of asking whether
Kayans valued these unlovely jars. Perhaps the Brunei nobles could not
have told him, but Nakodah Rahim must have been perfectly well aware. By
keeping silence he had transported a cargo of his own goods to Langusan at
Williams' expense--without freight or charges! The victim could not quite
restrain his anger, but it would have been madness to quarrel. He had
indeed several Malays, perhaps trusty. But the crew outnumbered them, and
the Kayans doubtless would back the Nakodah. There was nothing to be done
but wait, with as much good temper as he could summon, until that worthy
had sold out. During this time Williams hunted, explored the woods, and
collected a variety of plants, some of which we do not recognise from the
description. But among those he brought to Singapore was Coelogyne
speciosa.

Meantime sickness attacked the crew, whilst Williams' servants escaped it.
The Nakodah hurried his sales, but when he was ready to start, it became
necessary to engage some of the latter, with their master's consent, for
navigating the vessel; but for this mischance there would have been no
need to ask the white man's co-operation in a little stroke of business.

At each of the festivities Williams had remarked a very pretty girl always
in attendance on the chief Kum Palan. Charming faces are common among
those people, and graceful figures a matter of course. Kayan maidens do
not pull out their eyebrows, nor blacken their teeth, nor shave the top of
the head, nor, in fact, practise any of the disfigurements which spoil
Dyak beauty; for their tattooing, though elaborate, is all below the
waist. Most of them even do not chew betel before marriage, and you hardly
find one of these whose teeth are not a faultless row of pearls. Cool
scrutiny reveals that their noses are too flat and their mouths
unsymmetrical. But the girl would have a mane of lustrous hair decked with
flowers, restrained by a snowy fillet over the brow, streaming loose down
her back. Her skin would be pale golden bronze and her eyes worthy of the
tenderest epithets. Even a chief's daughter wears little clothing beyond
armlets and waist-belt of gold, white shell, and antique beads, as
mysterious and as costly in proportion as the Dyak jars. Only a silken
kerchief, clasping one thigh in studied folds, gathered and tucked in over
the other, would represent what we call dress; but the tattooing from
waist to knee is so close that feminine limbs seem