The person who is employed to guard this place is a singular-looking old man; they say they captured him in the distant mountains during one of their expeditions. He speaks a language unknown to them, but is now learning a little Kayan; he looks very contented, and has certainly the neatest house I have seen in Borneo for his dwelling. On our return it rained a little, and we had, in many places, to sit and slide down the slippery rocks; we all looked, on our return from our expedition, in a very different condition from that in which we started. Siñgauding came in the afternoon to pay me a visit, and brought with him Si Awang Lawi, the principal chief among the Kiniahs; he appeared a frank old man. They stayed for some time with me talking over various subjects connected with trade. He was very intelligent, and pressing that I should go and visit his people; but it was beyond my power. He told me, also, that a Kayan, one of a party of several hundred head hunters, had returned half starved, and reported that he was the only survivor. There was much mourning in the upper villages. I may mention that these men have become so very conceited that they consider themselves superior to all except ourselves; and, in their pride, they have actually commenced killing the swallow, that constitutes their wealth, saying it becomes a great chief to feed on the most valuable things he possesses, regardless of the ultimate consequences. To-morrow being fixed for our departure, I have been requested to pay Si Obong, Tamawan’s wife, a visit. I found her residing in a temporary house, awaiting the completion of the great residence that was rising rapidly, and whose progress we could watch from the ship. Si Obong was seated on fine mats, and was surrounded by various cushions. She had passed her first youth, and had become very stout; in fact, her limbs were much too large for a woman. She wore little clothing--a couple of English handkerchiefs, still in one piece, put round her hips, hanging down, and tucked in at the side, and over her bosom she occasionally threw a loose black cloth. Her face was round, good-tempered, but rather coarse; her voice was gentle, and she wore her long black hair hanging loose, but kept off her face by fillets of white bark. The most curious part of her costume is what I must call a hip-lace of beads, consisting of three strings, one of yellow beads; the next of varied colours, more valuable; and the third of several hundred of those much-prized ones by the Kayan ladies. It is difficult to describe a bead so as to show its peculiarities. At my request, she took off her hip-lace and handed it to me; the best appeared like a body of black stone, with four other variegated ones let in around. It was only in appearance that they were let in; the colours of these four marks were a mixture of green, yellow, blue, and gray.