IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



the plant on our return. Our route obliged us to cross the Selle, 

 an affluent of the Kumpang stream, more than once. In its bed I 

 noticed several limestone pebbles, though all the rocks in the vicinity 

 were sandstone. It is therefore probable that in the neighbourhood 

 there are limestone hills like those along the Sarawak river. We 

 came afterwards to the Kumpang, which we forded not without 

 difficulty, for it was both deep and rapid. We were now close to 

 Ruma Udjan, a Dyak house- village, which we could have reached 

 in a quarter of an hour by crossing the impetuous Kumpang twice 

 more ; but after the experience we had j ust had I preferred making 

 a long detour to running the risk of wetting the provisions and my 

 botanic paper. The Orang Tua of Udj an did all he could to persuade 

 me to sleep at his house ; but it was too early to think of halting, 

 so I gave orders to proceed. We also passed the village of Plagnet 

 without stopping, and stayed for the night at Benda, farther on. 



At Benda I was able to engage three more Dyaks as carriers, 

 and thus to lighten the loads of my men. The weather was fine on 

 the morning of the eighth of May, and we started early. Up to the 

 present we had travelled through recent j ungle ; but a short distance 

 from Benda we entered old forest, through which we proceeded for 

 two hours. When the forest ceases one may be sure that villages are 

 not far off ; and in this case we soon reached that of Ruma Lassom, 

 perched on a hill, and a short distance farther on came to Ruma 

 Kuda, followed in succession by Ruma Mrassan, Massam, Mindjor, 

 and Unggam, all close together ; the last mentioned being near the 

 Mullangan, a stream which flows from the mountains forming the 

 watershed between the basin of the Batang Lupar and that of the 

 Pontianak or Kapuas. 



My Dyaks wished to camp here, for the night, but we had 

 only marched five hours, which seemed to me not enough. I was, 

 however, obliged to accede to their request. They complained that 

 their loads were heavy, and asserted that it would not be possible 

 to reach Kantu that night, the only place where sleeping quarters 

 could be got after Ruma Unggam, and Kantu could easily be reached 

 on the following day. 



The true reason of their wishing to stop it needed no great acumen 

 to discover when several good looking and lively girls appeared, and I 

 learnt that my young Dyaks had often been there before. In the end, 

 however, I had reason to be glad that I had granted their wish, 

 for had we proceeded we should certainly have been obliged to sleep 

 in the jungle, and that night there was a tremendous storm, in which 

 a hastily built lanko would indeed have been a poor shelter, and we 

 should have been drenched. 



Ruma Unggam, one of the usual big Dyak house- villages, had been 

 recently built and was very clean. As it may be taken as a type of 

 such Dyak dwellings in these parts I may as well describe it. 



170 



