CHAPTER XXI 



From the Rejang to the Batang Lupar — A Splendid Dyak Type — ■ 

 Orang Skull Amongst Human Trophies — A Lucky Gun Accident 

 —On the Kanowit — The Ruddy Monkey and Bezoar Stones — 

 Abnormal Dyaks — A Bird of Good Omen — Poling — Picturesque 

 Scenery — Remarkable Aquatic Plants — A Giant Tapang — 

 Manufacture of Sumpitans — We Begin the Overland Journey — 

 Flowers on Roots — A Pigmy Aroid — Edible Stones — Rice Fields 

 — In the Sakarrang Valley — The Milk of the Upas — Dyak Cos- 

 mography — Down the Sakarrang — A Dyak Court of Justice — 

 Travel Customs on the Sakarrang — Arrival at Simanggan 



ON the morning of October 19th, as previously arranged, Ladja, 

 with eight other Dyaks, came to the fort duly equipped 

 for the journey. Ladja (i.e. " Sumpitan arrow") was the son of 

 the Orang Kaya of Pulo Kaladi, the island which lies opposite to 

 the fort of Sibu, right in the middle of the Baloi. He was a hand- 

 some young man, tall like most of his companions, slender, and 

 beautifully made. His profile was nearly regular, the nose perfectly 

 straight, but the cheek bones rather too prominent and the chin 

 rather pointed. His complexion was very light. Similar types 

 are not at all infrequent amongst the Baloi Dyaks, amongst whom 

 one seldom sees cases of "kurap" (a skin disease allied to itch), 

 which is so disfiguring and so prevalent amongst the Land-Dyaks. 1 

 Ladja presented himself to me in his picturesque costume — a 

 short jacket of red cloth and the " jawat" ; a parang was stuck in 

 his belt, and in his hand he held a sumpitan. From his ears hung 

 large pendants made out of the huge red beaks of the great hornbill 

 (Buceros rhinoceros). A large number of rings of brass, gradually 

 decreasing in diameter, covered his legs below the knees, whilst on 

 his arms he wore two rings of white shell. 



Having taken leave of Mr. Skelton who had been so kind to me 

 and done so much to facilitate my journey, I went over to Pulo 

 Kaladi to Ladja's house in order to exchange the boat I had for a 

 more commodious one. In the house I saw a Mayas Tj aping's 

 skull, well smoked, and hanging up with numerous human skulls. 



1 " Kurap " (see footnote on p. 60) is the same as the common and 

 ■widely-distributed skin disease of the Pacific known as Tokelau ringworm, 

 and is caused, not by an Acarus, but by a fungus (trichophyton). — Ed. 



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