286 THROUGH CENTRAL BORNEO 



had been visited in 191 5 by the former assistant resident, 

 Mr. A. W. Spaan, whose report on the journey was 

 placed at my disposal. The cave is in a mountain which 

 bears the name Kong Beng, Mountain of Images, due 

 probably to a local Dayak language. It lies in an unin- 

 habited region four days' march west of Karangan, or 

 nearly two days' east of the River Telen, the nearest 

 Dayaks, who are said to be Bahau, living on the last- 

 named river. During the time of Sultan Suleiman 

 six or seven statues were taken from Kong Beng to Ba- 

 tavia and presented to the museum there. 



The country traversed from the River Pantun, to fol- 

 low Mr. Spaan's account, at first is somewhat hilly, 

 changes gradually into undulating country, and finally 

 into a plain in the middle of which, quite singularly, rises 

 this lonely limestone mountain, full of holes and caves, 

 about 1,000 metres long, 400 broad, and 100 high, with 

 perpendicular walls. The caves are finely formed and 

 have dome-shaped roofs, but few stalactite formations 

 appear. Thousands of bats live there and the ground is 

 covered with a thick layer of guano. From the view- 

 point of natural beauty these caves are far inferior to the 

 well-known cave of Kimanis in the Birang (on the River 

 Berau, below the Kayan) with its extraordinarily beauti- 

 ful stalactite formations. In one of the caves with a low 

 roof were found eleven Hindu images; only the previous 

 day the regent of Kutei had turned the soil over and re- 

 covered a couple more archaeological remains. Ten of 

 these relics are in bas-relief and about a metre high. 

 The eleventh, which is lower, represents the sacred ox and 

 is sculptured in its entirety. One bas-relief from which 



