looked at
his watch. "Sure, it's tin minutes afther foive in the marnin'. These
beds are altogidther too foine, Captain."

"How's that, Flix?" asked Scott, as he opened the netting and leaped out
of bed.

"They're too comfor-_ta_-ble, bad 'cess to 'em, and a b'y cud slape till
sundown in 'em till the broke o' noight."

"Dry up, Flix, or else speak English," called Louis, as he left his bed.
"There is no end of 'paddies' along this river, and I'm sure they cannot
understand your lingo."

"Is it paddies in this haythen oisland?" demanded Felix, suspending the
operation of dressing himself, and staring at his fellow deck-hand. "I
don't belayve a wurrud of ut!"

"Are there no paddies up this river, Achang?" said Louis, appealing to
the Bornean.

"Plenty of paddies on all the streams about here," replied the native.

"And they can't oondershtand Kilkenny Greek! They're moighty quare
paddies, thin."

"They are; and I am very sure they won't answer you when you speak to
them with that brogue," added Louis.

"We will let that discussion rest till we come to the paddies,"
interposed the captain, as he completed his toilet, and left the cabin.

By this time all the party had left their beds and dressed themselves;
for their toilet was not at all elaborate, consisting mainly of a
woollen shirt, a pair of trousers, and a pair of heavy shoes, without
socks. Felipe had steam enough on to move the boat; and the seamen had
wiped the moisture from all the wood and brass work, and had put
everything in good order.

"Are you a pilot for this river, Achang?" asked Scott, as the party came
together in the waist, the space forward of the engine.

"I am; but there is not much piloting to be done, for all you have to do
is to keep in the middle of the stream," replied the Bornean. "I went up
and down all the rivers of Sarawak in a sampan with an English gentleman
who was crocodiles, monkeys, mias, snakes, and birds picking up."

"Wrong!" exclaimed Morris. "You know better than that, Achang."

The native repeated the reply, putting the verb where it ought to be.

"He was a naturalist," added Louis.

"Yes; that was what they called him in the town."

"I think we all know the animals of which you speak, Achang, except
one," said Louis. "I never heard of a mias."

"That is what Borneo people call the orang-outang," replied the native.

"Orang means a man, and outang a jungle, and the whole of it is a jungle
man," Louis expl