amused me very much; so I shall try to describe it to you.

Early in the morning the bridegroom's friends came to beg
flowers from our garden. Then papa told them I would go to the
wedding, and they said, "Be sure not to be later than twelve
o'clock." Accordingly, Mr. and Mrs. Ricketts, the British Consul
and his wife, Mr. Zehnder, and I set off in two boats, after
eleven o'clock breakfast; but we need not have got there before
two o'clock.

Eastern people set little value on time. They would just as soon
sit cross-legged on the floor smoking for three hours as for
one. The bride is the daughter of one of the first merchants in
the place, Nakodah Sadum, and the bridegroom is the grandson of
the old Datu Tumangong, whom you may remember. A handsome young
man is Matussim, and enlightened, for a Malay. He made his
betrothed a present of his photograph last year. Formerly Malays
objected to having their portraits taken, fancying it a breach
of the second commandment.

The bride's father's house was gay with flags and streamers, and
in front of it lay, by the river's brink, four small cannon,
which had been busy, for days before and all that morning,
saluting the occasion. We walked up into the house, which was
full of guests. A long verandah, lined with hadjis and elders,
all smoking and talking, led to the principal room, which,
unlike any Malay house before built in Sarawak, had large
Venetian-shuttered doors all round, and was therefore cool and
airy. There was a little round table, and some armchairs covered
with white mats for the expected guests, in the middle of the
room. Sadum and his wife came forward and greeted us very
cordially, and then we were told to sit down on the chairs. I
looked about for the bride, and saw a crowd of women in one
corner, and a boy holding a gilt umbrella over the young lady,
who was being shaved. A woman with a razor was shearing her
eyebrows into a delicate line, and all round her forehead
trimming disorderly hairs. Four women, seated on their heels in
front of her, were fidgeting over her face; she, impassive as a
log in their hands. A vast deal of singing and drumming went on
all the time, a row of musicians keeping it up all round the
room. The girl was washed; then her hair, magnificent black hair
down to her heels, knotted