IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



specimens were afterwards lost. It rained again late at night; but 

 we were this time under a shelter much better than that of the 

 mats or " kadjans " of our narrow sampan. 



In the morning it was still raining, but as soon as I had taken 

 my tea we started towards Tubao, as the Kayan village is called, 

 like the river. This latter is tortuous and torrential, and runs 

 between narrow banks covered by vegetation of secondary growth. 

 No forest was in sight, neither did I see any large isolated trees 

 except a few Minuangs. We frequently met with tombs : two were 

 remarkable ; but that of Kam-Lassa, a Kayan chief recently deceased, 

 surpassed all the rest in size and decorations. It had the form of a 

 large shed, with a roof surmounted by a carved and perforated 

 ridge of excellent workmanship, and supported by columns of bilian 

 wood. I was told that it was the work of a Bruni artist, and 

 had cost fifty pikuls of bronze objects, especially gongs ; an enor- 

 mous sum for these countries. x Some tombs were merely marked 

 by a board fixed upright, with white, yellow and red streamers 

 stuck around, or even fastened on the branches of the nearest shrubs. 



The village of Tubao, where we arrived two hours later, consisted 

 only of four houses ; but they were very large ones and well built, in 

 an elevated position, for the river bank is high. ' Three of the houses 

 were exceedingly long ; the fourth was much smaller. Each house 

 was, as usual, divided into as many apartments (pintu) as the number 

 of the families which lived in the house. The biggest house had 

 twenty-seven pintus ; the second, twenty-two ; the third, thirteen, 

 and the smaller one only six. 



I took up my quarters in the house with thirteen pintus. Like 

 the others, it was built on piles, which raised its platform or flooring 

 about twenty-five feet from the ground, and it was reached by a 

 slender tree-trunk, with deep notches at regular intervals which 

 served as steps ; though it certainly looked much more like a roosting- 

 ladder for poultry than the staircase leading to a human habitation, 

 and required no small acrobatic ability in those who had to climb it. 

 Like Dyak houses the building was span-roofed, and the inside was 

 similarly divided longitudinally into two nearly equal compartments, 

 the front one forming a kind of long common corridor or covered 

 verandah without partitions, where the inhabitants assemble to 

 smoke, work, and chatter ; the back half being divided into apart- 

 ments or chambers, which appeared to me more spacious and cleaner 

 than those of the Dyaks which I had seen. It must be remarked, 

 however, that this house was of recent construction. 



The roof was partly covered with ataps, and partly with 

 flat tiles of bilian wood slightly imbricated, and must thus have 

 been very durable, this wood being all but indestructible. The 



1 The pikul is equivalent to 1 33^ pounds avoirdupois, and is divided into 

 100 kattis. 



268 



