1S96.] o2o [Hiller. 



wondered if it was an orthodox dance, or a mild form of delirium 

 tremens. When they are performing their rites and omens they sug- 

 gest insanity to us. It was at the same feast we saw Dyak women in 

 all their best clothes — gaudy, cheap silk or satin sarongs ; a brass 

 cutrass, polished for the occasion, which confined their supple waists and 

 extended over their hips ; wonderful caps of rattan frame-work covered 

 with beads which branched in all directions, resembling rare insects. 

 One belle, in addition, wore a wide piece of cloth falling from her neck 

 down her back to her heels— a modified Wateau plait — and the bottom 

 was hung with a lot of old brass bells that banged and jangled against 

 her bare heels at every step. But with all this play they do not forget 

 the birds, and we helped fill the baskets with food which were later 

 hung near the new clearings and the birds come and feed thereon and 

 feel more kindly to the tillers. 



In the lower Rejang the Dyaks have become successful farmers, 

 primarily because the soil is more fertile than in the mountains and 

 also because the government forts protect them from the neighboring 

 warlike tribes. 



Below Belaga they can plant their paddi or gather their gutta with- 

 out fear, while above this fort at no time are they ever safe, and they 

 always carry their weapons and keep on their guard lest thej^ be mas- 

 sacred by the marauding bands from over the Dutch border Also in 

 traveling they have the same advantage — where the river is influenced 

 by the tide you see single small canoes going to and fro, while in the 

 upper waters lliey go in parties of five or six large boats for mutual pro- 

 tection, and also for mutual aid in ascending the rapids ; for it often re- 

 quires their united eftorts to haul a boat around a cascade. 



You may ascend as far as Kappit in the small government steamers 

 that occasionally go up to the fort for jungle produce, i. e., gutta and 

 rattan. Here j'ou must secure a canoe and a crew of ten or a dozen men ; 

 Tanjongs or Kayans are best. In a few hours you pass the mouth of 

 the Balleh, and a short distance above this enter the swift rapids 

 where paddles are useless. Poles are substituted to push the boat over 

 the shallows, while some of the men wade in the stream or walk along 

 the bank pulling at the long rattan which serves as a painter. 



This method of progression fails when the falls of the Rejang are 

 reached — a series of small waterfalls with intervening rapids down 

 which the waters rush with irresistible force. Great black rocks or huge 

 wooded islands stand in midstream around the bases of which the water 

 swirls and eddies. Long buttresses resembling walls of masonry thrust 

 themselves almost across the stream and the pent-up current rushes around 

 the end as through a broken dam — or again the rocks rising like a wall 

 form an effectual barrier over which the water tumbles in a number 

 of small cascades. Around these obstructions, or over them, the boats 



FROO. AMEK. PHILOS. SOC. XXXV. 153. 2o. PRINTED, MAY 25, 1897. 



