120 BORNEO. [chap. v. 



certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a 

 very short time. 



Poets and moralists, judging from our English trees and 

 fruits, have thought that small fruits always grew on lofty 

 trees, so that their fall should be harmless to man, while 

 the large ones trailed on the ground. Two of the largest 

 and heaviest fruits known, however, the Brazil-nut fruit 

 (Bertholletia) and Durian, grow on lofty forest trees, from 

 which they fall as soon as they are ripe, and often wound 

 or kill the native inhabitants. From this we may learn 

 two things : first, not to draw general conclusions from a 

 very partial view, of nature ; and secondly, that trees and 

 fruits, no less than the varied productions of the animal 

 kingdom, do not appear to be organized with exclusive 

 reference to the use and convenience of man. 



During my many journeys in Borneo, and especially 

 during my various residences among the Dyaks, I first 

 came to appreciate the admirable qualities of the Bamboo. 

 In those parts of South America which I had previously 

 visited, these gigantic grasses were comparatively scarce ; 

 and where found but little used, their place being taken as 

 to one class of uses by the great variety of Palms, and as 

 to another by calabashes and gourds. Almost all tropical 

 countries produce Bamboos, and wherever they are found 

 in abundance the natives apply them to a variety of uses. 

 Their strength lightness smoothness straightness round- 



