THE PUNANS AND BUKATS 219 



days. When anybody dies the people flee, leaving the 

 corpse to its fate. 



Having accomplished as much as circumstances per- 

 mitted, in the latter part of May we changed our encamp- 

 ment to Long Tjehan, the principal kampong of the Peni- 

 hings, a little further down the river. On a favourable 

 current the transfer was quickly accomplished. We were 

 received by friendly natives, who came voluntarily to as- 

 sist in putting up my tent, laying poles on the moist 

 ground, on which the boxes were placed inside. They also 

 made a palisade around it as they had seen it done in Long 

 Kai, for the Dayaks are very adaptable people. Several 

 men here had been to New Guinea and they expressed 

 no desire to return, because there had been much work, 

 and much beri-beri from which some of their comrades 

 had died. One of them had assisted in bringing Doctor 

 Lorenz back after his unfortunate fall down the ravine on 

 Wilhelmina Top. 



