IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



this purpose the bajio — a slender euphorbiaceous shrub with a stem 

 not thicker than one's little finger, and from four to seven feet high, 

 straight and without any branches, but only a few very large coria- 

 ceous leaves at the upper end, in the axillae of which spikes of in- 

 significant flowers grow. 1 The stems are well dried after the bark 

 has been scraped off, and, when required for use, one of them is 

 lighted at one end and applied against the blade of a knife or parang, 

 or some other smooth iron surface. In burning, a resinous oil 

 appears to exude from these sticks, and is condensed on the metallic 

 surface. To this substance lamp-black (obtained, I believe, by burn- 

 ing dammar resin) is added, forming a black pigment which, applied 

 to the teeth, adheres strongly to their surface. However, to keep 

 them well blacked, the operation must be often repeated. 



The Singhi Dyaks, after the fashion of many other primitive 

 people, count on their fingers and pass on to their toes. One of their 

 habitual postures of rest, as with most Dyaks, is that of squat- 

 ting on their hams, the feet only resting on the ground. The sole 

 of the foot is quite flat in the Dyaks, and often when standing still 

 they keep the foot turned inwards, as if to apply the sole flat against 

 the ground was not natural or habitual to them. This is a pithecoid 

 character, and is seen especially in women and children. It has 

 been suggested that the peculiarity is derived from the habit of 

 climbing trees, and the frequent walking over tree-trunks laid down 

 to form pathways in the forest. 



Not only Dyaks, but also many Malays can, and often do, use 

 their feet as supplementary hands. I have seen Javanese labouring 

 in the fields take a stick up between the hallux and the next toe, and 

 plant it upright in the ground. The great toe is always used in a 

 similar manner in climbing up a rope or a liana to reach the top of 

 a tree. And in twisting a cord, or splitting or cleaning a rotang, the 

 great toe is always used to hold down one of the ends. It is also 

 always used to seize a branch or a fruit out of reach of the hand, or to 

 pick up an object on the ground without stooping. A Malay in my 

 service could tear up a sheet of paper, using the two great toes, and 

 holding it by the two opposite ends. The same man could bend out- 

 wards and detach his right great toe from the rest for a distance of 

 two and three-sixteenth inches, and the left one two inches, and 

 could spread out all the other toes like a fan, detaching one from 

 the other nearly half an inch, and the little toe from the one next 

 to it more than three quarters of an inch. Malays usually have the 

 second toe much longer than the great toe. In general, their feet 



1 This plant is a new species of the genus Agrostistachys, which I have 

 distinguished by the name of A. Borneensis (P.B., No. 1,381 and 3,117); 

 it is nearly allied to A. longifolia, Benth. I found it also at Johore, in the 

 Malay Peninsula, where its broad leaves are used as thatch on huts in the 

 forest. 



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