are at the bimbangs, or public festivals, held at the balei, or town hall of the dusun.  On these occasions the unmarried people meet together and dance and sing in company.  It may be supposed that the young ladies cannot be long without their particular admirers.  The men, when determined in their regards, generally employ an old woman as their agent, by whom they make known their sentiments and send presents to the female of their choice.  The parents then interfere and, the preliminaries being settled, a bimbang takes place.

MARRIAGE FESTIVALS.

At these festivals a goat, a buffalo, or several, according to the rank of the parties, are killed, to entertain not only the relations and invited guests but all the inhabitants of the neighbouring country who choose to repair to them.  The greater the concourse the more is the credit of the host, who is generally on these occasions the father of the girl; but the different branches of the family, and frequently all the people of the dusun, contribute a quota of rice.

ORDER OBSERVED.

The young women proceed in a body to the upper end of the balei where there is a part divided off for them by a curtain.  The floor is spread with their best mats, and the sides and ceiling of that extremity of the building are hung with pieces of chintz, palampores, and the like.  They do not always make their appearance before dinner; that time, with part of the afternoon, previous to a second or third meal, being appropriated to cock-fighting and other diversions peculiar to the men.  Whilst the young are thus employed the old men consult together upon any affair that may be at the time in agitation; such as repairing a public building or making reprisals upon the cattle of a neighbouring people.  The bimbangs are often given on occasions of business only, and, as they are apt to be productive of cabals, the Europeans require that they shall not be held without their knowledge and approbation.  To give authority to their contracts and other deeds, whether of a public or private nature, they always make one of these feasts.  Writings, say they, may be altered or counterfeited, but the memory of what is transacted and concluded in the presence of a thousand witnesses must remain sacred.  Sometimes, in token of the final determination of an affair, they cut a notch in a post, before the chiefs, which they call taka kayu.

AMUSEMENT OF DANCING.

In the evening their softer amusements take place, of which the dances are the principal.  These are performed either singly or by two women, two men, or with both mixed.  Their motions and attitudes are usually slow, and too much forced to be graceful; approaching often to the lascivious, and not unfrequently the ludicrous.  This is I believe the general opinion formed of them by Europeans, but it may be the effect of prejudice.  Certain I am that our usual dances are in their judgment to the full as ridiculous.