36 THE BAMBOO. 



lengths. Its outside has a rind, and is hard to the 

 thickness of an inch ; the inside, being, as in all palms, 

 the most recently formed fibre, is soft, and conse- 

 quently soon decays. These trees are used principally 

 by the poorer sort of inhabitants, the richer generally 

 employing hard wood posts. The posts of nibong will 

 last from three to four years, so that they have, at the 

 end of that time, to be either renewed, or the houses 

 supported by extra ones, when it may be made to 

 stand for some time longer, though, as house-building 

 of this description is not at all expensive, the greater 

 part are pulled down, at the end of this period, and 

 rebuilt. It forms the rafters to which the roof-cover- 

 ing and the open flooring are tied. The stems of the 

 nibong are split into laths, the outer, or hard part, 

 only being retained for flooring. These are kept 

 together by rattans interwoven amongst them, each 

 lath being placed at the distance of about two inches 

 from that on each side of it ; by this arrangement ah 1 

 the dirt and rubbish passes below the house, which is 

 generally cleansed by the river at high tides. 



The bamboo, the shoots of which are also an 

 esteemed vegetable, and which, in the hands of 

 Europeans, make a most excellent pickle, is as useful 

 to the Dyaks as the nibong is to the Malays, the 

 one being as abundant in the interior as the other 

 is on the coasts. There are many kinds of bamboo, 

 but that most valued is the large kind, called by 

 the natives ' boolu ayer,' or the water bamboo ; it 

 grows to a very large size, attaining the height 



