xxi] REMARKABLE AQUATIC PLANTS 



a sign of good luck, and my Dyaks asked me to allow them to stop 

 a little while in token of respect, to which I readily consented. They 

 stopped rowing, and remained a few minutes quite still with their 

 paddles lifted, and then cheerfully resumed their labour. 



It was nearly noon on October 24th when we left the Kanowit 

 and entered the Entabei. Here we found the current stronger, 

 but as the water was shallow we made good progress with the 

 " suars," i.e. by poling. Ladja's men were very clever at this work, 

 and could push a boat rapidly up shallow streams with strong 

 currents in a way unknown in the Malay Islands east of Borneo. 

 The study of poling-methods in various countries would be not 

 without its interests. Our Arno boatmen in Tuscany always pole 

 where the river is shallow, and use their poles exactly as the Dyaks 

 do theirs, only they certainly cannot compare with the latter in 

 the length of the journeys thus performed with their light canoes. 

 Ours literally flew over the surface of the water, handled with incom- 

 parable dexterity by my six young savages. There is to my mind 

 no lighter and more pleasant method of progression, and certainly 

 no kind of work displays so well the elegant movements and perfect 

 proportions of these young Dyaks, who, practically unencumbered 

 with clothing, are truly splendid specimens of humanity. Timing 

 their movements with marvellous precision, one stands erect and 

 raises his suar, while his neighbour bends low over his as he thrusts 

 it into the bed of the torrent, and so alternately. Anyone inex- 

 perienced in the work would very soon be overboard. 



Several villages were passed, but as it was still daylight we con- 

 tinued on our way, only halting when the shade of the trees of both 

 banks, which now nearly touched each other overhead, had deepened 

 into darkness. 



The morning of the 25th was delicious ; a cool gentle breeze 

 wafted to us the sweet scent of the blossoming trees in the neigh- 

 bouring forest. The sun, in spite of its tropic fierceness, hardly 

 managed to pierce the dense mass of foliage overhead with a few of 

 the slenderest rays, which, reflected by the limpid crystalline 

 waters of the river in dancing shafts of light, fitfully illumined the 

 green tunnel through which we made our way. The clear water 

 ran over a bed of gravel, at times sloping enough to form a series 

 of small rapids, covered over a wide area by a singular plant having 

 purplish leaves with sheeny reflections. This was a small aroid 

 (Cryptocoryne bullosa, Becc), belonging to a genus the species of 

 which live mostly under water. The leaves of this plant are most 

 remarkable. Their surfaces are not flat, but pitted beneath and with 

 corresponding protuberances above, as in some varieties of the com- 

 mon cabbage. What is the cause of such a conformation in an 

 aquatic plant ? All structural peculiarities in an organ must have, 

 or have had, some cause or reason — for adaptation, as I understand 



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