256 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



bark cloth, which passes round the forehead, and is 

 held in the hands to relieve the strain. Land-Dayaks 

 are good weight-carriers, and can go for hours at a 

 stretch up hill and down dale with from five to six 

 stone on their backs. The sun was high in the heavens 

 before we had seen the last of our 120 carriers on his 

 way, and then we with our servants, three guides, and 

 the Pengara's son bade farewell to our kind hosts, and 

 set off. The path lay for a few miles over the foot- 

 hills of Penrisen, clothed in scrub and tall grass ; it 

 was steep, slippery with mud, and very narrow, for 

 Dayaks always walk in single file, and in walking place 

 one foot exactly in front of the other. At times we 

 came on little brooks and gullies, crossed by crazy 

 bridges of bamboo or half-rotten timber, which we 

 ventured on gingerly. There was no shade, and the 

 sun beat down on the narrow path cleft through the 

 matted vegetation with untempered heat ; I do not 

 think that I have ever perspired so much in my life 

 before or since ; before long my clothes refused to 

 absorb any more moisture, and the perspiration dripped 

 off my coat-sleeves and trickled down the breast and 

 back of my tunic. At one o'clock we called a halt, 

 and rested for three-quarters of an hour ; food would 

 have choked me, and though I could have drunk a 

 gallon, I did not dare to drink very much, as I knew 

 that I should feel the effects directly I began to walk 

 again. By 3 p.m. we were on the lower slopes of the 

 mountain, and for about an hour climbed through a 

 zone of bamboo forest ; the shade and the more or less 

 open nature of the ground was a most welcome relief, 

 and it was no longer necessary to fix the gaze rigidly 

 on the ground to avoid snags, creepers, and other 

 *raps for the unwary. 



