428 TWO YEARS I]Sr THE JUI^GLE. 



Lind foot in a twitcb-up, and held to its death by a slender bark 

 cord, which one nip of its sharp incisors would easily have severed. 

 Poor, stupid animal. "We came upon a large tapang tree which 

 threw out one magnificent buttress fourteen feet long, twelve feet 

 high where it left the tree, and three feet high at the other end. 

 This curious spur-root was a natural plank, two inches in thick- 

 ness, with perfectly sti'aight sides, covered with thin, smooth bark. 

 I had often heard and read of these buttresses, but not until see- 

 ing one did I at all understand what they are like. As I looked at 

 that immense natural slab, hewn out by the hand of natui-e, I 

 thought of Robinson Crusoe, and how he would have leaped for 

 joy could he have found such ready-gi'own shelves and tables in 

 his forest. "With considerable labor, I climbed into the top of a 

 small tree growing farther down the hill, so as to get a good view 

 of the buttresses, and in that uncomfortable position sketched the 

 foundation of the tree. 



" Perara distinguished himself to-day by killing a gibbon, and 

 also a fine flying lemur {Galeojnthecus variegatus). These two 

 specimens, our porcupine, and a Cynogale Bennettii, which was 

 brought in by one of our Dyaks, gave us work enough for the 

 afternoon. We ate the flesh of the porcupine, which was good 

 enoui^h, although rather neutral in flavor. As we were obh^fed to 

 work indoors all the afternoon, it rained half the time. As a 

 general thing, the gnats, moths, mosquitoes, and other insect 

 abominations are so bad at night that it is almost imj)OSsible to 

 read or write with any degree of comfort. 



''November 19th. — A blank day for me. Perara killed a female 

 orang with my No. 16 gun and No. 1 shot ! Of course the animal 

 was roosting low. I am feasting now on wild honey, brought yes- 

 terday by a foreign Dyak, who sold me three quarts of nice strained 

 honey for twenty-five cents. My boys protested against the extor- 

 tion, and declared I need not pay more than fifteen cents, but I 

 would have been ashamed to buy honey for which a Dyak climbed 

 perhaps eighty or ninety feet, at less than eight cents a quart. 

 W^ere I to climb to the top of a tapang tree for honey it would cost 

 the buyer at least a hundred dollars a quart, if I got any. 



"Hot cakes, butter and honey go well together, or at least my 

 baby orang thinks so. "Whenever Ah Kee begins to set the table 

 — the box, I mean — for a meal, the Old Man is all animation. He 

 rises instantly from his straw, where he has been lying lazily play- 

 ing with his toes or making up faces, and gets as near the table aa 



