IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



river was swollen and dangerous, I thought it more prudent to 

 stay at Grogo for the night. 



As I entered the big communal house the children fled 

 shrieking, catching sight of my beard. To the adults a white 

 man was less strange, for the Kantu Dyaks had frequent dealings 

 with Simanggan. 



I saw here very fine mats being made with fibres from the sheaths 

 of the leaves of a Zingiberaceous plant, the same, I believe, as those 

 that I had found at Marop, the " goppak " mentioned in a former 

 chapter. The Grogo Dyaks are also renowned for their fishing nets, 

 which they make with a very strong twine constructed from the 

 fibres of wild plants of which I was unable to get precise par- 

 ticulars. 



From the verandah of the Dyak house at Grogo, two peaks of 

 singular shape are to be seen rising isolated from the plain, at no 

 great distance. One, to the west, is called Tutop, and is easily 

 recognisable by the steep cliffs crowning its summit, which — a rare 

 case in Borneo— is bare, or, at all events, without visible vegetation, 

 and thus bears no small resemblance to the ruins of an ancient 

 castle. From its appearance I should say that Tutop is formed 

 of the same porphyritic rock which I had noted in similar-looking 

 peaks near the Sarawak river. The other peak, Togak, lies N.W. 

 from Grogo, and is of a regular conical shape, like that of a Chinese 

 hat. It is completely clothed with forest. The houses of Kantu 

 village are really at the foot of this last-mentioned mountain ; but 

 when I passed close to it I did not see it — a thing which often happens 

 in a country where the vegetation is so dense. By a rough guess, I 

 should put the altitude of these two peaks at below 2,500 feet, but 

 in such cases it is easy to make a mistake, for there is nothing to 

 serve as a satisfactory basis for comparison. 



During the night it rained in torrents, and next morning, May 

 nth, the river was so swollen that the water reached the big branches 

 of the trees along the banks. The rain continued, and the river still 

 kept on rising. The flood, I found, had carried away our canoes, 

 my men having stupidly omitted to secure them on the previous 

 evening, and now it seemed likely that we should not be able to 

 replace them. 



The rain was so violent that I was obliged to remain indoors. 

 My Malays made use of the time in manufacturing fish-hooks, 

 using for this some of the brass rings which the Dyaks wear in their 

 ears. Employing their parangs as sole implements, they managed 

 to shape the hooks, point them, and make the barb. 



The Dyaks must be ignorant of that malady which we call 

 ennui. To them laziness is a pleasure, yet they can be at times 

 exceedingly active. When it rains they are capable of sleeping all 

 day, and are not on that account awake during the night ; or else 



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