424 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



wash daily, so every morning they all form a procession and 

 march down to the creek, where they pi'oceed to remove the dirt 

 of the previous day. The first step toward civilization is cleanli- 

 ness ; creeds can come a long ways after. Sent Dobah and Le 

 Tiac to the Sadong to bring me some more Spanish dollars and 

 other useful things. They will return in about six days. 



"November 12th. — Now that Le Tiac is away, Gumbong will 

 be my guide, philosopher, and friend in the jungles. He is a good, 

 active fellow, and knows every inch of the forest. To-day we went 

 out northeast, and at last heard wah-wahs calhng to us. lulled an 

 old male, female, and a young one. 



" In the course of our wandering we came to a small clearing, 

 in the centre of which stood a Dyak village, of ten doors, called 

 Lanchang. We visited it, and found the house is a very roomy 

 one, well built and well kept, roofed with thin boards, and having 

 an extensive platfonn of poles adjoining the open side for its entire 

 length, level with the floor, evidently intended to accommodate a large 

 crop of paddy. Our arrival was greeted by a chorus of ' ohs ' and 

 ' ah-dos ' from the old men, old women, and children. All the able- 

 bodied men and women had gone into the jungle to collect gutta, rat- 

 tans, dammar gum, honey, and, in short, anything which they could 

 find of any value. One fine young fellow who was just starting 

 out, struck me as being the handsomest Dyak I had ever seen. 

 His name is Ne Siak. He is about twenty-two years of age, 

 tall for a Dyak, finely formed, with a strong and even handsome 

 face, and erect carriage. Ai-ound his middle he wore only the 

 customary bark-cloth chawat, but a scarf of blue cotton-cloth 

 was flung carelessly around his neck from behind, one end of which 

 spread over his left shoulder. A rather faded bandanna was tied 

 turban-wise around his head, with a tuft of hair straying out at the 

 top, while down his neck and upon his shoulders fell a mass of 

 glossy, raven-black hair in the prettiest natural ringlets imaginable. 

 At his side was the usual parong, in its wooden sheath, adorned with 

 a bunch of argus feathers at the lower end, and, slung securely at his 

 back, was a long, cylindrical basket (juah), open at the top, itself a 

 fine specimen of Dyak handiwork. In one hand he carried a stout 

 spear, and the other was free. I looked at him in undisguised ad- 

 miration, until he stepped nimbly down the ladder at the end of the 

 house and disappeared in the jungle. 



" The children were, as usual, very dirty, and some of the 

 women and older girls were but a shade better. Hanging upon the 



