A BELIMBING ABODE 299 



timidity, but their fears were soon allayed, and I made 

 myself at home on the raised floor, where I had a good 

 camping-place. 



Although these Bukits, among whom I travelled 

 thereafter, are able to speak Malay, or Bandjer, the dia- 

 lect of Bandjermasin, they have preserved more of their 

 primitive characteristics than I expected. As I learned 

 later, at Angkipi especially, and during a couple more 

 days of travel, they were less affected by Malay influence 

 than the Dayaks elsewhere on my route. The kampong 

 exists only in name, not in fact, the people living in the 

 hills in scattered groups of two or three houses. Rice 

 is planted but once a year, and quite recently the cul- 

 tivation of peanuts, which I had not before observed 

 in Borneo, had been introduced through the Malays. 

 Bukits never remain longer than two years at the same 

 house, usually only half that time, making ladang near 

 by, and the next year they move to a new house and have 

 a new ladang. For their religious feasts they gather in 

 the balei, just as the ancient Mexicans made temporary 

 habitations in and near their temples, and as the Huichols 

 and other Indians of Mexico do to-day. 



The natives of Angkipi are stocky, crude people. 

 Several had eyes set obliquely, a la Mongol, in a very 

 pronounced manner, with the nose depressed at the 

 base and the point slightly turned upward. Among 

 the individuals measured, two young women were splen- 

 did specimens, but there were difficulties in regard to 

 having them photographed, as they were all timid and 

 anxious to go home to their mountains. 



