possession of Mr. Treacher at Government House, Labuan. Of this sketch Mr. Cooper has made me this careful fac-simile on wood.

KAYAN WAR KNIFE.

It had a finely-tempered blade, ornamented along the back for about half its length. One side of the blade was flat, the other rounded; the sheath was elaborately carved and, as is generally the case in Borneo, made of two flat pieces of wood bound tightly together by neatly worked rattan cane; the hilt was ornamented with tufts of red and black hair, and it was furnished with a girdle of rattan plaited altogether a most handy and formidable implement in the paw of a lusty naked savage.

Gold, diamonds, and antimony have been obtained in remunerative quantities at the Sarawak mines, which were originally worked by the Chinese settlers, but are now in the hands of a company. Mining operations are very difficult

CH. VII.]

Opium Smoking.

159

owing to the enormous rainfall; and it is only the abundance of cheap Chinese or native labour which renders it possible in such a climate. Coolies from Hong Kong may be obtained for seven to eight dollars per month, or for less if their food is provided; and natives will work sometimes for five to seven dollars per month. A good Chinaman as a labourer, is however worth two Malays.

The largest rivers in the island are supposed to be the Kinabatangan and the Pontianak; the former is said to be navigable over two hundred miles from its mouth, and at the farthest point reached it was fifty yards wide, and there was seven fathoms of water. Dutch steamers have ascended a long way inland up the Pontianak which lies south of Sarawak. Most of the rivers on the northwest coast are very shallow, having dangerous bars at their mouths; and that at the mouth of the Brunei was partly blocked by large rocks about the time of the siege of that city by the English.

Gambling and opium smoking are the bane of the Chinese settlers and of many of the well-to-do Malays; and of all forms of intemperance surely this last must be the most degrading and otherwise hurtful in its effects. The manufactured drug as imported from Benares and other opium producing districts, is in the form of balls six inches in diameter, covered with the dried petals of poppy flowers. This product is the inspissated juice of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), and is of a dark brown or black colour. Before it is used for smoking, however, it has to be still further prepared by boiling and stirring in shallow pans over a bright fire; and as the pure product is very high in price, it is often subjected to adulteration. In our eastern colonies it is usual to let or farm cut the right to prepare and sell or export opium

to an enterprising native or Chinese merchant, and the revenue thus obtained is often enormous as compared with that on spirits and tobacco, or other duty-paying goods.

An opium-smoking establishment consists of a few gloomy rooms furnished with cane-bottomed couches, and on little stands are the pipes, tiny lamps, and other implements used by the smokers. The smell is generally sufficient to deter Europeans entering an opium-smoker's haunt from motives of curiosity; or if under guidance one does venture into the ill-ventilated and mal-odorous apartments behind, it is with feelings of relief that the sweet outer air is again gained. The smokers lie on the bamboo couches, and a little stand is brought, on which are one or two flute-like pipes, a pill or two of the drug, and a little glass lamp. In some cases an attendant manipulates the drug and fills the pipes; as a rule, however, this is done by the smokers themselves. There is no mistaking an habitual opium smoker; his eyes are dull, his complexion sallow, and in general a listless bearing, with a frame more or less emaciated, betokens his being a degraded victim. Without a supply of his favourite drug he is miserable; and when under its influence he is useless. Here he lies holding a morsel of the black drug on a needle over the flame of the lamp, twirling it round and round, and toasting it in the flame until the proper consistence is attained. It is then introduced into the pipe, and the needle, on being withdrawn, leaves a tiny air-hole through the mass as it fits like a plug in the bowl. The smoker now holds the bowl to the lamp, and obtains a light, and then he draws a long whiff or two as the burning morsel of opium rapidly decreases in the bowl.

CHAPTER VIII.

A CITY OF LAKE DWELLINGS.

Brunei the Capital-Market Chinese traders-Gun foundry—The Istana -Weak government-The Sultan Moumein - Native jewelryNative smithy-Public executions-Punishment for robbery-Sago factories-Inter-marriage- Morality-Old Mission Church-Boat journey inland-Murut hospitality-Canoe travel-Forest travelNew aroids-Native insects-Day flying Moths-River travel by moonlight-Sago-washing station.

BRUNEI, the capital of Borneo and the seat of the government, is a water-city of about twenty thousand inhabitants. The palm-thatched houses of which it for the most part consists, are built on piles so as to be above the river at high tide. From one of the adjacent low hills the view of this "Venice of the East" is a most novel one-indeed, unique in its way; and although the town is nearly fifteen miles from the mouth of the river, yet a moderate-sized gunboat can anchor in the broad water-way in the very centre of the city, and within a few yards of the Sultan's Istana. There is a rather awkward bar at the entrance to the river. A trading steamer from Singapore calls here once a month to bring letters and goods for the Sultan and a few Chinese merchants, and to take back sago, which is the main export. In some cases the blocks of houses are connected by bridges formed of long palm stems lashed together with rattans; but, as a rule, all general communication

M

must be carried on by boats. Some of the inhabitants grow a few flowers and herbs in boxes of earth; and occasionally papaw trees and gourds of different kinds are thus cultivated. Little rafts, or floating tree-trunks, are moored to the piles which support the houses for the accommodation of ducks and fowls.

The market held on the river every morning is one of the most singular sights of the place. Here you may see a hundred or more little boats containing fruit, fish, rice, and other produce, for sale or barter. Among the petty traders the Brunei women are most prominent, and many of them present a most singular appearance, the hats they wear being made of neatly plaited Nipa leaves, and being from two to three feet in diameter, they serve the purpose of both head covering and umbrella, and they screen the whole body of the wearer from the hot sun. Most of the women to be seen in the market are old and coarse featured-in many cases positively ugly— reminding one of the orang utan as they glance at you from beneath their wrinkled foreheads, their mouths overflowing with betel nut-juice the while, their repulsive black teeth being worn off level with their gums; their more beautiful sisters are secluded according to the etiquette of Islam; the nobles and richer Malays have wives and slaves in abundance. A European lady who visited the court here and was admitted into the women's apartments, tells me that some are passing fair, with tiny hands and feet, straight noses and liquid eyes, prototypes of those black-eyed damsels who are to attend all true believers of the Prophet in the gardens of Paradise.

The principal traders are Chinamen, who have floating warehouses singularly like the Noah's arks of early memory. Brunei is the Sheffield of north-west Borneo, the manufacture of knives, parongs and krisses being