the assistance of the Brunai authorities, the chief and several of
his accomplices were subsequently secured and sent for trial to Labuan.
The chief died in prison, while awaiting trial, but one or two of his
associates paid the penalty of their wanton crime.

A short time afterwards, Mr. COOK and I visited the Lawas River for
sport, and took up our abode in a Murut long house, where, I remember, a
large basket of skulls was placed as an ornament at the head of my
sleeping place. One night, when all our men, with the exception of my
Chinese servant, were away in the jungle, trying to trap the then newly
discovered "Bulwer pheasant," some Muruts from the Trusan came over and
informed our hosts of the fate of their chief. On the receipt of this
intelligence, all the men of our house left it and repaired to one
adjoining, where a great "drink" was held, while the women indulged in a
loud, low, monotonous, heart-breaking wail, which they kept up for
several hours. Mr. COOK and myself agreed that things looked almost as
bad for us as they well could, and when, towards morning, the men
returned to our house, my Chinese boy clung to me in terror and--nothing
happened! But certainly I do not think I have ever passed such an
uncomfortable period of suspense.

Writing to the Court of Directors of the East India Company a hundred
and thirteen years ago, Mr. YESSE, who concluded the pepper monopoly
agreement with the Brunai Government, referring to the Murut
predilection for head-hunting says:--"With respect to the Idaan, or
Muruts, as they are called here, I cannot give any account of their
disposition; but from what I have heard from the Borneyans, they are a
set of abandoned idolaters; one of their tenets, so strangely inhuman, I
cannot pass unnoticed, which is, that their future interest depends
upon the number of their fellow creatures they have killed in any
engagement, or common disputes, and count their degrees of happiness to
depend on the number of human skulls in their possession; from which,
and the wild, disorderly life they lead, unrestrained by any bond of
civil society, we ought not to be surprised if they are of a cruel and
vindictive disposition." I think this is rather a case of giving a dog a
bad name.

I heard read once at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, an
eloquent paper on the Natives of the Andaman Islands, in which the
lecturer, after shewing that the Andamanese were suspicious,
treacherous