xxn] INSTRUMENT FOR HUSKING RICE 



time of flood tide was near we stopped at a lanko to await the tidal 

 "bore." This came at 4 p.m., and was rather imposing, only 

 instead of being a single wall of water it was followed by several 

 waves in succession. We started again with the tide in our favour, 

 and paddled for five hours, as long as it served us, in fact ; when we 

 made fast the boat to a tree, lit a fire, had our supper, and then lay 

 down to sleep in the boat, there being no dry spot ashore. Our 

 slumbers were not quiet, for the boat caused us continual anxiety, 

 being in bad condition and very leaky. The river was very full, 

 and the water was perfectly clear, but of a dark colour, like that of 

 strong tea, just as I had seen it in the Kapuas lakes. 



On the 15th we continued to ascend the Lingga river, which now 

 widened and spread over the forest, completely inundating it. At 

 one spot the vegetation was entirely composed of pandani, through 

 which we with great difficulty found a passage. We often heard 

 the bellowing of orang-utans, but did not see any. 



Since we had left Banting we had not fallen in with a single 

 living soul, and we were beginning to get anxious regarding the 

 direction we were following, for the regular course of the river could 

 no longer be made out, and we had got to a kind of lake, where all 

 view around was impeded by a thick growth of pandani. But in 

 the nick of time, when a guide had become an imperative necessity, 

 we met with a boat paddled by a single Dyak, happily a pagan, 

 who readily offered to pilot us. 



We had fortunately not yet got off the track, and after a little 

 time we came to a part where the course of the river was plainer. 

 It was nevertheless still so full of plants and floating tree-trunks 

 that our progress was very slow and fatiguing. Towards evening, 

 after having got drenched to the skin by a very heavy shower, we 

 found a little sort of hill raised above the waters, where we passed 

 the night as well as. we could. 



I left there next morning the boat which I had taken at Banting, 

 for it was too large for the river, which was now reduced to a mere 

 torrent. Two men with my luggage accordingly got into the small 

 canoe we had met, whilst I with the other two and our guide, pro- 

 ceeded by land along the bank of the stream, following a pathway 

 which led to the dwelling of some Subumban Dyaks, which we 

 reached at about n a.m. 



In this house I noticed for the first time a very ingenious instru- 

 ment for husking rice (Fig. 57), an operation usually performed in a 

 wooden mortar, as I have previously mentioned. But the instru- 

 ment I now saw was a form of mill, and consisted of two cylinders 

 of very hard wood, about a foot in diameter, which were placed one 

 over the other. The top one was shaped like a funnel at its upper 

 end, and bored through, the bore having a diameter of about 4 inches. 

 Its lower end was concave, and had deep grooves radiating from the 



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