IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



catching snatches of sleep only in the intervals. During my many 

 wakeful moments I had glimpses of the forest all alight with phos- 

 phorescence. Every object which lay on the ground was luminous : 

 fallen leaves, rotting branches, and prostrate trunks. The night, 

 nevertheless, appeared interminable, and it seemed to me that day- 

 light would never come. The sun was certainly above the horizon ; 

 but a dim twilight still prevailed, with a thin dense rain, after which 

 the mist rose. The temperature was 68° Fahr. Wishing to climb 

 to the summit again in order to get a view of the surrounding country, 

 I waited till noon, hoping that the weather would clear. Mean- 

 while I passed the time in listening to the Dyaks, who were relating 

 to each other dreams of the previous night. As I have already 

 remarked, the tops of mountains are for them places of terror, awe, 

 and mystery — the abode of spirits. To dream of a benevolent deity 

 is a most fortunate occurrence, which the Dyaks would often seek 

 by sleeping on the top of mountains ; but this is an act which in 

 their opinion calls for such audacity and cool courage, that few 

 indeed are bold enough to overcome their terrors and attempt it. 

 My guide told me that he once passed three consecutive nights on 

 the top of TiangLaju, but no good-omened dream came to recom- 

 pense his bravery. 



As the weather showed no signs of improvement, I returned 

 to Ruma Pranghi, and without stopping continued my march 

 to Marop, which I reached in two and a half hours of rapid 

 travelling. 



Throughout the latter half of April it continued to rain at Marop, 

 but I did not give up my daily excursions in the forest, and con- 

 tinued to find interesting novelties. During one of these excursions 

 I came across a Upas tree (Antiaris toxicaria), which was not wild, 

 but had been planted by Dyaks. This is another forest species 

 utilised by man which will probably in time disappear altogether 

 as a wild tree. At Banting, also, I had noticed several large speci- 

 mens of the Upas growing amidst fruit trees. The Dyaks here do 

 not extract poison from this tree, but obtain a kind of cloth from 

 its bark, with which they make their clothes for daily use, such as 

 the "jawat," when they cannot buy imported stuffs. Even the 

 blankets with which they cover themselves at night are often made 

 of Upas bark cloth. This is prepared by beating the bark until 

 the woody cortical portion is removed, leaving only the felted, thin, 

 and pliable fibres forming the inner bark or librum. Other plants 

 of the same family to which the Upas tree belongs {Artocarpece) are 

 similarly utilised for making cloth. 



One day, on a hill, I found the ground dug up pretty deeply in 

 several places. Pagni, my Dyak boy, who was with me at the time, 

 said it was certainly the work of a " Bruan," the Malayan bear, 

 searching for ants, of which it is very fond. 



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