AMONG THE KENYAHS 83 



man handed some of the peelings to his wife for inspec- 

 tion, whereupon I gave her a potato, which she peeled 

 carefully, divided, and gave a piece to each of the two 

 children, with whom, however, it did not find favour. I 

 opened a can of milk and another of cream, for I was 

 fresh from Europe and had plenty of provisions. After 

 helping myself from the cans I gave them to the children, 

 who greatly relished what was left in them, but they did 

 not eat greedily, behaving like white children who have 

 not learned from adults to eat hastily. The Kenyahs are 

 very courteous. When a man passed my tent opening 

 he generally called aloud, as if announcing his presence. 



In visiting the camps I found the Kenyahs, even on an 

 occasion like the present, busily engaged at some occu- 

 pation, and seldom or never was anybody seen sitting idle. 

 The men were splitting rattan into fine strings, later to 

 be used for many purposes : for plaiting the sheath of the 

 parang; for making bottle-shaped receptacles for rice; 

 for securing the axe to the handle, etc. Women were 

 doing the same work with bamboo, first drying the stalks 

 by standing them upright before a fire. These fine bam- 

 boo strings are later used in making winnowing trays and 

 for various kinds of beautifully plaited work. When em- 

 ployed in this way, or on other occasions, the women 

 smoke big cigarettes as nonchalantly as the men. 



Continuing the journey next day, we found it a la- 

 borious undertaking over many small rapids. The wa- 

 ter had already subsided, so we had to wade most of 

 the day, dragging the prahus, a task which we found rather 

 fatiguing, as the stones are difficult to step on in the 



