as elsewhere among the aboriginals proper, we found the
women enjoying perfect freedom with the men.
While staying at these villages, all the women and
girls flocked to see us, and watched us eat and drink
with evident interest. The young girls were especially
confident, and formed laughing groups around us, chatting
to each other in low, modulated tones, and evidently
comparing notes on their observations. They frequently
brought us little presents of fruit, and eggs, or fowls,
and were delighted with the needles and thread, looking-
glasses, and white cloth which we gave them in return.
Some of the younger girls were much handsomer than
the Malays, and stood lovingly together as they quizzed
us, often resting their plump little arms or their cheeks
on each other’s necks or shoulders as they watched our
every movement.
Looking-glasses were considered fashionable at the
time of our visit, and we could have disposed of many
more with advantage had we had them with us. Combs
were not so desirable, since these are made by their
husbands or sweethearts ; and they are often very prettily
decorated with carved work.
Some of the men seem “ thoroughly domesticated,”
and I saw them affectionately nursing their naked little
babies at night, or in the daytime, while mamma had
gone to the field for food, or the forest for fuel. I particularly
noticed the younger married men standing
behind their nice little wives at night when we were at
dinner. They folded their brown arms around their
necks, and whispered loving gossip into their ears,
evidently well contented with themselves and with each
other; and, perhaps, their love is as real and as ardent
and as true here as it is in high places where dress clothes
are worn. The farther one travels, the more plainly
does one see how deep rooted and how world-wide are
all the springs of human feeling, whether of love and joy,
or death and sadness; in every land and in every breast
is written the great truth, “ One touch of nature makes
the whole world kin.”
One night after dinner a bevy of dusky beauties had
gathered around our mats, and to afford some amusement,
I showed them several carte de visite portraits of
friends which I had with me. They were particularly
interested in that of one lady, and examined it very
attentively; not a bead or button escaped their quick
ey e s ; but they soon began asking questions. Was she
married? How many children had she? Was she a
good wife ? I asked what they meant by the last question.
“ Well,” they answered, “ did she bring plenty
of firewood and kaladi in? and could she clean padi
(rice) well ? ” Thus a woman among these thrifty villagers
earns her good name as a wife by her capacity
for physical labour. This is also so among other savage
races. The Indian girls on the north-west coast of
North America in like manner endeavour to excel each
other in the quantity of quamash (Camassia esculenfa)
roots they collect, their fame as future good wives depending
on their activity in the Quamash plains. They
were much interested in all particulars of dress as shown
by the carte; but one girl regretted the absence of rattan
coils around the stomach and “ chawats ” of thick brass
wire on the wrists, and more to the like effect, all from
the Kiau standpoint—for Kiau and its simple fashions
are held to be inviolable. Kiau is all the world to
them!
The morning we left, I believe all were sorry to part
with us, and they came to the top of the hill to see us
off. On loading our men, we found that we had four