IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



I should like to know why these Dyaks placed the skull of an ape 

 amongst their war trophies. Perhaps they, too, have an inkling of 

 the relationship existent between Man and the anthropoids, and 

 in one of their war expeditions, having failed to secure human 

 heads, brought back what they may have considered a substitute. 

 Orang-utans, it should be remarked, are rare on the Rejang, and 

 are thus regarded more or less as objects of curiosity. 



Cn the twentieth of October I commenced my journey towards 

 Simanggan. The Rejang, where its two branches enclose Pulo 

 Kaladi, is, perhaps, about 1,100 yards across from bank to bank. 

 At daylight we were all in the boat, but just as we were starting 

 an accident happened which might have had serious consequences. 

 A Dyak, unskilled in the use of firearms, in sitting down, removed 

 my gun loaded with big shot which was lying by my side, causing 

 it to go off. Ladja was just behind me, and at first I feared that he 

 was badly wounded ; but, fortunately, between him and the muzzle 

 of the gun was a native rotang basket or tambuk containing some 

 of my clothes, a package of tobacco, and a pair of shoes ; these 

 received the full force of the discharge, and Ladja, fortunately, was 

 merely struck in the legs by a few spent pellets of shot which had 

 gone through, and hardly penetrated beyond the skin. I did 

 not know how Ladja would take the occurrence, but neither he nor 

 any of his companions for a moment thought of attaching any blame 

 to me. I feared that such an accident, taking place just as we were 

 about to start, might be regarded as a bad omen, auguring against 

 our departure. But it was just the opposite. Ladja, far from being 

 discouraged by the mishap, considered it as a patent proof of his 

 invulnerability. Not having been killed then, he felt confident that 

 he was proof against all bullets. Meanwhile, with my taxidermists' 

 tweezers, I extracted the shot from Ladja's legs. The operation 

 was a simple and easy one, the more so as the young Dyak was 

 as impassive as if I had been taking the shot out of the soles of my 

 shoes instead of from his muscles. 



Towards evening we left the Rejang, here quite 700 yards across, 

 and entered the Kanowit. We halted for dinner, but resumed our 

 journey immediately afterwards. Rain fell in the evening, all the 

 more disagreeably as it increased the force of the current against 

 which we were paddling. 



Ladja's Dyaks, active and obedient to their chief, did not 

 require much persuasion, as the Malays do, to take up their paddles, 

 nor was their next morning's toilet a lengthy business. At dawn they 

 were up, and when, very shortly after, the sun rose — for here the 

 dawn is brief — we were again on our way. 



The country we were now traversing was most uninteresting 

 to me ; the banks were high and the land in consequence was dry. 

 The primeval forest covered the land no longer, and jungle of 



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