IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



yet it reproduces itself naturally by seed. I am alluding to the 

 magnificent Caryota, which the Singhi Dyaks call " kayuno," and 

 the Malays " baroch." 1 In the rich soil around the houses this 

 palm shows an extremely powerful growth, its stems attaining a 

 height of forty to fifty feet. They are thicker than those of the 

 coconut, perfectly straight, smooth, and marked with many rings, 

 the scars where old fronds were once attached to the stem. These 

 fronds are immense, as much as twenty-five feet or more in 

 length, and differ from the usual type common to most palms in 

 being much divided, with the terminal divisions of a half lozenge 

 or swallow-tailed shape. In enormous bunches hanging from the 

 upper part of the trunk are a prodigious number of fruits of a red 

 colour, and the size of cherries. These are useless, and, indeed, 

 harmful, for when ripe they contain an acrid juice which causes 

 intense irritation if it comes in contact with a delicate part of the 

 skin. The most notable peculiarity of this palm is that its stem 

 swells out in the middle, assuming a fusiform aspect recalling that 

 of Oreodoxa regia. The cause of this thickening may, perhaps, be 

 explained by the very rapid growth of the species during the inter- 

 mediate period of its life. Notwithstanding this character — although 

 I was at first inclined to consider the tree as a distinct species, re- 

 stricted to Borneo, and had even described it as such under the name 

 of Caryota No — I came later to the conclusion that it must be regarded 

 as a mere variety or local race of C. Rumphiana, a widely diffused 

 species in the eastern part of the Malay Archipelago. 



The Kayu No is by the Singhi Dyaks only used for certain 

 long black fibres, known to them as talionus, which they obtain 

 through maceration from the midribs of the leaves, and use for fish- 

 ing lines. These same fibres, woven with strips of the aerial roots 

 of Eugeissonia, and of rotangs, are used to make cylindrical baskets 

 called tambuk, and for similar kind of work. 



I have mentioned the Arenga (Arenga saccharifera), another 

 great palm which grows very luxuriantly at Singhi (where it is called 

 idjok), and has fronds reaching a length of over thirty feet. In 

 Sarawak this well known palm is appreciated not so much for the wine 

 or toddy and for the sugar which can be extracted from it, as for the 

 black fibre, not unlike horsehair, which is found in large quantities 

 around the bases of the fronds, and clothes the entire trunk. With 

 these fibres rope of all sizes is made, of great strength, nearly ever- 

 lasting in durability, and much used by Malays for the rigging of 

 their praus, and especially for cables. The Dyaks also make an ex- 

 tensive use of ropes of this material ; the finer kinds are preferred to 

 rotang for tying beams and other wooden parts of the framework 

 of native houses throughout Sarawak. 



1 Cf. Beccari ; in Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano, vol. iii. p. 12. 



232 



