192 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



a wonderful skill in the interpretation of the signs 

 of the jungle. For example, a Punan is generally- 

 able to read from the tracks left in the jungle by 

 the passage of a party of men, the number of the 

 party, and much other information about it. They 

 are expert scouts, and, when their neighbourhood is 

 invaded by any party whose intentions are not 

 clearly pacific, they will follow them for many days, 

 keeping them under close observation while 

 remaining completely hidden. 



The Punan has few recreations. His highest 

 artistic achievement is in song. His principal musical 

 instrument is a simple harp made from a length of 

 thick bamboo (Fig. 86) ; from the surface of this six 

 longitudinal strips are detached throughout the length 



Fig. 86. — Punan Bamboo Harp. 



of a section of twenty inches or more, but retain at 

 both ends their natural attachments. Each strip is 

 raised from the surface by a pair of small wooden 

 bridges, and is tuned by adjusting the interval 

 between these. The only other musical instrument 

 is a very simple " harmonica." A series of strips of 

 hard-wood, slightly hollowed and adjusted in length, 

 are laid across the shins of the operator, who beats 

 upon them with two sticks. But the finest songs 

 are sung without accompaniment and are of the 

 nature of dramatic recitals in the manner of a some- 

 what monotonous and melancholy recitative. To 

 hear a wild Punan, standing in the midst of a 

 solemn circle lit only by a few torches which hardly 

 seem to avail to keep back the vast darkness of the 

 sleeping jungle, recite with dramatic gesture the 



