CHAPTER XV 



FINAL START FOR CENTRAL BORNEO — CHRISTMAS TIME — 

 EXTENT OF MALAY INFLUENCE — ^THE FLOWERS OF 



EQUATORIAL REGIONS — ^AT AN OT-DANUM KAMPONG 



THE PICTURESQUE KIHAMS, OR RAPIDS — FORMIDABLE 

 OBSTACLES TO TRAVEL — MALAYS ON STRIKE 



Having arranged various matters connected with the 

 expedition, in the beginning of December we made our 

 final start from Bandjermasin in the Otto, which the 

 resident again courteously placed at my disposal. Our 

 party was augmented by a military escort, under com- 

 mand of Onder-Lieutenant J. Van Dijl, consisting of one 

 Javanese sergeant and six native soldiers, most of them 

 Javanese. At midday the surface of the water was ab- 

 solutely without a ripple, and the broad expanse of the 

 river, ever winding in large curves, reflected the sky and 

 the low jungle on either side with bewildering faithfulness. 

 At night the stars were reflected in the water in the same 

 extraordinary way. 



In order to investigate a report from an otherwise 

 reliable source about Dayaks "as white as Europeans, 

 with coarse brown hair, and children with blue eyes,'* 

 I made a stop at Rubea, two or three hours below Muara 

 Tewe. It was a small and sad-looking kampong of thir- 

 teen families in many houses. Several children were 

 seen, a little lighter of colour than usual, but their eyes 

 were brown, and there was nothing specially remarkable 



about them nor the rest of the people whom the kapala 



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