Popular Scievce MonihJy 



Signal detachment, with flags and telephones, 

 fording a river to lay a line of communications 



Throwing a Line of Communications 

 Across a River 



WHEN an army invades a country- 

 the most important thing after 

 digging itself into tlic ground is to 

 establish a line of communications. This 

 duty devolves upon the signal corps. 

 In the photograph reproduced above a 

 detachment of our signal corps is shown 

 advancing across a river with signal flags 

 and a portable field-telephone equip- 

 ment. By means of the flags they wig- 

 wag their position to the forces in the 

 rear which arc protecting them. When 

 the telephone line is completed it affords 

 communication between the first-line 

 troops and the ones behind, and between 

 the commander and the heads of sepa- 

 rate di\isions. 



179 



vertically in a scaffolding, 

 and almost on a level with 

 the upper end of it is a plat- 

 form upon which the driller 

 stands. The task of the 

 latter is to run a perfectly 

 straight hole three-eighths 

 of an inch in diameter 

 through the whole length 

 ()t the log. 



As the hole deepens, longer 

 handles are attached to tiie 

 chisel blade, the last being 

 as long as the log itself. 

 The driller is invariably an 

 old man, with years of expe- 

 rience behind him as a drill- 

 er's apprentice. Consider- 

 ing his long training the ac- 

 curacy of his work is remarkable. Only 

 after the hole is completed, tested, and 

 found true, is the less careful but still 

 laborious work of shaping down the out- 

 side of the log taken up. This is done 

 first .with axes, then with the parang or 

 native knife, and finally by .scraping. 



The dart of the Dyak blow-pipe is of 

 some light wood — pith is sometimes u.sed 

 for short range work — and the tip is of 

 bone, or steel. Where the latter is 

 obtainable small birds can be brought 

 down h\ the dart alone. 



Blow-Pipes of the Borneo 

 Land Dyaks 

 ALTHOUGH one of the simplest of 

 1\. weapons the blow-pipe used b>' 

 the Land Dyaks of Sarawak, North 

 Borneo, requires more skill in the making 

 than any other instrument or implement 

 of a primitixc people. 



No thin sapling sufficiently- straight 

 or strong for a bl()w-pi|)e is to be found 

 in the forests of Bcjrneo, so the laborious 

 method of working down a large piece 

 of wood has to be resorted to. The wood 

 most fa^'o^ed is called yong by the 

 natives. It is hea\-icr than water and of 

 verA' tough texture, but it is fairly easih- 

 worked, e\-en after a couple of years' 

 seasoning. The yo7ig log is rigged up 



The Dyak blow-pipe requires infinite 

 skill in working it down from a log 



