Great was the excitement
every evening when I raffled old tins and bottles. Dubi would hand
the bits of paper and they would be a long time making up their minds
which to take. One night Dubi overheard my Chinese cook telling some
of the Dayaks that "the white tuan had no use for these tins himself,
that is why he gives them to you."
This cook, whom I used to call Cookie, was a great nuisance to me,
but he was the most amusing character I ever came across, and he
was the source of endless delight to the Dayaks, who enjoyed teasing
him and jokingly threatened to cut off his head, until he was almost
paralyzed with fright and came and begged me to leave, as we should
all have our heads cut off. After a week or two his courage returned
and I learned that when I was out of the house he would stand on his
head for the amusement of the women and children, though he was by
no means a young man. He soon became quite popular with the women,
who found him highly amusing, and who were always in fits of laughter
whenever he talked. In the evenings he sometimes joined a group of
Dayak youths and would start to air his opinions. Then it was not long
before they were all jeering and mimicking him, and poor old Cookie
would look very foolish and a sickly smile would spread over his yellow
features.
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