call it, at a stick, which I had cut from the forest. I tried
hard to make some of the inferior Sagais carry my load, by placing it on
their shoulders; but, though they took the trick in good part, the man
to whom I had given it passed it on to another, and very soon it was
returned to me. Most of them, indeed, had loads of their own to carry.
At last we arrived at the chief's residence. It was a neatly built
cottage of bamboo, thatched with palm-leaves, and surrounded by a number
of smaller cottages, the habitations of his relations and followers, the
whole encircled by a palisade and trenches to serve as a fortification.
I was at once introduced to the chief's wife, and made to understand
that I was to obey her orders. She wore a large loose garment of native
cloth, called a sarong, wrapped round her waist and descending some way
down her legs, but not sufficiently long to impede her walking. She was
really very good-looking, though rather stout; but her beauty was not
increased by the enormous rings of tin which she carried in her ears.
She seemed good-natured, and I determined to do my best to please her.
She first set me to light the fire. To produce ignition, in the first
place, she gave me a stick with a pointed end, which she showed me how
to insert into a hole in a board, which led to a groove in the lower
side, and by turning the stick round rapidly between the palms, the
flame burst forth. She next gave me a quantity of rice or _padi_ to
pound for family consumption; and then putting a basket into my hand,
made of straw so closely woven that it held water, she intimated that it
was to get her from a rivulet a supply of that necessary article.

I was next employed in collecting the fruit of a species of bassia, or
what I should call a butter tree. This she boiled down, and then poured
the liquid into bamboo cases. When it had cooled it was taken out, and
was of the colour and consistence of cheese. The larger quantity was
intended for exportation; but she also, taking some strips of cotton,
dipped them into the mass, and produced some apologies for candles. The
flame was not bright; but the vegetable tallow has the advantage of
remaining concrete, or hard, under the greatest tropical heat, white
that produced from animal fat becomes too soft for the purpose. When
she had no household work to give me, I was sent out with a number of
other slaves, both black and brown, to cut wood for firing or buildin