INTRODUCTION. 15 



The Mandai valley uear the settlement is tolerably wide 

 and in part very swampy on account of the yearly inun- 

 dations, caused by the river, which flows in great windings 

 through the plain. The higher parts of the valley and the 

 foot of the surrounding mountains are covered with rice- 

 plantations (ladangs) and brush- wood or even high forest, 

 which has taken possession of the exhausted, abandoned 

 old ladangs. The small plain of Nanga Raoen is surrounded 

 on three sides by a number of tabular mountains of an al- 

 titude of 1000 — 1300 meter, and by very steep or even 

 perpendicular flanks supporting a thickly wooded plateau. 



On the East is Mount Mirau, on the South, at a very 

 short distance behind the kampong, the Liang Agang, 

 and west of it , somewhat in the back-ground , Mount 

 Ami Amit, the northern termination of the Liang Koe- 

 boeng-range , crowned with very grotesque looking , huge 

 masses of perpendicular, barren rocks. To the West, some- 

 what farther down the river, stands the most imposing, 

 though not the highest, of all the surrounding mountains. 

 Mount Tiloeng, the northern end of a long range with a 

 very extensive flat top, supported all round by perpendi- 

 cular bare rock-walls , rendering the summit almost inac- 

 cessible even to the most daring Poenans. On the southern 

 part of this plateau stands a large solid mass of rock, 

 likewise with a flat top and almost perpendicular walls. 

 This peculiar ornament renders Mount Tiloeng very recog- 

 nizable throughout the whole basin of the Upper Kapoeas. 

 This curiously shaped mountain is sacred in the mind of 

 the natives of nearly the whole Upper Kapoeas-region , 

 considered as it is to be the abode of the souls of the 

 deceased Dyaks. According to the tales of the natives at 

 Nanga Raoen a small lake must exist on the wooded top, 

 containing a kind of fish, but although I had a fair 

 view over it from the much higher top of the Anni Amit, 

 I could not see anything but dense forest which seems to 

 cover the whole plateau. 



All these tabular mountains — and there are many more 



N'otes from the Ley den üMuseum, "Vol. XI !X. 



