THE DAGMAR RIVER 149 



stake to stake to compress the join. This ingenious vessel was 

 narrow at the bottom but gaped widely at the mouth. 



" In cooking the pandanus, a little water is first poured in, 

 and the fruit piled above it and steamed ; when sufficiently 

 done, the bread is prepared by the same method as practised 

 on the coast, 



" Several paths led beyond the camp ; and following one, we 

 crossed a small stream by a tree bridge (a couple of saplings 

 laid side by side), 300 or 400 yards beyond which we arrived 

 at the bank of the Dagmar River, here a stream about 40 yards 

 wide flowing between low jungle-covered banks. 



" Once more by the sea we photographed Awang and his 

 family, bought some of his belongings, and also took possession 

 of about twenty megapodes' eggs which he had collected for us. 



" The Shom Pen we had seen, he informed us, were all there 

 were in the neighbourhood, although far back in the interior 

 were other, but unfriendly, groups. The only child in the 

 village was his own son, and the same old story was repeated — 

 that where formerly there were two or three men with their 

 families in each house, now there was only one. 



" In the afternoon we walked along the shore of Casuarina 

 Bay to the mouth of the Dagmar. Fortunately the tide was 

 low, and exposed a broad strip of hard wet sand, which made 

 the tramp very pleasant, in spite of the hot sun. On the way, 

 we passed the half-dry bed of a small stream, crammed with 

 thousands of a little black red-bellied mud - fish, so crowded 

 together that numbers had died. 



" The Dagmar River emerges suddenly from jungle, with 

 banks almost free from mangrove and nipah, and makes its way 

 to the sea through a curving channel in the sand, where at low 

 tide it is very shallow. 



" Bundles of re an hung from several trees, and a small hut 

 full of the same material stood near a path that evidently led 

 to the Shom Pen village. More cane was to be seen across the 

 river, and a canoe lay on the bank. 



" So much we discovered by a little exploring ; then, after 



