These two names which occur to me as I write are of those who have gone beyond the influence of either praise or blame. Fortunately many of the Rajah’s other officers are still alive, and it is only because I have the pleasure of being their friend, and know how much they would dislike being dragged into print, that I refrain from saying all I should like to say about such men as Mr. Bampfylde, Mr. Harry Deshon, and others, who have so nobly followed the example set before them by their chief. I know I shall be forgiven if I seize the present opportunity of mentioning the names of some of my Englishwomen friends who have also taken an affectionate interest in the lives of the women of our country. The wife of the Bishop of Sarawak, Mrs. Hose, Mrs. Deshon, Mrs. F. Maxwell, Mrs. Buck, and many others were most successful in their sympathetic endeavours to know them well and to become their friends. I wish these ladies could realize how much all who care for Sarawak appreciate their work out there. Mrs. Hose, alas, died some years ago, but her memory still lives in the hearts of the women of Sarawak. Their other Englishwomen friends are often spoken of in Kuching and other places in Sarawak, and the one wish of the women of the country is that they may see them again. CHAPTER XXVIII Whilst we were staying at the bungalow at Simanggang, Mr. Bailey sent me a message one morning to the effect that a number of Dyak women, living a little distance in a village up the Batang Lupar, had requested permission to send a deputation to welcome us to the country. I was only too delighted to receive the women, so that Bertram and I stood on the verandah in expectation of their arrival. A little distance up the path, bordered by betel-nut palms, sweet-smelling limes, and other tropical growth we saw a long file of women making their way in our direction, bearing aloft great round trays piled up with fruits and cakes. High silver combs, from which dangled fringes of silver, falling each side of their faces below the ears, decorated their huge coils of hair. Their bodies were cased in innumerable coils of brass rings, and they wore short petticoats of cotton cloth, brown, blue, and white. They wore quantities of anklets and bangles, and their throats were encircled with rows upon rows of beads and gold ornaments. There were about thirty or forty of these women, walking slowly, holding themselves very straight, their eyes cast down, and I noticed the same curious, mysterious, archaic expression on their faces as on those of the Tanjong dancers. They came to the bungalow, passed Bertram and me, and laid their gifts of fruits and cakes on the verandah at the back of our house, then followed us into our sitting-room to have a little talk.