IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



ment. This is a singular modification of the ubiquitous Pan's 

 pipes, consisting of six slender bamboo tubes, tied together like the 

 pipes of an organ, and inserted in a pear-shaped gourd with a longish 

 neck open at its end. The mouth is applied to this, and each tube 

 has a finger-hole on one side. It might also be compared to a bag- 

 pipe : the gourd substitutes the bag, and, instead of a single tube 

 with several finger-holes, we have here several tubes each with one 

 hole. A musical instrument similar to the one now described, but 

 bigger, is used in Siam. 



Next day I was able to find a Kayan, named Kam-Uan, who, 

 with two others, undertook to guide me to Gunong Sedaha, the 

 hill on which the camphor tree grows. I started at 8 a.m., having 

 four of my men in addition to the three Kayans. I agreed to give 

 each of my Kayan guides four fathoms of red cotton cloth. We 

 ascended the Tubao for about three hours and reached a lanko, 

 from which the road leading to Gunong Sedaha starts. The hill 

 was not far off, and after the usual frugal rice dinner we directed our 

 steps towards it without loss of time. The forest begins about a 

 mile from the river, and extends over the hills, and we had hardly 

 entered it before we came on camphor trees (Dryobalanops) of large 

 size, which were quite abundant. Here, however, as in all Bornean 

 forests, no species of tree predominates so as to influence the aspect 

 of the forest. The various species are intermingled ; and when I 

 say that the camphor trees were abundant, I mean that perhaps 

 amongst thirty or forty big trees belonging to different families 

 and widely different species, one or two Dryobalanops were to be 

 found. The locality had certainly been often visited, for most of 

 the trunks of the camphor trees bore evident signs of having been 

 tapped, i 



Wishing to preserve herbarium specimens of the authentic 

 species which produces camphor in the Bintulu region, I had one of 

 the smaller trees cut down, but in its trunk I only found a small 

 quantity of viscid and highly odoriferous yellow oil. 



The collecting of camphor is a very uncertain operation, for 

 although a good number of the trees may contain the precious resin 

 in their trunks, few have it in such quantities as to repay the trouble 

 of extraction. As in the case of most things where luck comes into 

 play, it is connected with many superstitions ; a rule, by the way, 

 which holds good not only with savages, but also with the less 

 educated amongst civilised nations. I do not think that any one 

 has as yet described the process of collecting camphor in Borneo, 

 and the following notes may therefore be of interest. 



When the Kayans decide to start on a camphor-collecting expe- 



1 According to some travellers (Low, Op. cit., p. 45), the camphor tree is 

 found near the Sarawak. This, however, is not the true tree, but an allied 

 species which produces excellent timber, but no camphor. 



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