344 
CRESPIGNY’S NOTES ON BORNEO. 
[JutfE 14, 1858. 
accompany yon, as I wish, to proceed to Singapore on a mercantile 
visit.” To this arrangement I with pleasure acceded. We accord- 
ingly ascended the river on the following morning, and I took np 
my abode with the Pangeran. 
There is no necessity to detail to yon the conversation I held 
with the Pangeran : suffice it that I was charmed with his amiability, 
surprised at the extent of his knowledge of European affairs, and 
amused at the volubility with which he rattled out question after 
question upon all subjects. Who built the pyramids of Egypt ? 
What is the population of China ? How much did the Sultan of 
Turkey pay England for her assistance in the war against Moscow ? 
I enlightened him to the best of my ability upon these and a thou- 
sand other points, one of which was — What is the cost of the Queen’s 
dinner every day ? — and in my turn derived much information from 
him respecting the neighbouring country. 
September 27. — I walked twelve miles to Mausolug, the nearest 
Dusun village, accompanied by two of my Malays and a party of 
Dusuns, where I was heartily welcomed. I was much pleased 
with the inhabitants and their domicile ; the men being well built 
and muscular, the women tolerably handsome, and very different in 
appearance to the wretched inhabitants of the Limbong, of whom I 
wrote to you in my former letter. 
Their village, contai ning about 200 inhabitants, consisted of two 
long houses, like those of the Muruts and Bisayans, with this differ- 
ence, that they are not so high above the ground and the front is* 
quite open : moreover, everything is kept as clean as a new pin. 
Having submitted with a good grace to their curiosity — my clothes, 
my arms, myself, each in turn becoming the subject of animated 
discussion — the Dusuns then commenced their evening amusements, 
the men mending their river-nets, carving handles for their swords, 
tops for their spear-heads, — the women busy at their basket-work. 
I folded my rug around me about midnight, and from time to time 
drowsily opened my eyes as a burst of louder laughter struck upon 
the ear. At what time they retired I know not, but on my awaken- 
ing on the following morning at early dawn I found my savage 
friends all up and busy pounding rice for the morning meal, and I am 
sure the Fellows of the Eoyal Geographical Society will be amused 
when they hear that near me were two children playing at cats- 
cradle exactly as I remember to have played it in my own child- 
hood. 
I wandered for more than a week among the mountains to the 
eastward, of Mausolug, and then returned to Bongan, glad enough to 
get under the roof of a house once more, for the temporary huts 
