xiii.] FLOODED OUT INSECTS 



was told that there are still more names for these jars, which vary 

 in the different villages, and according to minor peculiarities in size, 

 shape, and ornamentation. 



It is not only for disputes like the one mentioned that the Dyaks 

 apply this " Trial by water," which is called by them " S'lam ayer " 

 (i.e. " Plunge in water"). It is resorted to in many instances, and 

 whenever a dispute cannot possibly be settled in any other way. 

 Generally before having recourse to it, a cock-fight is undertaken to 

 settle the question ; but if no satisfactory result is obtained, then the 

 severer test of " S'lam ayer " is appealed to. Even slight differ- 

 ences are often settled in this manner ; indeed, serious disputes are 

 rare amongst the Dyaks. The most frequent cause of ill feeling is 

 jealousy, or other disagreements in which women are concerned. 

 Such duels, next to " head-hunting," are for many the great events of 

 a lifetime ; for to pay off the debts contracted on such occasions 

 years of labour and of savings are often required. For the " S'lam 

 ayer " which took place when I was at Kantu, the loser would have 

 to pay a " Russa," at the utmost a " Bennaga." 



On the twelfth of May several of the Dyaks who had witnessed 

 the " S'lam ayer " returned to Grogo. It appeared that the trial 

 had not been decisive, and other solutions were to be tried, 

 possibly ending in bloodshed. I saw the young man who believed 

 himself the winner ; he was much excited, and declared loudly that 

 he would invoke the justice of the Tuan Muda ; as to the Dutch, 

 he would not even allow them to be mentioned. 



For some hours the rain had ceased, and the river had gone down 

 considerably. My smaller boat was recovered, some Dyaks having 

 found it caught in the branches of a tree about a mile lower down 

 the river. I had also succeeded, after much bargaining, in getting 

 another boat to replace the one which had been lost, capable of con- 

 taining five or six persons. When all was ready for our departure 

 it was four o'clock in the afternoon, and, as the two boats were not 

 fit to pass the night in, I put off starting until early next morning. 



This same day, before sunrise, I made an extraordinary haul 

 of very small insects, mostly micro-Coleoptera. The torrential rain 

 of the previous day had evidently been a veritable Flood for a whole 

 world of small creatures which the violence of the water had washed 

 off the plants, forcing them to seek safety on every floating fragment. 

 And now the waters of the stream retiring had left high and dry on 

 the banks all this flotsam and jetsam covered with myriads of ship- 

 wrecked creatures, which it was easy work to capture. Some of 

 these extempory rafts, I found, were loaded with heads, abdo- 

 mens, legs, and other fragments of insects which had been destroyed 

 by the flood. These Coleoptera were all the more easy to catch 

 owing to their being half drowned, or reduced to a condition of 

 torpor owing to the cold of the previous nights. I might have gone 



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