miscellaneous notices &c. 
the pride of the “ ana samaia ” (olden time) fell, formidable 
even in death, as an obstruction to the traffic and facilities of the 
stream. And now, no Dyak’s “ bai” or 44 usi” (parang or biliong) 
might touch the fallen monarch of the depa (river bank,) no dog 
might set his foot upon this convenient bridge, though, with houses 
on either side, and hundreds of those hunting animals, great was the 
vigilance required. At length four deer-eating Malays, actuated by 
the spirit of mammon more than of reverence, proceeded to make a 
way for their boats by hacking slowly through the still majestic 
bungur, Karangan the while aghast and stifling her indignation, to 
indulge her sadness at seeing poor mortals dealing destruction thus 
upon themselves. Unhappy men! their work completed, they 
sprang into their boats with a jeer at the bungur’s honor, to pass 
the spot no more for ever. Sickening at a village, 3 hours distant, 
all perished miserably, and fathers, pointing to the unused and de¬ 
caying prahus of the infatuated men, impressed upon their sons that 
that honor was avenged ! To the trunk of that tree stijl go the des-» 
cendants, proud as poor, of those who were of property and might 
in other days—the swine of sacrifice is offered and devoured, and the 
eye of the boy l)yak gleams as he follows ambitiously, with the eye, 
the practised dance of the 44 notong” ceremony, a Chinese skull 
dangling from the dancer’s hand. The dance is, for the most part, 
a slow twisting of the limbs and trunk, and when two or three well 
dressed parties take the floor at once, there is a rude gracefulness 
in the evolutions : tinkling bells are attached to the ancle, and about 
the hips is affixed a hoop from which a sarong floats about the per T 
son, to the knee : these are the males. Music of deafening clangor, 
and unbounded license of gesture and expression rule the hour, 
though I may repeat the remark that ive are allowed to see and hear 
very little of such open vice. I once was present with a party (none 
of whom had, perhaps, seen one of their assemblages for festivity, it 
being my own first occasion, also,) at a harvest dance after the crop 
•was housed, and on that occasion several men wearing masks, and 
apparently disguised, also, by a free use of 44 tuak” (arrack,) were 
excessively shameless. At a war-dance, last year, thinking it well 
to know its characteristics, I spent a few minutes, hut there were no 
masks, nor was any conduct other than their best observed; a half 
skull was then used, having been procured from another village 
which had sent a small party to the war with the Chinese, a year or 
more since. At the conclusion, orje called out to his friend to knosy 
