294 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



was a distinctly interesting and speculative experiment in 

 peace-making. 



The place of meeting was Marudi (Claudetown), the 

 headquarters of the government of the district. There the 

 river, still nearly a hundred miles from the sea, winds round 

 the foot of a low flat-topped hill, on which stand the small 

 wooden fort and court-house and the Resident's bungalow. 

 Some days before that fixed for the great meeting by the 

 tokens we had sent out, parties of men began to arrive, 

 floating down in the long war canoes roofed with palm 

 leaves for the journey. On the appointed day some five 

 thousand of the Baram people and the Madangs were 

 encamped very comfortably in leaf and mat shelters on the 

 open ground between our bungalow and the fort, while the 

 Sea Dayaks had taken up their quarters in the long row 

 of Chinamen's shops that form the Marudi bazaar, the 

 commercial centre of the district. But as yet no Tinjar 

 folk had put in an appearance, and men began to wonder 

 what had kept them — Were the tokens sent them at fault ? 

 Or had they received friendly warnings of danger from 

 some of the many sacred birds, without whose favourable 

 omens no journey can be undertaken? Or had they, 

 perhaps, taken the opportunity to ascend the Baram and 

 sack and burn the Kenyah houses now well nigh empty of 

 defenders ? We spent the time in foot-racing, preliminary 

 boat-racing, and in seeing the wonders of the white man. 

 For many of these people had not travelled so far down- 

 river before, and their delight in the piano was only 

 equalled by their admiration for that most wonderful of all 

 things, the big boat that goes up stream without paddles, 

 the Resident's fast steam-launch. 



At last one evening, while we were all looking on at a 

 most exciting practice-race between three of the canoes, 

 the Lirongs, with the main mass of the Tinjar people, 

 came down the broad straight reach. It was that most 

 beautiful half-hour of the tropical day, between the setting 

 of the sun and the fall of darkness — the great forest stood 

 black and formless, while the sky and the smooth river 

 were luminous with delicate green and golden light. The 

 Lirongs were in full war dress, with feathered coats of 

 leopard skin and plumed caps plaited of tough rattan, and 

 very effective they were as they came swiftly on over 

 the shining water, sixty to seventy warriors in each canoe 

 raising their tremendous battle-cry, a deep-chested chorus 



