出于对近代砂捞越的强烈兴趣，搜罗相关的书籍来阅读，一本My life in Sarawak，传主Margaret Brooke 挺不幸的，在砂拉越四年（1869-1873）怀孕三次，其中一次因从船舱摔下导致腹中婴儿夭折，另外两次诞下一女和一对男双胞胎，结果在1873年回英国的航海途中，短短六天内三个小孩相继夭亡，抛葬于红海，应该是死于痢疾之类的急性传染病吧。还有一本英国女传教士Harriette McDougall 的Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak，出版于1882年。两本书里面都记载了一些流传于当地土人部族间的传说故事，有些还蛮有意思。比如月亮的女儿，还有下面这个，应是天鹅处女型故事（Swan maiden）的一个变体。我把它贴出来共赏，感谢古登堡计划。（2024年5月）
A long, longtime ago, an old man who lived on this mountain lost himself in the jungle at its foot, and at night, being tired, and afraid of snakes and the evil spirits of the wood, he climbed into a tree and fell asleep. He was woke by a noise of ravishing music, the sweetest gongs and chanangs mingling with voices over his head. The music came nearer and nearer to the place where he was, until he heard the sweet voices under the tree, and, looking down, beheld a large clear fountain opened, and seven beautiful females bathing. They were all of different sizes, like the fingers on a man's hand, and they sung as they sported in the water. The old man watched them for some time, and thought how much he should like one of them as a wife for his only son; but as he was afraid of descending among them, he made a noose with a long piece of rattan, lowered it gently, and slipping it over one of them, drew her up into the tree. She cried out, and they all disappeared with a whirring noise. The girl he caught was very young, and she cried sadly because she had no clothes on; so he rolled her in a chawat (long sash), and immediately heard the gongs at his own house, which he had thought was a long way off. He took the child home, and she was brought up by his wife, until she was old enough to marry their son. She was very good and sweet-tempered, and everybody loved her. In course of time she had a son, as white as herself. One day her husband was in a violent rage and beat her. She implored him not to make her cry, or she should be taken away from him and her child. But he did not heed, and at last pulled her jacket off to beat her. Immediately another jacket was dropped with a great noise from the sky, upon the house. She put it on, and vanished upwards, leaving her son, who was the ancestor of the present tribe.