of tar in it. With
this the doctor smeared Esau all over. He was to wear no clothes, and
not to be washed or touched. I used to see him, poor child, skipping
about exactly like the little black imps depicted in _Punch_.

The ointment did not hurt him, but every third day the doctor came and
washed it all off with hot water: this was rather a painful operation,
but it was worth while undergoing some discomfort, for at the end of a
month the disease had vanished, and "his skin came again like the flesh
of a child." Esau grew up to be a good man and catechist to his own
countrymen, so it was well I ventured to keep him at Sarawak. The other
children soon got well when separated from him. Kurap arises, I believe,
from poor food and exposure to weather. A Dyak wears no clothes except a
long sash wound round him and the ends hanging down before and behind;
and when we consider the hot sun and frequent rains which beat upon him,
for he lives mostly out of doors, it is no wonder his skin suffers. Limo
and Ambat were clever children. In a letter, written about a year after
they came to us, I find this passage: "I have only four girls who can
read English and understand it. My two little Dyaks, Limo and Ambat, are
very fond of learning English hymns, and say them in such a plaintive,
touching voice, pronouncing each syllable so clearly, but they don't
understand it until it has been explained to them in Malay. Limo's
brother and uncle came this week from Sarebas--two fine, tall men, with
only chawats[2] and earrings by way of clothes. Limo was delighted; she
would have gone away with them in their great boat if I had allowed her.
No doubt they told her how much they would do for her at Sarebas.
However, I drew a little picture of the women setting her to draw large
bamboos full of water, and to beat out the paddy with a long pole--very
hard work, and always done by the young girls,--a more truthful and less
delightful view of things; so Limo said she would stay with me until she
was grown up. I gave her a pair of trousers for each of the men, a
present generally much esteemed. But these two were very wild folk; they
laughed very much at the trousers, and carried them away over their
shoulders."

[Footnote 2: A chawat is a long strip of cotton or bark cloth
wound round the body.]

I must not forget to tell the story of my dear child Nietfong, although
it is a very sad one. She was the daughter of the Chinese baker who