Hud welcomed us before the Sultan appeared. They were
intelligent men, and it was a pleasure to hear Malay
spoken by them in all its purity. Tea was offered us,
together with the long Nipa leaf cheroots so largely
smoked by Malays and Borneans of all grades.
In about five minutes His Highness appeared, dressed
in a long Arab coat, a sarong, and having a small black
cap on his head. That the portraits of Pope Pius IX.
resemble him very much has repeatedly been observed
by visitors here. He walked slowly, bearing rather
heavily, as I thought, on a long staff, which had two
short prongs at the lower extremity. He came forward,
and we shook hands, after which he sat down in an
arm-chair on the opposite side of the table. He told us
that he was now a very old man, and that every day
found him weaker. I thanked him for a passport he
had given me some months before for the journey inland
to Kina Balu.
He seemed interested in hearing of the great mountain,
and asked several questions. He appeared astonished
to hear it was so cold there; and inquired as
to the tobacco and rice crops. He also expressed his
regret that being now old and infirm, he could not undertake
a journey to the mountain himself, of which, he observed,
he had heard several accounts derived from natives
who had accompanied Mr. Low and Mr. St. John.
On leaving the Sultan’s, we visited a foundry situated
near the house of the minister of war or the Tumongong;
also the house of a gold worker, who made most of the
trinkets, rings, and ear ornaments worn by the Brunei
ladies. The proprietor, an old man, showed us some
prettily designed specimens of native gold work, the ear
ornaments being especially singular. It is the fashion
for many of the ladies of Brunei and the interior to cut
a large gash in the lobe of each ear, and in these holes
are inserted gold or silver ornaments, as large as a wine
cork. If of gold, they are mostly made of beaten work ;
the highly decorated convex ends, however, are generally
cast in little moulds formed of clay and wax, or dammar.
The crucibles used for melting the metal are of the size
and shape of half a hen’s egg, being formed of fine
porous clay. These are heated over tiny charcoal fires,
the heat being augmented with a blow-pipe.
In some of the ornaments we observed rudely cut rock
crystals, or Bornean diamonds; and part of a waist-belt
contained a dozen fine pearls, but most of their beauty
was lost by bad setting. The stock in trade of a gold-
worker here is of the most simple description. A rough
block of hard wood serves as a bench or anvil, and is
perforated with large and small holes, into which iron
pins of various sizes are inserted for various uses. Hammers
of iron and wood, a chisel or two, a pair of shears,
wax and clay for models, or matrices and earthen crucibles
for melting up the Spanish gold pieces, are all the
plant he deems necessary.
There is not much originality in the designs used.
Some of the Brunei ladies must have fingers of the most
delicate proportions to be able to wear some of the rings
I saw here for repair. Smiths’ shops are pretty much
the same all over the world. We visited one here, and
except that iron and tools were less plentiful, it was
pretty much like a village smithy in England. Sheffield
files and rasps are used even in this out-of-the-way part
of the East. Most other tools were of Brunei make.
Choppers, knives, parongs, and krisses represent the
manufactures. A Bornean bellows is peculiar, being
made of two upright wooden cylinders four or five feet
high, and connected at the bottom with the iron pipe