A STARTLING ROBBERY 163 



as possible, and if all went well we expected to have the 

 necessary men within three weeks. 



On the same afternoon Djobing and three companions, 

 who were going up to another rattan station, Djudjang, 

 on a path through the jungle, proposed to me to trans- 

 port some of our luggage in one of my prahus. The 

 offer was gladly accepted, a liberal price paid, and similar 

 tempting conditions offered if they and a few men, known 

 to be at the station above, would unite in taking all 

 our goods up that far. The following morning they 

 started off. 



The Malays of these regions, who are mainly from the 

 upper part of the Kapuas River in the western division 

 and began to come here ten years previously, are physi- 

 cally much superior to the Malays we brought, and for 

 work in the kihams are as fine as Dayaks. They remain 

 here for years, spending two or three months at a time 

 in the utan. Djobing had been here four years and had 

 a wife in his native country. There are said to be 150 

 Malays engaged in gathering rattan, and, no doubt, also 

 rubber, in these vast, otherwise uninhabited upper Dusun 

 lands. 



What with the absence of natives and the scarcity of 

 animals and birds, the time spent here waiting was not 

 exactly pleasant. Notwithstanding the combined efforts 

 of the collector, the sergeant, and one other soldier, few 

 specimens were brought in. Mr. Demmini, the photog- 

 rapher, and Mr. Loing were afflicted with dysentery, from 

 which they recovered in a week. 



As a climax came the startling discovery that one of 



