HOW WE PLAYED ROBINSON CRUSOE.

The only way of entering a Malay home is by a rickety ladder six feet high,
and through a four-foot opening. Iam afraid that the great “ Rajah and Ranee”
lost some of their lately acquired dignity in accepting the invitation.

Wahpering’s bungalow, other than being larger and roomier than the ordi-
nary bungalow, was exactly like all others in style and architecture.

It was built close to the water’s edge, on palm posts six feet above the ground.
This was for protection from the tiger, from thieves, from the water, and for
sanitary reasons. Within the house we could just stand upright. The floor
was of split bamboo, and was elastic to the foot, causing a sensation which at
first made us step carefully. The open places left by the crossing of the bam-
boo slats were a great convenience to the Penghulo’s wives, as they could sweep
all the refuse of the house through them; they might also be a great accommo-
dation to the Penghulo’s enemies, if he
had any, for they could easily ascertain
the exact mat on which he slept, and stab
him with their keen krises from beneath.

In one corner of the room was the §
hand loom on which the Penghulo’s old
wife was weaving the universal article of
dress, the sarong.

The weaving of a sarong represents
the labor of twenty days, and when we
gave the dried-up old worker two dollars
and a half for one, her syrah-stained
gums broke forth from between her
bright-red lips in a ghastly grin of
pleasure.

There must have been the represen-
tatives of at least four generations under
the Penghulo’s hospitable roof. Men and
women, alike, were dressed in the skirt-
like sarong which fell from the waist
down ; above that some of the older women wore another garment called a Ka-
baya. The married women were easily distinguishable by their swollen gums
and filed teeth.

The roof and sides of the house were of attap. This is made from the
long, arrow-like leaves of the nipah palm. Unlike its brother palms — the cocoa,
the sago, the gamooty and the areca — the nipah is short, and more like a giant
cactus in growth. Its leaves are stripped off by the natives, then bent over a
bamboo rod and sewed together with fibers of the same palm. When dry they
become glazed and waterproof.

The tall, slender areca palm, which stands about every campong, supplies

 

THE CHIEF’S ‘‘ BEST WIFE.’