xxi] ABNORMAL DYAKS 



secondary growth was to be seen wherever there were no rice fields. 

 The rain had caused the river to rise, and we proceeded slowly. 

 But the Dyaks are very clever in taking advantage of any counter- 

 currents formed by projecting points. For such portions of the 

 river placed between two reaches the Malays have a special term, 

 " rantao." 



We met with a big crocodile of the kind called by the natives 

 "boayakatak,"or frog crocodile, so called because it has a shorter 

 snout than the common species. The boaya katak prefers shallow, 

 clear-running water, whilst the common long-snouted species keeps 

 to the big rivers. 



The banks of the Kanowit continued to be uninteresting 

 because deprived of the old forest, a proof that the country was 

 populous, although few houses were to be seen from the river. I 

 noticed several fine tapangs, and some specimens of the ruddy 

 monkey (Semnopithecus rubicundus), which is also met with on 

 the Batang Lupar and Sadong rivers, though I had never seen 

 them on the Sarawak. The local restriction of an animal which 

 can easily travel long distances is remarkable. The Dyaks call 

 this fine monkey " Julu mera," and assert that in it is found 

 a bezoar stone, here known as " Batu belliga," to which they 

 attribute great virtues. Up to that time I had been told 

 that the bezoar was hidden in the head of the animal, but Ladja 

 assured me that it is found in the prut, i.e. abdomen. Possibly it 

 is a urinary calculus, and occurs in the bladder. Most of these 

 bezoars come from the Kayan territory. The Malays set a great 

 value on them, and pay extravagant prices for them, using them 

 for medicinal purposes. One kind, more highly esteemed than 

 the others, is said to be found in the porcupine. 



We halted next day for the usual culinary operations at a place 

 called Aboi. The long house-village was not visible from the river, 

 and is reached by ascending a streamlet, hidden by vegetation 

 and barely accessible to a boat, for a few hundred yards. Sahat 

 got here a good haul of fish with the casting net. 



The Dyaks at this house struck me as peculiar. Some of their 

 women had goitres, which I had never seen before in Borneo. I 

 also met an albino — the second I had seen, and similar to the 

 one I had met at Marop. Several of the children, I noticed, had 

 fair hair. I cannot explain why in this house I should have found 

 such an assemblage of abnormalities. I do not believe in accidental 

 characters in organisms, when such a term is applied to a character 

 produced independently of physiological or hereditary causes. 

 The cause may be unknown, difficult of recognition, and possibly 

 even not capable of explanation in the present state of our know- 

 ledge ; but even the smallest modifications in living beings, every 

 line in the physiognomy, as well as every variation in the propor- 



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