DOWN THE RIVER AGAIN 51 



not bold in manner. Though I made no special effort to 

 ingratiate myself with them they always crowded round 

 me, and sometimes I was compelled to deny myself to all 

 callers regardless of their wishes. When I was reading or 

 writing it was necessary to tell them to be quiet, also to 

 stop their singing at night when my sleep was too much 

 disturbed, but they were never offended. Presents of 

 fruit, fish, mouse-traps, and other articles which they 

 thought I might like, were constantly offered me. The 

 women, free and easy in their manners, were ladylike to a 

 surprising degree. In spite of having had ten teeth of the 

 upper jaw filed down and the remainder coloured black 

 by the constant chewing of betel, they are literally to the 

 manner born. 



The controleur told me that his large district, the 

 northernmost part of Dutch Borneo, called Bulungan, 

 comprised "about 1,100 square miles.'* He estimated 

 the number of inhabitants to be about 60,000, roughly 

 speaking, 50 to each mile, but the population here as 

 elsewhere follows the rivers. The Dayaks are greatly in 

 majority, the Malays inhabiting the Sultan's kampong 

 and a couple of small settlements in the vicinity. He had 

 travelled a good deal himself and taken census where it 

 was possible. His statistics showed that among the 

 Dayaks the men outnumber the women somewhat, and 

 that children are few. In one small kampong there 

 were no children. The same fact has been noted in other 

 parts of Borneo. The hard labour of the women has been 

 advanced as a reason. Doctor A. W. Nieuwenhuis be- 

 lieves that inborn syphilis is the cause of the infertility 



