284 THROUGH CENTRAL BORNEO 



comfortably. On account of many noises, including 

 that made by the engine, reading was impossible, so I 

 employed the time in mending two suits of my precious 

 linen-mesh underwear which was rapidly going to shreds, 

 without prospect of opportunity to replace them in the 

 Far East. Morning and afternoon the Malays on deck 

 held their Mohammedan services, apparently singing in 

 Arabic, and during the night the sailors sang much. 

 There were two rough bath-rooms, but I bathed only 

 once, as I was afraid of losing my slippers or other articles 

 that were liable to drop into the river through the in- 

 tervals between the narrow boards of the floor. 



We travelled steadily day and night, but stopped at 

 many kampongs to take on more cargo, and an additional 

 tonkang was attached, which relieved some of the con- 

 gestion on ours. One afternoon the monotony was re- 

 lieved by a fight in the kitchen of the little steamer, 

 when a sudden thumping sound of nude feet against the 

 floor was heard and boiled rice flew about. But it was 

 very soon over, evidently only an outburst of dissatis- 

 faction with the cook; somebody called for the Malay 

 captain and we heard no more about it. 



There was a Bombay Mohammedan merchant on 

 board who had small stores of groceries and dry-goods 

 on the Kutei River, as the Mahakam is called in its lower 

 course. He also spoke of the hundreds of thousands of 

 Hindus who live in South Africa. On the last day of 

 our journey a remarkably tame young snake bird was 

 brought on board, which one of the sailors bought. Ac- 

 cording to reports, there are many of these birds on the 



