not so bad as it appeared, for the dark color was caused by vegetable matter from the jungles and forest, and not from the mud, which remained at the bottom of the stream.

"The top uv the marnin' to ye's!" shouted Felix, as he leaped from his bed about five o'clock,—for all hands had turned in about eight o'clock in the evening, as the mosquitoes, attracted by the lanterns, began to be very troublesome,—and the Milesian could sleep no longer.

"What's the matter with you, Flix?" demanded the captain.

"Sure, if ye's mane to git under way afore night, it's toime to turn out," replied Felix. "Don't ye's hear the schtaym sizzlin' in the froy'n pan?"

"But it isn't light yet," protested Scott.

"Bekase the lanthern in the cab'n bloinds your two oyes, and makes the darkness shoine broighter nor the loight," said Felix, as he 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 explained, for the benefit of his companions; for he was better read in natural history than any of them, as he had read all the books on that subject in the library of the ship. "In Professor Hornaday's book, 'Two Years in the Jungle,' which was exceedingly interesting to me, he calls this animal the 'orang-utan,' which is only another way of spelling the second word."

"Excuse me, Louis, but I think we will get under way, and hear your explanations at another time," interposed Captain Scott.

"I have finished all I had to say."

"Take the wheel, Achang," continued the captain.

The sampan was sent ashore to cast off the fasts. The river at the town is over four hundred feet wide, and deep enough in almost any part for the Blanchita. As soon as the lines were hauled in, the captain rang one bell, and Felipe started the engine. The helmsman headed the boat for the middle of the stream, and the captain rang the speed-bell. When hurried, the Blanchita was good for ten knots an hour, but her ordinary speed was eight.

On the side of the river opposite Kuching, or Sarawak, was the kampon of the Malays and other natives; and the term means a division or district of a town. Many of the natives of this village had visited the Blanchita,—some for trade, some for employment, and some from mere curiosity. None of them were allowed to go on board of the launch; for, while the Dyaks are remarkably honest people, the Malays and Chinese will steal without any very heavy temptation.

Achang headed the boat up the river. For five miles the banks were low, with no signs of cultivation, and bordered with mangroves. At this point the captain called Lane to the wheel, with orders to keep in the middle of the river. The "Big Four" had taken possession of the bow divans, the better to see the shores. They were more elevated, which simply means higher above the water.

"When shall we come across the paddies, Achang?" asked Felix; "for I am very anxious to meet them, and maybe we shall have a Kilkenny fight with them."

"No, you won't, for you speak English," replied Louis.

"The paddies are here on both sides of the river," added Achang.

"I don't see a man of any sort, not even a Hottentot, and I am sure there is not a Paddy in sight."

"Your education has been neglected, Flix, and you did not read all the books in the ship's library," said Louis. "I only told you the paddies would not answer you if you spoke to them with a brogue. You can try them now if you wish."

"But I don't see a single Paddy to try it on."

"Here is one on your left."

"I don't see anything but a field of rice."

"That's a paddy in this island."

"A field of rice!"

"Achang will tell you that is what they call them in Borneo."

"Bad luck to such Paddies as they are! But it looks as though there might be some Paddies here, for the houses are very neat and nice, just as you see in old Ireland."

"Certainly they are; but I never saw any such in Ireland," added Louis. "You remember the old woman on the road from Killarney to the lakes who told us she lived in the Irish castle, to which she pointed; and it looked like a pig-sty."

"Of course it didn't have the bananas and the cocoanut-palms around it."

"I admit that we saw many fine places in Ireland, and very likely your mother lived in one of them. But, Achang, is there any game in the woods we see beyond the paddies?"

"Sometimes there is plenty of it; at others there is scarcely any. You can get squirrels here and some birds."

"Any orang-outangs?"

"We found none when we came up the river, for this is not the best place for them. If we run up the Sadong and Samujan Rivers, you will find some," replied the Bornean. "I don't think it will pay to go very far up the Sarawak, if it is game you want; but you can see the country. There is quite a village on the right."

The party were very much interested in examining the houses they saw on the borders of the stream. Like those they had seen in Java and in Sumatra, they were all set up on stilts. A Malay or Dyak will not build his home on dry land, as they noticed in coming up the lower part of the river, though there was plenty of elevated ground near. The dwellings were all built on the soft mud.

The village ten miles up-stream was