host,
and I spent the rainy evening in his house with some satisfaction,
acquiring information of the coast to the northward, which he is well
able to give.

"In the morning we dropped down with the last of the ebb to the mouth
of the Songi, and took the young flood to proceed up the Sadung. Beyond
the point of junction with the Songi the Sadung retains an average
breadth of from three-quarters of a mile to a mile. The banks continue
to be partially cleared, with here and there a few Dyaks residing in
single families or small communities on their ladangs or farms. The
Dyak campong, which terminated our progress up the stream, consists
of three moderately long houses inhabited by Sibnowans. The manners,
customs, and language of the Sibnowans of the Sadung are the same as
those of their Lundu brethren; they are, however, a wilder people,
and appear poor. Like other Dyaks, they had a collection of heads
hanging before the entrance of their chief's private apartments. Some
of these heads were fresh, and, with the utmost _sang-froid_, they
told us they were women's. They declared, however, they never took any
heads but those of their enemies, and these women (unhappy creatures)
had belonged to a distant tribe. The fresh heads were ornamented with
fowl's feathers, and suspended rather conspicuously in separate rattan
frames of open work. They professed themselves willing to go with
me up the river to the mountains; and on the way, they informed me,
were some large Malay towns, beside some more campongs of their own
countrymen. Farther up they enumerated some twenty tribes of Dyaks,
whose names I thought it useless to preserve. Late in the evening we
set off on our return, and anchored once again near Datu Jembrong's
house.

"_26th._--Again visited Seriff Sahib. His name and descent are
Arabic; his father, an Arab, having married a daughter of the Borneo
Rajah. The Malays evidently honor this descent, and consider his birth
very high. His power, they say, equals his family; as he is, in some
measure, independent; and were he to instigate the Sadung country to
take arms against Borneo, it is very probable he would overthrow the
government, and make himself Sultan of Borneo. In person, this noble
partakes much of his father's race, both in height and features, being
tall and large, with a fine nose and contour of face. His manners are
reserved but kind; and he looks as if too indolent to care much about
acquiring power; too f