IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap, xix 



new and peculiar plants ; but of very few was I able to get frag- 

 mentary specimens. Towards noon we reached a village on the 

 Bellaga, consisting of several big houses quite similar to those seen 

 on the Tubao. The Bellaga is a large stream about sixty yards 

 wide where we came to it, and very deep, and it was navigable 

 for another five days, penetrating farther inland than do the 

 branches of the Bintulu. Indeed, on reaching the place where it 

 ceases to be navigable for canoes, one day's tramp overland takes 

 the traveller to the basin of the Barram. 



The inhabitants of the village we had reached are called 

 Kadjamans, but they did not appear to me to differ from the 

 Kayans. 



On the 22nd I went to the hill near the Bellaga to get specimens 

 of some interesting plants which I had noticed in coming, but being 

 then loaded and anxious to get to camp, had not collected. Amongst 

 the more notable new species of plants got on this hill I may mention 

 a singular Anonaceous plant (Enicosanthum paradoxum, Becc.) ; 

 and two small but most graceful palms, one a true pinang in minia- 

 ture (Areca furcata, Becc), the other a Licuala (L. cordata, Becc), 

 remarkable for its entire leaves, which resemble an open Chinese 

 fan. I was surprised, also, to find in a quite limited area no less 

 than five distinct forms of begonia, a genus which is by no means 

 rich in species in Borneo. But on this excursion I did not meet with 

 many plants in blossom. I returned to the village thoroughly 

 exhausted, for I had had a bad attack of fever on the way. 



Meanwhile, Kam Diam, chief of one of the nearest villages on 

 the Baloi, came to Bellaga. He was unlike any of the Kayans, or 

 even Dyaks I had yet seen, and was certainly the stoutest and 

 fattest man I ever saw in Borneo, though obesity is less rare amongst 

 the Malays than amongst the inland tribes. From Kam Diam I 

 heard that the escort sent to meet me by Mr. Cruikshank had waited 

 a long while at Baloi, but the men having had no news of my arrival 

 were that very day going back to their homes. To say the truth, 

 their company was now not so much wanted, for it looked as if I 

 was not to meet with any great difficulties in accomplishing my 

 journey. But as a bodyguard they would certainly have been 

 useful in several ways, for although the Rajah's authority was great 

 over the settled communities of Kayans and other tribes in the 

 interior along the Rejang, especially after a severe chastisement 

 inflicted by the Tuan Muda, it could then hardly be expected to 

 extend to wandering parties of head-hunters. 



I passed the evening nursing my fever, and was tormented by 

 a crowd of dogs, attracted no doubt by the smell of my supplies. 

 In the house where I had taken up my quarters there must have 

 been at least forty of these brutes. I was quite unable to get rid 

 of them, and during the night they devoured nearly all the supply 



2Q8 



