after a few days I became ill
with a low fever which produced excessive lassitude and disinclination
to all exertion. In vain I endeavoured to shake it off; all I could do
was to stroll quietly each day for an hour about the gardens near, and
to the well, where some good insects were occasionally to be found; and
the rest of the day to wait quietly at home, and receive what beetles
and shells my little corps of collectors brought me daily. I imputed
my illness chiefly to the water, which was procured from shallow wells,
around which there was almost always a stagnant puddle in which the
buffaloes wallowed. Close to my house was an enclosed mudhole where
three buffaloes were shut up every night, and the effluvia from which
freely entered through the open bamboo floor. My Malay boy Ali was
affected with the same illness, and as he was my chief bird-skinner I
got on but slowly with my collections.

The occupations and mode of life of the villagers differed but little
from those of all other Malay races. The time of the women was almost
wholly occupied in pounding and cleaning rice for daily use, in bringing
home firewood and water, and in cleaning, dyeing, spinning, and weaving
the native cotton into sarongs. The weaving is done in the simplest kind
of frame stretched on the floor; and is a very slow and tedious process.
To form the checked pattern in common use, each patch of coloured
threads has to be pulled up separately by hand and the shuttle passed
between them; so that about an inch a day is the usual progress in stuff
a yard and a half wide. The men cultivate a little sirih (the pungent
pepper leaf used for chewing with betel-nut) and a few vegetables; and
once a year rudely plough a small patch of ground with their buffaloes
and plant rice, which then requires little attention until harvest time.
Now and then they have to see to the repairs of their houses, and make
mats, baskets, or other domestic utensils, but a large part of their
time is passed in idleness.

Not a single person in the village could speak more than a few words
of Malay, and hardly any of the people appeared to have seen a European
before. One most disagreeable result of this was that I excited terror
alike in man and beast. Wherever I went, dogs barked, children screamed,
women ran away, and men stared as though I were some strange and
terrible cannibal or monster. Even the pack-horses on the roads and
paths would start aside when I appeared