the most indolent and contemptible on earth. Their
average height is about 4J to 5 feet. There are no tall
Malays ’in these regions. A square head, with long,
lank, black hair, a sullen hang-dog look, a short stumpy
figure, high cheek-bones, and a retreating forehead,—an
old Malay is as near an approach to the “ missing link ”
as can be found. In character the North Bornean
Malays are cowardly and servile. Devoid of all spirit
or enterprise, they are content to live in their old way
until their “ pile dwellings ” fall down upon them. The
women do all the house-work and most of the field-work
also. The curse of theMalays is their confirmedidleness.
The Labuan coroner told me that he recently held an
inquest on the body of a little child who fell into a ditch
and was drowned, while a Malay sat on the bank
chewing betel, too lazy to get up and help the little
one out of the water.
A country Malay’s house is better kept, perhaps, than
his town home. I t stands as a rule in a small cocoanut
plantation, built on high piles, the rooms being fourteen
or fifteen feet from the ground. The whole of the exterior
is made of dried leaves of the nipa-palm, sown
together with split rattans, and supported on a framework
of wood. The interior is lined with roughly-cut
planks.3 The entrance to the house is up a flight of
creaky steps, which leads to the verandah, a favourite
seat of the family. Here the grandmother sits all day
chewing her betel or smoking her long roko. The
mother is out in the fields, digging or pruning the
fruit and vegetables. One Malay “ lady,” who lived
close to my lodging in Labuan, was in the habit of
3 The roof is made of attaps, which form an excellent protection
against the constant heavy seas.
spending her days “ pig hunting ” (i.e. wild boar hunting)
with a clumsy old musket. She recently got
into trouble for shooting a neighbour’s cow instead of
the boar she was after. Since then her friends
evidently doubt her capacity as “ a sport.” The
musket has disappeared.
A KLING.
(Drawn by Helen H. Hatton. From a Photograph by Frank Hatton.)
The Klings are by far the finest type of natives in
Labuan. They are rather darker in complexion than
the Malays, and are on the whole a sturdier and finer-
looking race of people. The accompanying illustration
is a portrait of my Kling syce or stableman. I t is