xxn] A DYAK JUNGLE PATH 



a lot of pandani, whose young shoots he had been eating, and these 

 formed a hedge so dense and prickly as to be practically impassable. 

 I might have spared the poor brute's life, and should have done 

 so had I stopped to think ; for even had I got him our boat was too 

 overloaded already, and we could not possibly have added any 

 further weight to it, unless we desired to serve as a repast to the 

 numerous crocodiles, whose snouts we saw sticking up above the 

 water in all directions. At 3 p.m. we reached Sumundjang. 



From Sumundjang to Samarahan a Dyak path, consisting of 

 the trunks of trees placed end to end, had been made a few years 

 before across the forest, principally, I believe, for the use of the 

 workers in a coal mine in the neighbourhood, which was later aban- 

 doned. Reduced as I now was to the shortest of commons, and 

 obliged to get to Kuching as quickly as I could, I thought it best to 

 take this path as being the shortest, although we were warned that 

 it was almost impassable on account of the rotten batangs, and the 

 creepers and shrubs with which it was overgrown. It was, however, 

 a sort of furrow in the vast mass of the primeval jungle which might 

 serve us as a guide ; and certainly without its aid I should not have 

 ventured to penetrate such forest as lay before us, having heard only 

 too often of people who had done so, in search of gutta or rotang, and 

 had never been seen again. This kind of half -submerged forest, 

 where the subarboreal vegetation is very dense and intertwined, 

 offers almost insuperable obstacles to the traveller, and a mile of 

 road such as this entails more fatigue and more time than ten miles 

 under ordinary conditions. But trusting in the path in question, 

 which in seven or eight hours of travel should bring us to Samarahan, 

 I started early with my four men, none of whom had been that way 

 before, without taking anything more than a little cooked rice in 

 the way of food. 



Very soon the going became really atrocious ; the forest was 

 flooded everywhere, and we followed along the edge of the old path 

 as best we could. On it we could not go, for densely matted vegeta- 

 tion of new growth had completely blocked it up. When we were 

 obliged to diverge from it, we carefully marked the direction with 

 the compass, cutting our way with the parang through masses of 

 Pandanus and Mapania. Both these plants abounded, and were 

 most troublesome on account of the thorns with which their long 

 leaves are provided. To add to our difficulties rain fell incessantly 

 throughout the day. 



Meanwhile, it was getting dark, and we saw no possibility of 

 reaching Samarahan that evening. We had had to go along slowly 

 during the latter part of our journey, for one of my men had wounded 

 his foot, and it soon became evident that we must camp in the 

 forest. We therefore constructed one of the usual hasty shelters 

 or lanko, lifted from the ground, taking advantage of a small space 



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