have I seen such groves of “ tarippe ” trees as surround
this village. When we last visited “ Kina Balu” in
December, “ langsat ” fruit was in season,’ and met with
at nearly all the Tawaran villages. Now, in August, the
“ tarippe,” rich and luscious, is most abundant, and now
and then a coarse brown fruit, something like a horse-
mango, is obtained, and is agreeable for a change. The
perfume of the ripe “ tarippe ” fruit was most cheering
to ourselves and our men, and almost as soon as we had
got off our wet garments, and put on dry ones, a dusky
maiden appeared with four large fruit in her plump little
arms. She was dressed a la mode Dusun, and had wire
wristlets, and a heavy wire anklet an inch thick, which
must have weighed two or three pounds, around her left
leg. A younger child brought us some fine plump
bananas, which we found to be rich and luscious as new
honey, leaving an aroma in the mouth like that produced
by ripe filberts and old dry port.
We had a large concourse of the villagers in to see us
this evening after dinner, including “ Beuhan,” the headman,
who wears a head-cloth and kriss, and in general
build and physiognomy resembles the Sulus much more
than either Dusun or Malays. “ Kurow ” was the principal
talker, and related all that we had done and how
much he had helped us in ascending the mountain. The
young girls crowded to see us, and tried hard to get
speech with us. We had given the girls who brought us
fruit a looking-glass each, and we could quite well understand
that all were eager for a similar gift. They were
very, very scantily clad; indeed the most tolerant of Lord
Chamberlains might well wish to add an inch or two to
their tiny petticoat, especially as ’tis the only garment of
which they can boast. It answers somewhat to the
American definition of a dress “ which began too late and
left off too soon.” Here, however, it is the customary
fashion, and as such is honoured. How graceful were
the figures of some of these young girls ! Perfect little
Amazons, lithe of limb and having regular features, eyes
full of gentle expression, and a richness of raven hair most
European ladies might envy. It is pleasant to know
that these dusky girls, lovely as some of them are, will
never be degraded to anything worse than field labour,
which is a far better lot than that of their Malayan
sisters along the coast, whose personal charms chance to
be interesting. We found out later on in the evening
that the pretty damsel who had first brought us fruit was
the headman’s daughter, “ Sa’ Tira” by name. Most of
the evening she knelt by the fire, her dainty little fingers
busily making cigarettes for her papa’s guests, many of
whom had arrived from other villages near to look at us.
Altogether we spent a very pleasant evening with these
hospitable people, and we have no doubt but that they
will long look back to our visit themselves, seeing that
whole months frequently elapse without their seeing anyone
from the coast even, much less a white man or two
from far-off Labuan.
August 21si.—Our buffalo had wandered from her moorings
during the night, and so we lost some time in finding
her. She was brought in at last, however, and we prepared
to start on our way. “ Beuhan,” the headman here,
had been very hospitable to us, first in setting aside a
good clean house for us, and he also gave our men rice
and fruit, as their supplies, like our own, were very small.
Indeed, the fellow seemed so pleased to have us at his
village, and behaved so well to us, that I felt bound to
make him a fair repayment. I found out from “ Suong ”
that “ Lapayang ” had told him of the musket which Mr.
Yeitch and myself had given to him, and that “ Beuhan ”