black hair, handed us each a basin of water 

 and a clean nayjkin on a salver. The dinner was excel* 

 lent. Fowls cooked in various ways, wild pig roasted 

 stewed and fried, a fricassee of bats, poUitoes rice and 

 other vegetables, all served on good china, with hnger 

 glasses and fine napkins, and abundance of good claret and 

 l>eer, seemed to me rather curious at the table of a native 

 chief on the mountains of Celebes. Our host was dressed 

 in a suit of black with patent-leather shoes, and really 

 looked comfortable and almost gentlemanly in them. He 

 sat at the head of the table and did the honours well, 

 though he did not talk much. Our conversation wa-s en- 

 tirely in Malay, as that is tlie oflicisil language here, and in 

 fact the mother-tongue and only language of the control- 

 hrur, who is a native-bom half-breed. Tlie Major's father, 

 wlio was chief before 1dm, wore, 1 was informed, a strip of 

 bark as his sole costume, aud lived in a rude iiut raised on 

 lofty poles, and abundantly decorated with human lieads. 

 Of com-se we were expected, and our dinner was prepared 

 in the best style, but I was assured that the chiefs all 

 tiike a pri'le in adopting European customs, and in being 

 able to receive their visitors in a handsome manner. 



After dinner and coffee, tlie Gi>ntroUeur went on t-o 

 Tundano, and 1 strolled about the vilhigc waiting for my 

 bogtrage, which was coming iu a bnliock-cart and did not 

 arrive till after midnight. Supper was very similar to 

 dinner, and on retiring 1 found an elegant little room 

 with a comfortable bed, gauze curtains with blue and red 

 hangings, and every convenience. Next morning at sun- 

 rise the tliermometer in the verandah stood at GU*, which 

 1 was told is about the nsual lowest tempeiuture at tins 

 j>liice, 2,500 feet above the sea. 1 had a good breakfast 

 of coffee, eggs, and fresh bread and butter, whicli I took in 

 the spacious verandah, amid the odour of roses, jessamine, 

 and other s^veet-scented flowers, which filled the garden 

 in front; and about eight o'clock left Tomoh6n with a 

 dozen men carrying my baggage. 



Our road lay over a mountidn ridge about 4,000 feet 

 above tlie sea, and then descended about 500 feet to the 

 little village of Kurdkan, the highest in the district ot 



