226 THE BAMBOO AND DURIAN OF BORNEO. 



to bamboo when finished. Some tribes however prefer a flat and close 



■t 



floor, arid they make bamboo-boards for the purpose, by splitting open 

 a large bamboo on one side only, and flattening it out, so as to form 

 beautiful slabs, eighteen inches wide and six feet long, with which 

 they floor their houses. These, with constant rubbing and daily smoke, 

 become dark and polished, so that their material can at first sight be 

 hardly recognized. What labour is here saved, to a savage with only 

 his axe, who, if he wanted boards, must hew them out of the solid 

 tree, and, with all his labour, could never produce a surface so smooth 

 and beautiful as the bamboo, thus treated, affords him. Again, if a 

 temporary house or shed is wanted, either by the traveller in the jungle 

 or by the native in his paddy-fields, nothing is so convenient as the 

 bamboo, with which a house can be constructed with half the labour 

 and in half the time, than if any other material is used. 



The hill Dyaks in the interior of Sarawak make paths for great dis- 

 tances, to their cultivated grounds, in the course of which they have to 

 cross rivers and numerous gullies and ravines, or sometimes to avoid a 

 long circuit, to carry the path along the face of a precipice. In all 

 these cases the bridges they construct are of bamboo, and so admira- 

 bly adapted is the material to the purpose, that it seems doubtful whe- 

 ther they would ever have made them had they not possessed it. The 

 Dyak bridge is simple but well designed. It consists merely of 

 bamboo poles, crossing each other at the roadway like the letter X, 

 and rising, sometimes on one side, sometimes on both, three or four 

 feet above it At the crossing they are firmly bound together, and to 

 a horizontal bamboo, which forms the only footpath, with another 

 higher up, serving as a hand-rail. When a river is to be crossed, an 

 overhanging tree is chosen, from which the bridge is partly suspended, 

 and partly supported by diagonal struts from the banks, so as to avoid 

 placing posts in the stream itself, when liable to floods. In carrying a 

 path along the face of a precipice, trees and roots are made use of for 

 suspension, from every little notch and crevice struts arise, while im- 

 mense bamboos, of fifty or sixty feet long, are fixed on some bank or 

 tree below. These bridges are traversed daily by men and women 

 carrying heavy loads, so that any insecurity is soon discovered, and, as 

 the materials are close at hand, immediately repaired. When the path 

 goes over very steep and slippery ground, the bamboo is used to 

 form steps. Pieces are cut, about a yard long, and opposite notches 



