410 TWO YEAES IX THE JUNGLE. 



baby mias seems to enjoy his surroundings as well as the rest of us, 

 for, with true childish instinct, he leans lazily over the edge of the 

 boat and dabbles in the water with his hairy brown hands as it 

 sweeps past the side. 



On reaching the sea, we put up our much-mended sail and 

 steered eastward along the coast for a few miles, until, when almost 

 within the mouth of the Batang LujDar, we came about sharply and 

 ran into the mouth of the Sibuyau. A conical mountain rises on 

 the east bank, at the foot of which is a small Malay kamj)ong, and 

 the house of SerifT Hassan, the Port-clearance clerk. We stopped 

 long enough to deliver our papers and hastened on up stream with 

 the flowing tide, to get as far as possible by night-fall. 



The Sibuyau is a small stream, not over a hundred yards in 

 width at the mouth, and for a long distance up the banks are 

 prettily fringed with nipa palms. There are a few paddy fields 

 along the banks and the usual accompaniment of flimsy little tem- 

 porary huts on stilts, reminding one of birds' nests. 



About sunset we reached a Dyak \'illage of eight doors standing 

 close to the bank, at which we stopped for the night. It was a 

 miserably dirty and foul-smelling place, or at least the ground un- 

 derneath the house was giving ofi^ an odor Hke an ancient pig-sty. 

 The Dyaks were almost as dirty as their surroundings, but they 

 were ci\al, and immediately produced, for us to sit upon, two of the 

 finest mats I ever saw of Dyak manufacture. I tried to buy the 

 smaller one of the two, but they positively refused to sell it. Per- 

 haps their mat-maker was dead. 



We had a long confab about the prospect of getting up to the 

 settlement at the head of the river, and were told that the way was 

 long and difficult ; that our large boat was too large to go at all ; 

 that they had no boats which could take us ; and, furthermore, 

 that they would not go with us under any circumstances. Being 

 unable to see my way out of the difficulty which had suddenly pre- 

 sented itself, I slung my hammock and mosquitero and went to 

 sleep. 



In the morning three of the Dyaks agreed to go with me, for a 

 consideration, to help with the large boat ; but, when the time 

 came to start, they and two others put their weapons and dogs — I 

 mean dog skeletons — and cooking pots into one of their own 

 canoes, got into it, and paddled off down stream. With a devout 

 wish, expressed in four languages, that they might "go to the 

 devil," we determined to paddle our own canoe, and immediately 



