MODE OP ROWING. 223 



larity of their strokes, and their being long accustomed 

 to the practice, does not appear much to fag them; in 

 smooth water, and, without tides, at their regular 

 stroke, they pull about six miles an hour, but when 

 exerting themselves fully can double that rate of speed. 



The 'tambangs,' or sharp built sampan boats of Sin- 

 gapore, which are so renowned throughout the East 

 for their speed, are soon lost sight of by the Dyak 

 ' bankongs/ and I should think it probable that no 

 boats in the world could equal them for speed. Each 

 tribe of the Dyaks has peculiar strokes in which it de- 

 lights, so that in the dark a Sarebas or Sakarran boat 

 could tell whether an approaching one was of Lundu, 

 of the Balows, or a Malay. The Malays also have 

 many methods of paddling, in which the Borneans, 

 or natives of the town of Bruni, excel the inhabitants 

 of the other villages on the coast. On their cruises 

 the Dyaks, who are not, in their sober moments, friends 

 of boisterous mirth, never make use of the cheering 

 and inspiriting songs of the Malayan boatmen : the 

 noise made by each paddle beating time on the gun- 

 wale of the boat is to them sufficiently enlivening, 

 and they want no other encouragement to exertion 

 when it is necessary. 



When they have met with reverses on an expedition 

 such as when they lose their boats and are forced to 

 find their way through the jungle, without food, to 

 then- homes, perhaps at a great distance famine is 

 very oppressive to them, though some parts of the 

 woods produce ferns and other edible roots in abun- 



