CHAPTER XVI 



The Rotang Yielding Dragon's Blood — Singhi Hill — Notable Palms 

 and Their Uses — Across the Forest — Rotang Jernang — Manner 

 of Extracting Dragon's Blood — The Liran — Singular Fungi — 

 A Night Bivouac — Giant Palm Leaves — Dyak Methods of 

 Making Fire — Fishing in Forest Streams — Varied Uses of Bamboos 

 Dyak Teeth Staining — Other Customs of the Land-Dyaks — 

 Mobility of the Toes in Malays and Dyaks — Notes on the Fishes 

 of the Sarawak river — Poisonous Fishes and Singing Fishes — 

 A Thief-Detecting Fish — Fishing with the "Tuba." 



USUALLY in undertaking an excursion I had in view the col- 

 lection of some animal, plant, or product which had a par- 

 ticular interest for me, and with which I was as yet unacquainted. 

 Amongst the latter was the rotang which produces the jernang, 

 or " dragon's blood," a kind of resin of a bright red colour. Having 

 heard that the plant from which this valuable drug is obtained was 

 common in the densely matted primeval j ungle on the north-western 

 slopes of Mount Mattang, I started in search of it at the beginning 

 of July, accompanied by several Singhi Dyaks well acquainted with 

 the locality. 



During my residence on Mattang I had visited Singhi more than 

 once, following a pathway through the vast forest. From Kuching, 

 however, the village is reached much more conveniently by going 

 up the Sarawak river to a spot past Bellida, whence a tolerably good 

 path leads in about an hour to the foot of the hill on which the houses 

 are built. 



The Singhi Dyaks were old acquaintances and good friends of 

 mine, and I had no difficulty in finding the men I required for the 

 projected excursion. Their houses were scattered over different 

 parts of the hill, all in highly picturesque positions, and always 

 shaded by a grand and luxurious vegetation nearly exclusively 

 formed by cultivated trees, such as durians, coconut palms, pinangs, 

 arengas, langsats, rambutans, and especially bamboos, which 

 acquire colossal dimensions, and form green and spreading clumps 

 of remarkable beauty. 



On the Singhi hill I also met with a splendid, and at the same 

 time more or less useful, palm, which is in general allowed to grow 

 near the houses. One might almost imagine it a cultivated species, 



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