s. Clinging to these, they proceed to prod all the
nests within reach with a long bamboo pole, split into the shape of a
three-pronged fork at one end, with a candle attached. They easily
detach the nests, and rapidly transfer them to a basket hanging by
their side. Having cleared the accessible space around them, they then
unhook one end of their frail ladders and set themselves swinging like
a pendulum, until they manage to catch another hook or peg, and then
proceed to clear another space in the same way.

All this goes on throughout the day, and very often throughout the
night as well, for the birds are then at home, and by their appearance
the natives can judge more accurately of the age of the nests, on
which their value depends. Occasionally, but not very often, a ladder
breaks or a peg becomes rotten, and the hardy climbers tumble into the
depths below, with almost invariably fatal results. The ladders
employed are sometimes, I was told, as much as 500 feet in length, and
we saw some ourselves over 150 feet long. Truly the seekers after
birds and their belongings, whether eggs, feathers, or nests, are a
daring race, alike on the storm-beaten cliffs of St. Kilda and of
Norway and in the mysterious caves of Borneo and of Java.

Imagine our disappointment when, after another severe effort, we
reached the fissure in the rock which admitted the light from above,
and found that it afforded no means of egress except for bats and
birds. Not even a Dyak or Sulu could have squeezed his way in or out
by it, and there was nothing for it but to retrace our steps.
Fortunately, however, we had not gone far before we met our guides
with lights coming at last to look for us, and they led us to a
comparatively easy exit from the cave; though in order to reach it we
had to pass over horrible morasses of guano, into which we were only
prevented from sinking by a path or bridge of two-inch palm stems
affording a most uncertain foothold. On the way we passed more
nest-hunters, and at the mouth of the cave we found another camp of
wooden framework huts, on the top of which lay several men smoking,
with their kreises, parongs, spears, and travelling-bags of matwork
beside them. They would not part with any of their weapons or
implements, even for more than four times their value, alleging that
it would bring them ill-luck to sell them while engaged in an
expedition, but adding that if we would go to their village, after
their return,