I20 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



work out of doors beside the padi barns, sometimes 

 under rude lean-to shelters. 



When this task is completed the women are 

 covered with dust ; they descend again to the river, 

 and bathe themselves and the children once more. 

 They may gather some of the scanty vegetables 

 grown in small enclosures near most of the 

 houses, and then proceed to prepare supper with 

 their rice and whatever food the men may have 

 brought home from the jungle. For now, about an 

 hour before sundown, the men return from expedi- 

 tions in the jungle, often bringing a wild pig, a 

 monkey, a porcupine, or some jungle fruit, or young 

 shoots of bamboo, as their contribution to the supper 

 table ; others return from fishing or from the padi 

 fields, and during the sunset hour at a large village 

 a constant stream of boats arrives at the landing- 

 place before the house. Most of the home-comers 

 bathe in the river before ascending to the house. 

 This evening bath is taken in more leisurely fashion 

 than the morning dip. A man will strip off his 

 waist-cloth and rush into the water, falling fiat on his 

 chest with a great splash. Then standing with the 

 water up to his waist he will souse his head and face, 

 then perhaps swim a few double overhand strokes, 

 his head going under at each stroke. After rubbing 

 himself down with a smooth pebble, he returns to 

 the bank, and having resumed his waist-cloth, he 

 squeezes the water from his hair, picks up his 

 paddle, spear, hat, and other belongings, and ascends 

 to the gallery. There he hangs up his spear by 

 jabbing its point into a roof-beam beside the door of 

 his chamber, and sits down to smoke a cigarette and 

 to relate the events of his day while supper is prepar- 

 ing. As darkness falls, he goes to his room to sup. 

 By the time the women also have supped, the 

 tropical night has fallen, and the house is lit by the 

 fires and by resin torches, and nowadays by a few 



