This in time
brought the flexible ladder, at least the part on which the man was,
level with the roof, and he, lying on his back on the thin ladder,
pulled the nests off the rocky roof, putting them into a large rattan
basket fastened about his body.
We saw many other methods they have of collecting these nests by the
aid of long bamboo poles and rattan ropes, up which they climbed to
dizzy heights.
These eaves, we were told, were full of very large harmless snakes,
but we did not come across them. If I had had a good head and plenty
of skill and pluck as a climber, I might have come away a wealthy man,
as the Hadji told us that in a sort of side cave high up in the large
cave were the coffins of the men that first discovered these caves,
and with them were large jars of gold and jewels, but no one dared
touch them, as they said it would be certain death to the man who did
so. A man once did take some, but a few days later was taken violently
ill and so had them put back and thus recovered. It was not for any
scruples of this kind that I declined the Hadji's offer to help myself
when he pointed out to me the spot where they were, but I think he
must have guessed that I would not have trusted myself on one of those
frail swaying ladders with over five hundred feet of space beneath me.
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