In houses in these regions there is always a brick-floored bath-room,
usually of large size, under your bedroom, to which you descend by a
ladder. This is often covered by a trap-door, which is sometimes
concealed by a couch, and in order to descend the sofa cushion is
lifted. Here it is an open trap in the middle of the room. A bath is a
necessity--not a luxury--so near the equator, and it is usual to take
one three, four, or even five times a day, with much refreshment. One
part of Babu's self-imposed duty is to look under our pillows for
snakes and centipedes, and the latter have been found in all our rooms.

I must now make you acquainted with our host, Captain Murray. He was
appointed when the Datu Klana asked for a Resident four years ago. He
devotes himself to Sungei Ujong as if it were his own property, though
he has never been able to acquire the language. He is a man about
thirty-eight, a naval officer, and an enterprising African traveler;
under the middle height, bronzed, sun-browned, disconnected in his
conversation from the habit of living without anyone in or out of the
house to speak to; professing a misanthropy which he is very far from
feeling, for he is quite unsuspicious, and disposed to think the best
of every one; hasty when vexed, but thoroughly kind-hearted; very
blunt, very undignified, never happy (he says) out of the wilds;
thoroughly well disposed to the Chinese and Malays, but very impatient
of their courtesies, thoroughly well meaning, thoroughly a gentleman,
but about the last person that I should have expected to see in a
position which is said to require much tact if not finesse. His
success leads me to think, as I have often thought before, that if we
attempt to deal with Orientals by their own methods, we are apt to find
them more than a match for us, and that thorough honesty is the best
policy.