REPORT ON A JOURNEY FROM TUARAN TO KIAU. 3 
I was starting at last. We slept that night at DUMANKER’S 
house near the fair. Our host, although a Dusun, has four 
wives and seven children, each wife contributing her quota 
of the latter. Buntai Village at 6 a.m. thermometer 72°. 
ir. Onthe 2nd March at 10.55 a.m. left Buntai Village and 
followed up the Tuaran River to its junction with the Bawang 
stream; we then travelled along the ridges which form the 
watershed on the true left side of this stream. This was the 
route taken by Mr. ST. JOHN in 1858 on his way to Kinabalu, 
and he has. ably described the track to Sinilau village, as 
being steep, slippery and the climbing exceedingly warm 
work. We passed over Kamis and Tiwong Hills. On the 
latter, the stock of water brought up in bamboo joints was 
finished, but I was agreeably surprised to find out that bam- 
boos, even when growing on hills devoid of springs, secrete 
in their second or third joints from the ground, a quantity of 
pure cool water, a great boon to the thirsty traveller, We 
arrived at Sinilau village at 2 p.m. 
12. This village possesses six very scattered houses and 
MAH TANGARIS and MAH SOLONGKOD— 
who have paid poll-tax to the Government. They were absent 
until night in their padi fields. 
13. The houses here show me that I am at last in the 
interior and beyond coast civilization, for they are dirty, 
infested with bugs, and every moment the howl of a dog 
indicates a too close proximity with the owner of a cooking 
pot, and pigs grunt harmoniously under the houses. Sinilau 
village at 4.45 a.m. thermometer 71°, height 1,248 feet above 
sea level. 
14. 1 numbered my coolies next morning, and found I had 
sixteen Dusuns, one Brunei Malay, and two Dyaks. The 
Government party consisted of myself, Pangeran SAHBUDIN, 
Clerk USMAN, GAWANG, the Dusun Sub-Chief, and two pri- 
vates of the British North Borneo Armed Constabulary. Each 
coolie had his sword or kris and we had besides six Snider 
carbines, one smooth bore No. 12 calibre, and one Spencer 
seven shot repeater. GAWANG carried the flag ona long 
spear, and an empty cartridge belt as a mark of distinction. 
I had engaged these coolies “at nominal w ages, 15 cents per 
