236 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALI8T, [Oh. XIV. 



Next morniag the mists rose up, as I have seen them do 

 from an English valley, giving promise of more settled weather. 

 So as soon as I had despatched my Malays in search of 

 land-sheUs and butterflies, taking my Papuan as a guide, I 

 ascended Peninjau, in order to visit the Dyak village of 

 Serambo. In the early part of the morning the Dyaks, 

 having descended the hiU, passed us in some numbers in 

 their canoes, going on their daily avocations in the valley, 

 and some few we met as we mounted the hill. The road 

 was very steep, like a guUy in a Welsh vale ; the stones 

 and rocks extremely rugged, and putting our climbing 

 powers to the test. Every here and there, when they 

 were more perpendicular than usual, stumps of trees, with 

 notches roughly cut in them to serve as steps, and called 

 by the Malays batangs, rendered the way more practicable. 

 At length, after a cUmb of two hours, we reached the 

 shoulder of the hill, on which was situated the village, 

 consisting of scattered dwellings almost buried among 

 palms and bananas. The houses are in groups or sets, 

 built of wood, bamboos, and nibongs, and are raised from 

 the ground on posts, the houses of each set commimicating 

 with one another by doors between them ; and in front of 

 them is a long, elevated platform of bamboos, which is 

 reached by means of batangs. Such houses are built wher- 

 ever a footing can be found for them, without any regard 

 to arrangement ; and such is the rugged and overgrown 

 character of the locality, that they are placed at all levels, 

 and are partially concealed from one another by the trees 

 and rocks, so that the extent of the village is not readily 

 distinguishable. In order to facilitate the passage from one 

 house to another, stepping-stones are placed among the long 

 grass to guide the feet, which would otherwise be betrayed 



