nment being a short red flannel jacket, fastened
with three old buttons of the 34th Regiment of the time of George
III.; how they ever got there is, and ever has been, a mystery to me.

"Lat" was sitting or rather lying in a three-sided wooden box or
alcove, about ten feet square, built upon the centre of the ruai. This
is invariably the dwelling-place of a head-man of a house throughout
this tribe, and with the exception of Europeans no one may enter it.

We had evidently called at an inauspicious moment, for Lat seemed
rather annoyed at being disturbed from his "siesta," and, to judge
from his looks, had been having a high time of it during the feast.
Shaking hands with him, an operation which he performed half
unconsciously, we took our departure and left this merry old gentleman
to his slumbers.

Our guides now showed the way into one of the smaller rooms leading
out of the ruai, and occupied by Mrs. Lat and her two fair daughters.
We found these (unlike the Kayans) tattooed over the face as well as
body, and each wore the short skirt of the Kanowit. These were the
fairest natives I ever saw in Borneo, being of a light yellow
complexion, not unlike the Chinese. Their jet-black hair was unsecured
and allowed to fall in profusion down their backs, while their arms
were ornamented with brass rings and bright-coloured beads. From the
neck to the waist they wore a succession of brass rings which formed a
species of cuirass. These when once put on are never taken off again.
Had it not been for the practice of elongating the ear-lobes and
staining and filing the teeth, these women would not have been
bad-looking. The former operation is performed by introducing at an
early age a light metal earring followed by heavier ones as the wearer
gets older, until the lobe of the ear touches the shoulder; in fact, I
afterwards saw an old Poonan dame who could introduce her hand into
the aperture, with the greatest ease, and whose earrings weighed 1 lb.
each.

The teeth, as I have said, are stained black, and filed into the shape
of a V, in some cases a hole being bored through the front ones and a
piece of brass knocked in; this being considered an additional
adornment.

The atmosphere of the apartment in which Mrs. Lat resided rapidly
became rather oppressive, there being about ten people in the room,
which was about fourteen feet square, and we were not sorry,
therefore, to take our leave and return to the ruai. The ladies,