264 THROUGH CENTRAL BORNEO 



Pahangei, where we arrived in the afternoon, and again 

 we were among Oma-Sulings. Some good specimens were 

 added to my ethnographic collections, among them wear- 

 ing apparel for both sexes said to be over a hundred 

 years old and which I bought from the Raja Besar, who 

 was visiting here. He possessed a number of old imple- 

 ments and weapons of considerable interest. The raja of 

 a near-by kampong arrived on his way to Long Iram, and 

 the largest of his seven prahus was of unusual dimensions, 

 measuring, at its greatest width, 1.34 metres over all. 

 Although the board, four centimetres thick, stands out a 

 little more than the extreme width of the dugout, which 

 is the main part of a prahu, still the tree which furnished 

 the material must have been of very respectable size. 



The Raja Besar showed great desire to accompany 

 me on an excursion up the Merasi River, a northern 

 affluent within the domain of the same tribe. My pref- 

 erence was for Lidju, my constant assistant, but on the 

 morning of our start the great man actually forced himself 

 into service, while the former, who had been told to come, 

 was not to be seen. The raja began giving orders about 

 the prahus and behaved as if he were at home. As I 

 remained passive he finally said that he wanted to 

 know whether he could go; if I preferred Lidju he would 

 remain behind. Not wanting a scene, and as he was so 

 intent on going, I gave the desired permission. Though, 

 like the others, he was nude except for a loin-cloth, Raja 

 Besar was a gentleman at heart, but he did not know 

 how to work, especially in a prahu. On account of his 

 exalted position he had never been accustomed to manual 



