er story; but as soon as he had built his
house he was recalled to Germany, and the only trace of him that
remained was a box full of torn Bibles and tracts, which, I am sorry to
say, had been used as waste paper in the bazaar for tying up parcels
since he left, but as the tracts were not in any language the people
could understand they were scarcely to blame. Rajah turned the house
into a court of justice, and we settled ourselves in the upper rooms,
which were divided from one another by mat walls. The river flowed under
this house at spring tides, and then nests of ants would swarm into it:
the rapidity with which these little creatures would carry all their
eggs up the posts and settle the whole family under a box in your
bedroom was marvellous; but as they were not pleasant companions there,
a kettle of hot water had to put an end to the colony.

These little black ants did not sting, but there was a large red ant,
half an inch long, who was most pugnacious; he stood up on his hind legs
and fought you with amazing courage, and his jaws were formidable. We
made our first acquaintance with white ants while we lived in the
court-house. On unpacking a box of books, which had been our solace
during the voyage, we found them almost glued together by the secretion
of these creatures. The box had been standing on the ground floor of the
hotel. The white ants had eaten through and through the books, and
picked all the surface off the bindings; they were disgusting to look at
and to smell. Some years afterwards, one of our missionaries had a box
of clothes sent her from Singapore. It was necessary clothing, for she
had lost her effects, like the rest of us, during the Chinese rebellion.
I warned Miss Coomes that she must unpack the box directly, on account
of the white ants; but she put it off till the next day, and at night
these wretches ate through the bottom of the box, and munched up the new
linen and stockings. We soon learnt to guard against their attacks by
using no wood except balean, or iron-wood, which is too hard for them to
bite. English oak seemed like a slice of cake to white ants.

No sooner were we settled at the court-house, than we had visits from
all the principal Malays, and also some Dyaks who happened to be at
Sarawak. My husband opened a dispensary in a little room behind the
store-room, and had plenty of patients. I used to hear continual talking
and laughing going on there, and by this means Mr. McD