VISIT TO KABURAU 33 



One morning he brought in a king cobra {naia bunga- 

 rus) which he had shot, and as life was not yet extinct I 

 got a good photograph of it. This serpent was about 

 three metres long, but these very poisonous snakes, called 

 ular tadong by the Malays, attain a length of seven 

 metres. They are beautifully formed for quick move- 

 ment, and will attack human beings, the female being 

 particularly vicious when it has eggs. "When I see ular 

 tadong coming toward me," said Chonggat, who was no 

 coward, "then I run." There are several species of very 

 poisonous snakes in Borneo, but according to my experi- 

 ence they are not very numerous. Two small ones, about 

 thirty-five centimetres long, are the most common varie- 

 ties encountered in the jungle. They are sluggish and 

 somewhat similar in appearance, dark brown and red 

 being the principal colours. One of them has its under 

 side decorated with transverse sections of beautiful scar- 

 let alternating with black. 



Ah Sewey, the photographer, was also an efficient man, 

 but at first we had immense difficulty with the develop- 

 ing. One cannot count on water cooler than 75° F., and 

 at that temperature the films come out well, but in the 

 beginning many plates were spoiled. For the photog- 

 rapher in the tropics the use of formalin is an absolute 

 necessity. He must also face other difficulties, avoiding 

 among other things the possibility of having his films, 

 when drying, eaten by small species of grasshoppers. 



