422 TWO YEAKS IX THE JUNGLE. 



and one end firmly lashed in with the other three at the upper end 

 of the tripod. Into the free end of the fourth sapHng, which was 

 about two feet above the ground, was firmly fixed a piece of hard, 

 well-seasoned bamboo shaped like a dagger, a foot long and point- 

 ing inward. The sapling was sprung out by main force and 

 fastened at the lower end by a string stretched across the path 

 with a trigger attachment. The point is, that when a pig comes 

 tripping gayly along the path on his way to the Dyak's paddy field 

 to see how the crop is getting on, and thinking no guile, snap goes 

 the trigger-spring and he is instantly transfixed by a bayonet of 

 bamboo. How it must hurt ! The worst of it is that occasionally 

 an unsuspicious Dyak comes unawares upon one of these infernal 

 machines, gets the sharp bamboo driven through his thigh, and 

 usually dies in consequence.* Two more pheasants were brought 

 in. Perara shot a beautiful Cymbirhynchus, and, in spite of its 

 name, he assured me he killed it with one shot. 



" November Sth. — Out all the forenoon with Le Tiac and 

 Dobah, who is well now, thanks to quinine, but saw nothing. On 

 our way home, passed a Dyak house and clearing a mile distant 

 from ours. The house was a small one, four doors, and the 

 dirtiest, most higgledy-piggledy and utterly dejected looking 

 habitation I have seen amongst the Dyaks. The women must read 

 novels to excess ; for the place would do for a picture of the reign 

 of indolence. The wav through the clearing to this house was 

 over tree-trunks which sometimes took us fifteen feet from the 

 ground. I am now becoming so accustomed to pole-walking that 

 I look upon a batang as thick as my arm as a very good road. 

 Give us this day our daily bath. How deHciously refreshing is a 

 leisurely dip in the clear, cold water of the shady creek after a 

 five-hours' tramp up hill and down dale ! 



" One of our Dyaks brought in a superb male argus pheasant 

 (Argus Grayii), which I took sujDreme pleasure in skinning. 

 What a truly splendid bird ! Such deUcate richness of coloring is 

 not found in any other bird of my acquaintance. In Hfe, the 

 feathers have a soft, velvety nap, and at the same time a satin -like 



* Shortly after the above was written a Kalakah Dyak named Bakir, hunt- 

 inpc gutta on the upper Sarawak, was killed by a " peti," or pig-trap of the 

 kind described above. The lance entered his groin and passed quite through 

 his body. To the credit of the Sarawak Government it should be stated that 

 these traps are now prohibited under heavy penalty, and the owner of the one 

 which killed Bakir was promptly fined $100, or four years' imprisonment. 



