484 TWO TEAKS IN THE JUNGLE. 



over hills, through hollows and across several very interesting Dyak 

 bridges, built across mountain streams, above high water mark, to 

 insure the traveller a crossing in times of flood. Evidently the Hill 

 Dyaks are more averse to floundering through mud and water than 

 their brethren of the Sea tribe. 



The low foot-bridges are almost precisely like the hay-racks at 

 which the cattle feed in an Illinois farm -yard. They are very in- 

 genious contrivances, and the idea of their construction might often 

 be copied to good advantage by the settlei's of our Western States. 

 They are built by planting two rows of long stakes in the ground 

 slanting in opposite directions, so that a small sapling laid in the 

 fork thus formed will be horizontal, and of the proper height for 

 the footway. Each pair of stakes is lashed together at their point 

 of intersection, and the bridge is further strengthened by perpen- 

 dicular posts set under the footway. A pole is lashed along the top 

 of each row of stakes to serve as a hand-rail. One of the bridges 

 between Paku and Serambo was about a hundred feet long and nine 

 feet high at the middle. 



Sometimes the Dyaks construct very high suspension bridges 

 across streams with high and precipitous banks, by hanging a 

 couple of long bamboo stems with rattans or creepers from the 

 branches of the trees which overhang the chasm. A hand-rail is 

 also constructed, either on one side or both, but even with that, it 

 takes a very steady-headed European to cross without breaking out 

 all over in a cold perspiration. The Dyaks, however, trot across 

 them, carrying heavy loads with the most perfect nonchalance, and 

 the only accidents that occur are by the bamboos becoming rotten 

 and suddenly giving way with a grand crash. 



About an hour from Paku we reached the foot of the mountain 

 and began to climb up the path which leads to the Rajah's cottage 

 and the three villages of Serambo, Bombok, and Peninjau. It was 

 a hard climb. The whole side of the mountain was strewn, or 

 covered, rather, with boulders and angular masses of rock from 

 the size of a Saratoga trunk to a street car, smooth, mossy, and 

 slippery as ice. I think they must have been covered with soft 

 soap that morning for our especial benefit. We were obliged to 

 proceed with the greatest care and circumspection to avoid com- 

 ing down with a wreck of muscle and crush of bones. In some 

 places the rocks are so large and piled together in such rugged 

 confusion that the Dyaks have regular ladders and foot-bridges 

 over them, of notched saplings placed end to end with a hand-rail 



