i88 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



returns to camp and modestly keeps silence over his 

 achievement until some question as to his luck is 

 put to him ; then he remarks that he has left some 

 small piece of game in the jungle, a mere trifle. 

 Three or four men will then set out and, following 

 the path he has marked by bending down twigs on 

 his way back to camp, will find the game and bring 

 it in. If a present of tobacco is made to one 

 member of a group of Punans, the whole mass is 

 divided by one of them into as many heaps as there 

 are members of the band present ; and then each of 

 them, men and women alike, takes one heap for his 

 or her own use, the one who divided the mass taking 

 the heap left by the rest. 



In spite of their shyness and timidity, they 

 respond readily to kind treatment. They are never 

 seen on the rivers, as they have no boats and 

 cannot easily be persuaded to venture a trip in a 

 boat. It is possible to make many expeditions 

 through the jungle without getting any glimpse of 

 them. One of us (C. H.) had lived in the Baram 

 district six years before succeeding in seeing a 

 single Punan. The history of his first meeting 

 with Punans may serve to illustrate their timidity, 

 caution, and good feeling. On making a long 

 hunting trip on the slopes of Mount Dulit, he took 

 with him a Sebop who was familiar with Punans and 

 their language. For some days no trace of them 

 was seen ; but one morning freshly made footprints 

 were observed round about the camp. The follow- 

 ing night a cleft stick was set up at some twenty 

 paces from the camp with a large cake of tobacco in 

 the cleft, and on the stick a mark was carved which 

 would be understood by the Punans as implying 

 that they were at liberty to take the tobacco. This 

 is a method of opening communications and trade 

 with them well known to the Klemantans. In the 

 morning the tobacco had disappeared, and fresh foot- 



