Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tain; centipedes and millepedes are found everywhere. I have caught them under my pillow
and on my head; while in every box, and under every board which has lain for some days
undisturbed, little scorpions are sure to be found snugly ensconced, with their formidable
tails quickly turned up ready for attack or defence. Such companions seem very alarming
and dangerous, but all combined are not so bad as the irritation of mosquitoes, or of the in-
sect pests often found at home. These latter are a constant and unceasing source of torment
and disgust, whereas you may live a long time among scorpions, spiders, and centipedes,
ugly and venomous though they are, and get no harm from them. After living twelve years
in the tropics, I have never yet been bitten or stung by either.
The lean and hungry dogs before mentioned were my greatest enemies, and kept me con-
stantly on the watch. If my boys left the bird they were skinning for an instant, it was sure to
be carried off. Everything eatable had to be hung up to the roof, to be out of their reach. Ali
had just finished skinning a fine King Bird of Paradise one day, when he dropped the skin.
Before he could stoop to pick it up, one of this famished race had seized upon it, and he only
succeeded in rescuing it from its fangs after it was torn to tatters. Two skins of the large
Paradisea, which were quite dry and ready to pack away, were incautiously left on my table
for the night, wrapped up in paper. The next morning they were gone, and only a few
scattered feathers indicated their fate. My hanging shelf was out of their reach; but having
stupidly left a box which served as a step, a full-plumaged Paradise bird was next morning
missing; and a dog below the house was to be seen still mumbling over the fragments, with
the fine golden plumes all trampled in the mud. Every night, as soon as I was in bed, I could
hear them searching about for what they could devour, under my table, and all about my
boxes and baskets, keeping me in a state of suspense till morning, lest something of value
might incautiously have been left within their reach. They would drink the oil of my floating
lamp and eat the wick, and upset or break my crockery if my lazy boys had neglected to
wash away even the smell of anything eatable. Bad, however, as they are here, they were
worse in a Dyak's house in Borneo where I was once staying, for there they gnawed off the
tops of my waterproof boots, ate a large piece out of an old leather game-bag, besides de-
vouring a portion of my mosquito curtain!
April
28
th
.—Last evening we had a grand consultation, which had evidently been ar-
ranged and discussed beforehand. A number of the natives gathered round me, and said they
wanted to talk. Two of the best Malay scholars helped each other, the rest putting in hints
and ideas in their own language. They told me a long rambling story; but, partly owing to
their imperfect knowledge of Malay, partly through my ignorance of local terms, and partly
through the incoherence of their narrative, I could not make it out very clearly. It was,
