Seventeen years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo; a ... - Sabrizain.org

SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 241
have their rooms. Soine inmate spreads out mats for us,
and we are asked to sit down.
If I arrive at the house early in the day, most of the
men will probably be out, and only women and children
at home. These crowd round, standing at a respectful
distance, and the wife or daughter of the headman asks
us what we have come for, and invites us to stay in the
house. She also clears away their own cooking
from the
fireplace, and my servant is asked to do whatever cooking
is needed for the Titan in their room.
The cooking is generally a simple matter. The dinner
generally consists of one course. My servant buys from
the Dyaks a fowl— it would be libel to call it a " chicken "!
—and cooks it, or else he falls back on tinned food, of
which I always had a supply.
During all the years I worked in Borneo I always had a
Dyak servant, and I was fortunate in having for many
years an excellent native named Ah Choy. He was born
at Banting, and attended the Mission School there, and
then went on to the school at Kuching. I joined the
Mission Staff soon after he left school, and he worked for
me as my general factotum— cook, housekeeper, boatman,
personal attendant, etc.— for ten years or more. He was,
what is unusual among the Dyaks, a good cook, and, in
addition to this, was an excellent servant in many ways.
He understood about boats, and I found his advice in
all matters connected with travelling very trustworthy.
He had a good idea of carpentering, and was able himself
to fit up many little conveniences in my boat. Besides all
this he was able to help me in my missionary work, as he
was a Christian and a communicant himself. I think
that if a Missionary visits native houses to teach the
Dvaks, and has as his attendant a " heathen Chinee " or
16