de Crespigny suggested I should ask the chief if I might make the acquaintance of his wife and the other women of the tribe. I turned to the chief and asked the question in Malay, which our interpreter translated into Kayan. The Sultan’s emissaries did not look pleasant, but the chief seemed pleased, and made a sign to one of the men standing near him, who at once disappeared behind the curtains. In a few moments the man came back and held the curtains aside, when, through the opening, came a procession of women. It was a pretty sight. The chief’s wife, a remarkable lady, much feared and respected by her tribe, headed the procession. Her black hair flowed over her shoulders, falling almost to her knees, and on her head she wore a fillet of straw. Her garment of white cotton hung in folds from the waist to her right ankle, leaving her left side bare, excepting at the hips, where it was fastened with strings of beads. Her left arm and leg were bare but tattooed, and looked as though they were encased in sheaths of dark blue velvet. All the women following her, young and old, wore the same costume. They might have been Greek priestesses paying tribute to some god. They shook hands first with the Rajah, then with me, and seated themselves in a group at my feet. The usual conversation followed as to the number of their children, how their farms were progressing, etc., and I then asked to see some of the mats and cloths they had made. After these had been duly admired, we became quite friendly. My sleeves were pushed up to see whether my arms were white all the way up. From the ejaculations which followed, I cannot be certain whether they were those of admiration or not! I had round my neck a gold chain from which was suspended a red coral charm, much in vogue amongst Neapolitans to ward against the evil eye. Mr. de Crespigny suggested I should give this to the chief’s wife, and I at once took the chain of gold off my neck and put it round hers. I remember how the little narrow gold chain looked as it lay against her mass of black hair, and the blood-red coral charm appeared extraordinarily strange, yet picturesque, as it hung amongst the folds of her white cotton garment. She was delighted with the ornament, and when we parted the Rajah and the people had become good friends. I said good-bye to the chief’s wife, and experienced a strange pang of regret, as I always did when parting, perhaps after a few minutes’ conversation only, from a newly made friend, a member of a tribe whom I might never see again.