xxi] IN THE SAKARRANG VALLEY 



This is the product of the tiny bee called by the Dyaks "nuang" 

 (Apis nigrocincta), which is found in the forest, but can easily be 

 domesticated. We had thus an excellent supper of rice and honey ; 

 and we hoped, also, to have a good sleep, after the tiring march and 

 the heat, from which I at least had suffered, and apparently my sturdy 

 Dyaks as well. But we were doomed to disappointment, for the 

 sandflies were simply insupportable, and, not having my mosquito 

 net with me, I never closed my eyes. In all my excursions in the 

 Bornean forests I would always prefer to do without food than with- 

 out that most excellent of inventions. But we should have fared 

 still worse had we not found the house, for the rain came down in 

 torrents throughout the night. 



Whilst we were waiting for our laggards at the Meliet torrent, 

 I saw the Dyaks who were with me hunting amongst the pebbles 

 of the torrent for a peculiar stone, which they greedily nibbled 

 as if it were a sweetmeat. It was a kind of clayey schist, soft and 

 brittle, and greasy to the touch. I brought a few specimens away 

 with me. 



Next morning the rest of our party joined us. They had camped 

 in the bed of the torrent ; but when it rained the waters rose, and 

 they had to fly, and passed a miserable night on the bank, for they 

 were not even able to light a fire. The old Dyak who had been 

 the cause of this delay, discouraged by so unpleasant a commence- 

 ment of his journey, had thought it wiser to turn back. 



None of the inmates of the house had returned, but Ladja and 

 his men, without much ado, helped themselves to all they cared for, 

 knowing that they were amongst friends. They prepared a luxu- 

 rious breakfast, consisting of fowls, rice, sago, and honey, of which 

 I partook with zest. For once in a way we made a late start, 

 and it was ten o'clock before we were off. We marched in the bed 

 of the torrent in six inches of water. This is the most tiring kind 

 of locomotion that can well be imagined, and is quite as unpleasant 

 to the Dyaks, whose feet become tender from such constant soaking, 

 and are more liable to get wounded afterwards in walking through 

 the forest. In my wanderings I found that a three days' tramp 

 in these forests disabled a third or half of the natives who were with 

 me. Most undoubtedly Borneo is not the land that has caused an 

 anthropoid like the orang-utan to exchange his arboreal locomotion 

 for a terrestial one ! 



Leaving the torrent we climbed a hill of some 1,300 feet, which 

 was entirely planted with rice, not the smallest tree remaining 

 to shade us from the merciless sun. When I got to the top I was 

 once more rewarded for the fatigue and heat I had endured by an 

 extensive view of the hills of the Sakarrang, the Batang Lupar, 

 and the Seribas. These lay in front of us, whilst looking back over 

 the way we had come I could see those of the Kanowit. Sadok, 



335 



