or joins in the chase and, since the advent of Europeans,
there have been no wars to brace his nerves, or call out any of the
higher qualities of mind or body which may be latent in him; nor is
there any standing army or navy in which he might receive a beneficial
training. No political career, in the sense we attach to the term, is
open to him, and he has no feelings of patriotism whatever. That an
aristocracy thus nurtured should degenerate can cause no surprise. The
general term for the nobles amongst the Brunais is _Pangeran_, and their
numbers may be guessed when it is understood that every son and
daughter of every many-wived noble is also a Pangeran.

Some of these unfortunate noblemen have nothing wherewith to support
their position, and in very recent times I have actually seen a needy
Pangeran, in a British Colony where he could not live by oppression or
theft, driven to work in a coal mine or drive a buffalo cart.

With the ordinary freeborn citizen of Brunai life opens under better
auspices. The children are left much to themselves and are merry,
precocious, naked little imps, able to look out for themselves at a very
much earlier age than is the case with European infants, and it is
wonderful to see quite little babies clambering up the rickety stairs
leading from the river to the house, or crawling unheeded on the
tottering verandahs. Almost before they can walk they can swim, and they
have been known to share their mother's cigarettes while still in arms.
All day long they amuse themselves in miniature canoes, rolling over and
over in the water, regardless of crocodiles. Happy children! they have
no school and no clothes--one might, perhaps, exclaim happy parents,
too! Malays are very kind and indulgent to their children and I do not
think I have seen or heard of a case of the application of the parental
hand to any part of the infant person. As soon as he is strong enough,
say eight or nine years of age, the young Malay, according to the
_kampong_, or division of the town, in which his lot has been cast,
joins in his father's trade and becomes a fisherman, a trader, or a
worker in brass or in iron as the case may be. The girls have an equally
free and easy time while young, their only garments being a silver fig
leaf, fastened to a chain or girdle round the waist. As they grow up
they help their mothers in their household duties, or by selling their
goods in the daily floating market; they marry young an