270 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



old clothes which we were about to throw away as 

 they were pretty well worn out. We gave them to him 

 and he bashfully retired into the jungle to put them 

 on ; in a few minutes he returned in a high state of 

 glee, clad in an ancient pair of trousers, a canvas 

 shirt, and an ill-fitting coat: from a fine, active athlete 

 he had been transformed into a disreputable-looking 

 tramp, and we implored him to doff his newly acquired 

 garments and resume the red loin-cloth or chawat 

 that set off his muscular limbs to such advantage but 

 he was like a child with a new toy, and was so fasc- 

 inated with his appearance in a white man's clothes 

 that he could not be persuaded. 



Next morning we bade a reluctant farewell to our 

 camp. I proposed to burn down our hut, but my 

 proposal was met with outcries by the natives, who 

 said that it was mall, or tabu, to do so ; all sorts of 

 evil would recoil on our heads if we were so wicked 

 as to destroy a hut in which we had lived so it was 

 left to rot. On the way down we suddenly encountered 

 two bears that were slumbering on a fallen tree-trunk ; 

 as soon as they caught sight of us they rushed off 

 barking almost like dogs, and we had not a chance to 

 get a shot at them. Lower down the mountain one 

 of the bearers suddenly uttered an exclamation, and, 

 dropping his load, began to hack down with his 

 chopping-sword or " latok " a small tree that stood 

 a little way off our path. His fellows came to help 

 him, and ( before long the tree was down and the trunk 

 split up ; it was riddled with burrows, and from them 

 the Dayaks extracted a pinkish grub with a faint but 

 delicious scent these were the larvae of a Longicorn 

 beetle, and the Dayaks explained that they were 

 excellent eating when boiled. 



