then assured them that my being there would be a benefit to them, as I
should buy their eggs and fowls and fruit; and if their children would
bring me shells and insects, of which I showed them specimens, they also
might earn a good many coppers. After all this had been fully explained
to them, with a long talk and discussion between every sentence, I could
see that I had made a favourable impression; and that very afternoon, as
if to test my promise to buy even miserable little snail-shells, a dozen
children came one after another, bringing me a few specimens each of
a small Helix, for which they duly received "coppers," and went away
amazed but rejoicing.
A few days' exploration made me well acquainted with the surrounding
country. I was a long way from the road in the forest which I had first
visited, and for some distance around my house were old clearings and
cottages. I found a few good butterflies, but beetles were very scarce,
and even rotten timber and newly-felled trees (generally so productive)
here produced scarcely anything. This convinced me that there was not a
sufficient extent of forest in the neighbourhood to make the place worth
staying at long, but it was too late now to think of going further, as
in about a month the wet season would begin; so I resolved to stay here
and get what was to be had. Unfortunately, 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
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