IX.] A FOREST GIANT. 187 



embarked in the lifeboat and two native praus on the evening of 

 September 8th, and after a rather unpleasant passage, owing to 

 the frequent squalls from the land, arrived at our destination at 

 midnight, and finding a ruined attap-shed, spent the remainder of 

 the night beneath its shelter as comfortably as the unceasing 

 attacks of sandflies and mosquitoes would permit. 



The Hukum Kadua — in other words, the chief — had himself 

 accompanied us, as being one of the greatest sportsmen of Likou- 

 paug, and we left him to settle the plan of action. It was simple 

 enough, being merely what a Dutchman would term " be-creeping " 

 the animals, the ground by its conformation not lending itself to 

 beating, especially with our limited number of native followers. 

 Accordingly each of us took the bush separately, attended by two 

 men, one of whom went in advance, clearing a path through the 

 creepers by means of his razor-edged kris, while the other followed, 

 bearing our lunch of biscuit and coconuts. I have seldom seen a 

 finer forest than that in this neighbourhood. The buttressed trees 

 were magnificent. One especially, which seemed to be quite 

 familiar to my guide, who had often hunted the Babirusa in these 

 jungles, struck me as being the largest I had ever met with. The 

 buttresses sprang from the trunk fully thirty feet from the ground. 

 On one side two had grown at right angles to one another, and 

 one of them turning sharply again at a right angle, a sort of walled 

 enclosure was formed, which might with very little difficulty have 

 been turned into a hut of respectable size. The thickness of the 

 foliage around only permitted us to see that the tall, straight trunk 

 rose at least a hundred feet before sending off a branch. What 

 the entire height of the tree might have been it was impossible to 

 estimate, for less than a dozen yards away this giant of the forest 

 was completely invisible. 



The rattans, of which the natives told us there were nine or 

 ten species here, formed the chief obstacle to our progress. This 

 climbing palm is one of the chief characteristics of a Malayan 

 forest, and its sharp, hooked thorns bring the traveller to a stand- 



