WILD LIFE IN CENTRAL BORNEO 191 



scenery seems to lure the beholder on and on. To pass 

 through this superb and silent realm was like a pleasant 

 dream. There are no mosquitoes and consequently no 

 malaria. 



We were progressing through a country of which little 

 is known accurately beyond its somewhat hilly character, 

 and the fact that it is uninhabited except for small tran- 

 sient parties of Malays searching for rattan or rubber. 

 The upper part of our route to the divide, a compara- 

 tively short distance, had not, to my knowledge, been 

 traversed by white men before. Errors were corrected 

 on the map of the watershed region. 



One day at noon, while we were waiting for the largest 

 prahu to overtake us, fresh tracks of pig were discovered 

 on the bank, and the Saputan dog, a very wise animal, 

 was landed. A few minutes later he began the peculiar 

 barking which indicated that he had caught the scent, 

 and one man seized a sumpitan and ran off into the utan 

 as fast as his legs could carry him, holding the weapon in 

 his right hand in a horizontal position, spear end first. 

 It sounded as if the dog might be holding the pig in the 

 water a little higher up, but this was soon found to be a 

 mistake when the barking was heard close by. The 

 Saputan kapala then jumped from my prahu, drew his 

 parang, and with wonderful elastic movements disap- 

 peared in the utan. Two or three minutes later they re- 

 turned, one man bearing in his arms a scarcely half- 

 grown live pig, which had been hit by the sumpitan. The 

 whole affair lasted barely ten minutes. 



At another place, where we were again waiting for 



