r good behaviour. This reminds me of the story of a little Dyak boy
who was taken prisoner in 1849. His father was killed, and the boy,
about eight years old, was brought to the Rajah. For some days the child
seemed quite happy, then he begged to speak to "Tuan Rajah," and told
him confidentially that he knew a place in the jungle where some
valuable tajows were secreted, and if he would land him with some
Malays or the bank of the river, he would point out the place. The Rajah
believed the child, and the jars were found, and taken on board the
boat. Then the little boy went again to the Rajah, and bursting into
tears, said, "I have given you the riches of my tribe; in return give me
my liberty. Set me down in the jungle path, give me some food, and in
two days I shall reach my home and my mother." So the child was laden
with all he took a fancy to--a china cup, a glass tumbler, and a gay
sarong (waist-cloth), and as much food as he could carry--and we heard
afterwards that he rejoined his friends in safety.

I must now return to my husband's journal. He says: "While at breakfast
this morning, one of the men told us he had seen the people with tails,
of whom we have often heard.[4] They live fifteen days up a river, in
the interior of the Bruni country. It is a large river, but in some
places runs through caverns, where they can only pass on small rafts. He
was sent there by Pangeran Mumeim to get goats, as these tailed gentry
keep a great many of them. He says their tails are as long as the two
joints of the middle finger, fleshy and stiff. They must be very
inconvenient, for they are obliged to sit on logs of wood made on
purpose, or to make a hole in the earth, to accommodate their tails
before they can sit down. These people do not eat rice, but sago made
into cakes and baked in a pot. In their country, he said, was a great
stone fort, with nine large iron guns, of which the people can give no
account, not knowing when or by whom it was built.

[Footnote 4: This legend, though commonly reported, has never
been proved.]

"After dinner, when the men sit round me and smoke my cigars, they soon
enter into conversation. We spoke a good deal to-day on the subject of
religion, the difference between Christianity and Mahometanism, and,
above all, the absurdity of their repeating the Koran, like so many
parrots, without understanding one word of what they say; and the
irreverence of addressing God in words they do