gotten, as we nestled cosily in our warm rugs in the glow
o f a sweet wood fire. After our return crowds of people
flocked in to see us, and the house resembled a market
place, fowls, rice, sweet potatoes, maize cobs, rattan hats,
■tobacco, wax, caoutchouc, and Dusun gourd-organs of
bamboo being among the produce and manufactures
offered. The men squat down in groups, and there is
•a great deal of talking about the mountain and “ Tuan
Hillow ” (Mr. Low), and “ Tuan Bunga,” the name by
which I am known to these people as well as to the
Malays of the coast. It is quite a gala night, and the
young girls are full of questions about the mountain.
My men “ Suong ” and “ Jeludin ” told me that the cave
on the mountain was a good place to sleep in, as there
were no spirits there, adding that on the island at Giaya,
and also at Pulo-Tiga they had been afraid to sleep, as
the spirits were so many there ! By the first stream we
crossed to-day in descending the mountain, a pretty pink-
flowered impatiens was flowering freely, and on the wet
rocks we noticed a tuft of red-herried nertera. On a
dripping wet rock here also a very fine trichomanes
luxuriates, forming large mat-like masses of black roots,
and long finely-cut filmy fronds. Two boys brought in a
quantity of ansectochili to-night soon after our arrival,
and asked for needles in exchange, which we gladly gave
them. The talking and laughter of the natives, who
seemed quite pleased at our safe return, lasted until I fell
asleep about eight o’clock, how much later I do not know.
Previous to this I called “ Suong,” and bade him tell all
the villagers assembled that I intended leaving in the
morning, so as to give time for my men to prepare their
things, and that the natives, knowing our intentions, might
bring in any fowls or rice they wished to sell early ere our
departure.
August 19th.—First thing this morning I heard that
our buffalo, which had been turned loose to graze on the
green here, is missing. All the men went to seek it while
we ate our breakfast. “ Kurow ” had so often tried to
induce me to exchange this animal—a female—for a male
of his own that I was for a time suspicious of his having
stolen it during the night. We had intended to start for
Koung to-day, but the loss of our buffalo will detain us,
as we cannot well leave without it, partly on account of
its use to me now that my feet are raw and tender, and
partly because it will not do to allow a theft to pass unpunished.
A Dusun woman brought in a basket of fresh
ginger roots this morning, which I find is cultivated by
these people. Several fowls and some rice were also
brought in, and these my “ boy jfi bought in exchange for
our old biscuit tins and glass bottles. During our forced
delay I walked out to take a last look at the village, and
to make a few sketches and notes. In the little flat-
topped hut, which served as a head-house, I found a pile
of about fifty skulls in one corner, some being in a basket
suspended on the wall. These, the villagers tell me, are
the skulls of their old enemies, and their individuality
seemed well knestfn to one old man, who pointed out
several to me as having once rested on the shoulders of
some of the Chinese settlers, who, some few years ago,
disappeared from this Dusun country altogether, although
their peculiar physiognomy still lingers among the Dusun
tribes into which they married, so that it is just possible
that they became absorbed into the native tribes. Others
were pointed out as the heads of their old foes the Lanun,
whom the Dusun people detest, say that they formerly
came up to the hills with the ostensible purpose of trading,
but adding, that they really wanted to steal their
children as slaves. I offered “ Boloung ” a good Tower