chap, iv.] DYAK MODE OF CLIMBING. 85 



Durian trees close by the house, the fruit of which was 

 ripe ; and as the Dyaks looked upon me as a benefactor in 

 killing the Mias which destroys a great deal of their fruit, 

 they let us eat as much as we liked, and we revelled in 

 this emperor of fruits in its greatest perfection. 



The very day after my arrival in this place, I was so 

 fortunate as to shoot another adult male of the small 

 orang, the Mias-kassir of the Dyaks. It fell when dead, 

 but caught in a fork of the tree and remained fixed. As I 

 was very anxious to get it, I tried to persuade two young 

 Dyaks who were with me to cut down the tree, which was 

 tall, perfectly straight and smooth-barked, and without a 

 branch for fifty or sixty feet. To my surprise, they said 

 they would prefer climbing up it, but it would be a good 

 deal of trouble, and, after a little talking together, they said 

 they would try. They first went to a clump of bamboo 

 that stood near, and cut down one of the largest stems. 

 From this they chopped off a short piece, and splitting it, 

 made a couple of stout pegs, about a foot long, and sharp 

 at one end. Then cutting a thick piece of wood for a 

 mallet, they drove one of the pegs into the tree and hung 

 their weight upon it. It held, and this seemed to satisfy 

 them, for they immediately began making a quantity of 

 pegs of the same kind, while I looked on with great 

 interest, wondering how they could possibly ascend such a 

 lofty tree by merely driving pegs in it, the failure of any 



