Shortly after this incident, Tunku Ismael came to me one morning with a grave face and said, “Rajah Ranee, you are under my care, you go out for long walks all round the settlement, and seem to have no idea of danger, or that there might be bad spirits about. Sunok is exceedingly old, and if anything should happen to you during your long walks, what could I do to protect you?” I inquired what danger there was, for I knew of none. “Oh yes,” he said, “there are many dangers. There are people we call _Peniamuns_ who dress in black, cover their faces with black cloth, and sit in trees waiting to pounce on passers-by. Now, Rajah Ranee, should one of these _Peniamuns_ get hold of you, we could never get you back again, so will you kindly walk up and down the terrace of the Fort, and not go any farther, for the _Peniamuns_ are a real danger.” I listened politely to Tunku Ismael, but continued to take my customary walks down to the Bazaar, across a plank of wood thrown over a ditch, separating the Chinese Bazaar from the Malay settlement, along the row of Malay houses, where the women and children were always on the look-out for me, and then home by the more lonely orchards and sugar plantations, so feared by Tunku Ismael. One morning, I saw through the lattice-work of the Fort a flotilla of some fifteen war-boats coming up the river. I hastily sent for Tunku Ismael to inquire what these boats were. Tunku Ismael could not quite make them out, because, he said, they looked like war-boats. We watched the boats as they were paddled past the Fort, anchoring along the banks near the Bazaar, and we stepped outside to see what was happening. We saw a group of Kayans from the boats, carrying spears and swords, rushing up to the Fort, headed by a small man recognized by Tunku Ismael as being a chief named Tama Paran, who did not bear a very good character in the Rejang district. This chief came up to me, brandishing his spear, and carrying a basket which, he said, the tribe had made for me. I asked him where they had come from, and tried to look very stern. “We hear the Rajah has gone on the war-path, and we have come to accompany him,” said Tama Paran. “But,” I replied: “the Rajah has been gone on the war-path this last month, and you do not know exactly where he has gone. You cannot accompany him now to the scene of action.” “Yes,” he said; “we are going on to-morrow, because we wish to fight for the Rajah.” I realized that this was a serious state of things. If I allowed this force to go after the Rajah, with no responsible European or Malay leader to keep it in check, the Kayans might attack some unprotected village up the higher reaches of the Batang Lupar River, take some heads, and pretend it was done on the Rajah’s behalf. I said to the chief, “You must not move from here until the Rajah comes back, unless you return to your village.” The man did not look pleased. He could not wait in Simanggang, he said,