and
in these holes deposit their eggs. The males are larger, and have the
rostrum dilated at the end, and sometimes terminating in a good-sized
pair of jaws. I once saw two males fighting together; each had a
fore-leg laid across the neck of the other, and the rostrum bent quite
in an attitude of defiance, and looking most ridiculous. Another time,
two were fighting for a female, who stood close by busy at her boring.
They pushed at each other with their rostra, and clawed and thumped,
apparently in the greatest rage, although their coats of mail must
have saved both from injury. The small one, however, soon ran away,
acknowledging himself vanquished. In most Coleoptera the female is
larger than the male, and it is therefore interesting, as bearing on the
question of sexual selection, that in this case, as in the stag-beetles
where the males fight together, they should be not only better armed,
but also much larger than the females. Just as we were going away, a
handsome tree, allied to Erythrina, was in blossom, showing its masses
of large crimson flowers scattered here and there about the forest.
Could it have been seen from an elevation, it would have had a fine
effect; from below I could only catch sight of masses of gorgeous colour
in clusters and festoons overhead, about which flocks of blue and orange
lories were fluttering and screaming.

A good many people died at Dobbo this season; I believe about twenty.
They were buried in a little grove of Casuarinas behind my house. Among
the traders was a. Mahometan priest, who superintended the funerals,
which were very simple. The body was wrapped up in new white cotton
cloth, and was carried on a bier to the grave. All the spectators sat
down on the ground, and the priest chanted some verses from the Koran.
The graves were fenced round with a slight bamboo railing, and a little
carved wooden head-post was put to mark the spot. There was also in the
village a small mosque, where every Friday the faithful went to pray.
This is probably more remote from Mecca than any other mosque in
the world, and marks the farthest eastern extension of the Mahometan
religion. The Chinese here, as elsewhere, showed their superior wealth
and civilization by tombstones of solid granite brought from Singapore,
with deeply-cut inscriptions, the characters of which are painted in
red, blue, and gold. No people have more respect for the graves of
their relations and friends than this strange,