8 DUTCH BORNEO-EXPEDITION. 



the Dyaks is rice, and rice-farming is one of their most 

 important occupations. As the soil of a farm is generally 

 exhausted after two or three years, a new lot must be 

 cleared and the old plantation abandoned. This is the 

 reason why the country, to a great distance round the 

 settlements , is covered with low jungle and half-grown 

 forest, and why real virgin forest is rarely met with except 

 at a distance of many miles from the river-banks. These 

 jungles and clearings are wonderfully adapted for bird- 

 shooting and for catching reptiles and insects, and the 

 natives, especially the children, fishermen and huntsmen, 

 will very soon engage in collecting all kinds of things — 

 useful and useless — for the white naturalist. 



Besides the sedentary Dyak tribes, I repeatedly met with 

 the members of a very interesting people, the so-called 

 Poenans. Although undoubtedly of the same origin as 

 the Dyaks, they do not live in permanent settlements but 

 roam about in the vast forests of the mountain-regions of 

 the far interior, subsisting entirely upon wild fruits and 

 vegetables, hunting and fishing being the only occupation 

 of the stronger sex of this extremely interesting people. 

 The few garments they wear are made of the bark of 

 trees , generally of a species of Artocarpus or bread- 

 fruit tree, and their ornaments, of which men and women 

 are very fond, are made of leopard-teeth, twisted and 

 plaited vegetable fibres , wooden arm-rings , and very heavy 

 ear-rings of copper. Their abodes are small, primitive sheds 

 of palm-leaves in the forest and especially the numerous 

 caves under overhanging rocks in the mountainous parts 

 of the interior. The men are wonderfully adept in the 

 use of their long blow-pipes and small , poisoned arrows 

 and in that of the parang, a kind of sword , and are 

 fond of head-hunting. As soon as the game of the forest in 

 the vicinity of their temporary abodes begins to get scarce, 

 the Poenans move to another place. Their only furniture 

 consists of a few mats for sleeping upon , and some iron 

 cooking pots. It is not very easy to make friends with 



Notes from the Leyden ]M!useuTxi , Vol. XI2?iC. 



