seldom that it was inhabited.

At the villages they passed, the people looked peaceful, quiet, and
inoffensive, although every man carried a deadly-looking kris in its
wooden sheath, thrust in the twisted-up band of the scarf-like silk or
cotton sarong, which was wrapped round the middle in the form of a kilt,
and with the exception of something worn in the shape of a hat to keep
off the sun's piercing rays, this was the only garment many of the
people displayed.

They brought fruit when asked, every house having its cluster of
fruit-trees about it. In some cases there were cocoa-nuts, but more
frequently bananas of two or three kinds, which they parted with for a
mere trifle, these forming an admirable addition to the supply of food.

Hamet generally went to market, and came back smiling often enough with
a large bunch of the finger-shaped fruit, a bag of rice, and when he was
most fortunate in his foraging, a couple of skinny-looking chickens and
some eggs.

"Getting tired, Ned?" said Murray, one glorious morning as the men were
steadily rowing on, keeping close up to the trees on their right, for
the sake of the shade and the slower motion of the stream.

"No, not tired," replied the boy. "It's all too beautiful for one to
get tired, but I do feel as if I should like to be doing something. I
keep seeing birds I want to shoot, and flowers I should like to pick."

"Then here's news for you, boy. I reckon that we are now well up into
the region I wanted to explore, and to-morrow work shall begin in real
earnest."

Ned's eyes sparkled. "Begin shooting?"

"Yes, and collecting botanical specimens. There will be no need now to
toil up a certain distance every day, and we shall stop at every
likely-looking collecting ground to go ashore, and certainly explore
every side stream or creek."

"And fish? Hamet says it would be capital if I could catch enough fish
for a dinner now and then; and I want to bathe."

"Of course, and you shall try; but there are crocodiles. I have seen
two within the past hour, one swimming, and the other lying on a
sandbank."

"Why, I saw that," cried Ned; "but it was so still that I concluded it
was all fancy, it lay so close, and looked so like the sand and mud.
Well, I may fish if I can't bathe, and--well, that does seem curious
just as I said that. Look, there are two of the black fellows at it."

"A dark brown and a light brown to be more correct," said Murray, as he
looke