IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



We continued to paddle till 5 p.m., and then rested for the night. 

 At 10 a.m. on the 21st August, after three hours' paddling, we 

 reached Labbang, where we halted for breakfat. The village 

 is built where an affluent of that name enters the Bintulu. It is 

 a deep stream, and can be ascended in boats for five or six days, 

 its waters flowing slowly in a flooded expanse between low banks 

 covered with dense vegetation. 



Labbang village consists of three or four houses on piles, like 

 those of every other village on the Bintulu. The floating landing- 

 stage was made of very big tree-trunks, and my men preferred to 

 cook their rice on this to doing so in the houses, which are small, 

 dirty and most uncomfortable. The people here are true Mel- 

 lanaos, but they have assumed some of the customs of the Kayans, 

 and have the same weapons. The men in the jungle wear merely 

 the jaw at, but when at home dress as Malays. The women have 

 wide trousers, and a long baju or jacket of dark blue cotton cloth, 

 with long open sleeves ornamented with brass buttons or rings, the 

 dress on the whole being very similar to that of the Bintulese. In 

 this part of the country the banks of the Bintulu are cleared only for 

 about a hundred yards from the water's edge — a sign that rice is 

 grown. 



At noon we got into the sampan and started again, paddling for 

 five hours. The current was not very strong,- but the water was 

 very muddy ; the banks, which rise some six feet above the water, 

 are level and dry. There were said to be many crocodiles here, and 

 that they were dangerous, but we saw little enough in the way of 

 animal life. We passed the night on the bank, as the ground was 

 dry, and sleeping in the boat was very inconvenient on account of 

 the small suace available, most of it being taken up by our luggage 

 and provisions. No more villages or even detached huts were 

 to be met with until we reached the Kayan territory. 



In the afternoon I had an attack of fever. At 7 p.m. violent 

 rain came on suddenly, with lightning and loud crashes of thunder. 

 It rained the whole night through, and yet this is the height of the 

 dry season ! The Malays slept well, although their bed was far 

 from being a comfortable one ; and I had some difficulty in waking 

 up my men next morning ! The rain had caused the river to rise, 

 but the current was not sufficient to stop our ascent of the stream. 

 The river banks were now very picturesque, no longer level and 

 uniform, but varied with hills, and here and there a projecting 

 precipitous bluff, on which great trees had taken root, spreading 

 huge branches covered with epiphytes over the river. Some giant 

 banyans, too, cast the shadow of their colossal foliage over the stream, 

 and while their myriads of glossy leaves, bathed in shimmering light, 

 seemed to strive upward for still freer contact with the air, the 

 attractions of Mother Earth seemed not less great, for countless 



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