282 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



planks through which are driven numbers of nails 

 in the old days a V-shaped instrument with a thong 

 of plaited rattan joining the limbs of the V was used 

 instead. The triturated pith is spread on a mat on 

 the platform, and the worker, pouring water on it, dances 

 on the mat and continually pours more water on it ; 

 the fine sago flour is washed free from the woody 

 fibre (which is left on the mat) and suspended in 

 the water which flows through the mat and floor of 

 the platform, and falls into the empty canoe below ; it 

 is deposited as a sort of slime in the bottom of the 

 canoe, and the superfluous water flows off. The danc- 

 ing of the sago-workers is sometimes singularly graceful, 

 and if the worker be a young man, and he knows that 

 he is observed by some of the opposite sex, he dances 

 con amore. 



My few days at Trusan fort were not very eventful, 

 and I will spare my reader an account of my daily 

 wanderings in the neighbouring jungle. One other 

 expedition that I made was to Tabekang in the upper 

 waters of the Sadong River, in August 1903, and the 

 following extracts from my diary may be of some little 

 interest : 



22nd. Left Sadong at midday in the Government 

 boat, with five prisoners from the Sadong gaol and a 

 policeman as crew ; at 4.30 we reached Gedong, a 

 small Malay village with one Chinese shop ; had 

 dinner in the shop and slept in the boat. 



2.yd. Was waked at 4 a.m. by the roar of the bore 

 rushing up-river. As we were lying in a tributary of 

 the main-river we were in no danger of being swamped, 

 but the boat rocked considerably ; the bore was not a 

 big one, owing to recent heavy rains, and the tide was 



