obliged to submit. I therefore walked out over the rice-fields, which
are here very extensive, covering a number of the little hills and
valleys into which the whole country seems broken up, and obtained a
fine view of hills and mountains in every direction.

In the evening the Orang Kaya came in full dress (a spangled
velvet jacket, but no trowsers), and invited me over to his
house, where he gave me a seat of honour under a canopy of white
calico and coloured handkerchiefs. The great verandah was
crowded with people, and large plates of rice with cooked and
fresh eggs were placed on the ground as presents for me. A very
old man then dressed himself in bright-coloured cloths and many
ornaments, and sitting at the door, murmured a long prayer or
invocation, sprinkling rice from a basin he held in his hand,
while several large gongs were loudly beaten and a salute of
muskets fired off. A large jar of rice wine, very sour but with
an agreeable flavour, was then handed around, and I asked to see
some of their dances. These were, like most savage performances,
very dull and ungraceful affairs; the men dressing themselves
absurdly like women, and the girls making themselves as stiff and
ridiculous as possible. All the time six or eight large Chinese
gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young
men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape
to the round house, where I slept very comfortably with half a
dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head,

The river was now so shallow that boats could hardly get along. I
therefore preferred walking to the next village, expecting to see
something of the country, but was much disappointed, as the path
lay almost entirely through dense bamboo thickets. The Dyaks get