Going back to our bungalow near the Fort, we walked round the other shops in the Bazaar: these were full of beads of dark blue transparent glass, some opaque, ornamented with dabs of black, red, white, and yellow. These beads are made in Venice, and find ready purchasers amongst the poorer Dyaks, Kayans, and Tanjongs, for they are a fair imitation of ancient beads these people dig up, sometimes by accident, sometimes as the result of dreams. It is curious how these ancient beads are found, and an interesting account of them may be seen in Dr. Hose’s recent book on Sarawak. The true old beads are regarded with great veneration by the Dyak and Kayan people. One of my Dyak friends told me that he dreamed if he went to a certain spot in a forest rather distant from his home, and dug under a particular tree, he would find amongst its roots a valuable bead called lukut. He accordingly went to the spot, dug under the tree, and there found the bead, which he carried round his waist in a little basket, together with bits of rock crystal, stones worn into queer shapes by water, and a peculiar-looking seed covered with red fluff, which was believed to be the hair of a powerful and malignant spirit, named Antu Gergasi. We bade farewell to the Chinese apothecary and to the bead-finder, who had escorted us to the door of our house, and the next morning we left Sibu on our way to Simanggang. We entered the Batang Lupar River and steamed by two green mounds, covered with trees, shaped like dumplings, which stand at its entrance. One of these is an island, called the Isle of Birds, where a landslip has uprooted the great trees on its precipitous side, showing the red soil underneath. On this island is a tomb erected to a Muhammadan lady, who lived a great many years ago in one of the little villages near the coast, and was honoured for her holy life and her incessant prayers to Allah. When she died, she was buried in this little island as a special tribute to her memory. Although a pilgrimage to her tomb requires a tedious journey across the channel dividing the island from the neighbouring coast, the people in this part of the country pay frequent visits to her resting-place, taking with them on each occasion costly silks and satins to lay on her tomb, and thus show the reverence in which she is still held by those who appreciate her holy life.