24 BRITISH BORNEO. 
trary, perhaps, to the general idea, an ordinary eastern river, 
at any rate until the limit of navigability for European craft 
is attained, is not, as a rule, a thing of beauty by any means. 
The typical Malay river debouches through flat, fever- 
haunted swampy country, where, for miles, nothing meets the 
eye but the monotonous dark green of the level, interminable 
mangrove forest, with its fantastic, interlacing roots, whose 
function it appears to be to extend seaward, year by year, its 
dismal kingdom of black fetid mud, and to veil from the rude 
eye of the intruder the tropical charms of the country at its 
back. After some miles of this cheerless scenery, and at a 
point where the fresh water begins to mingle with the salt, 
the handsome and useful zzfa palm, with leaves twenty to 
thirty feet in length, which supply the native with the material 
for the walls and roof of his house, the wrapper for his cigarette, 
the sugar for his breakfast table, the salt for his daily needs 
and the strong drink to gladden his heart on his feast days, 
becomes intermixed with the mangrove and finally takes its 
place—a pleasing change, but still monotonous, as it is so 
dense that, itself growing in the water, it quite shuts out all 
view of the bank and surrounding country. 
One of the first signs of the fresh river water, is the occur- 
rence on the bank of the graceful zhong palm, with its 
straight, slender, round stem, twenty to thirty feet in height, 
surmounted with a plume of green leaves. This palm, cut 
into lengths and requiring no further preparation, is universally 
employed by the Malay for the posts and beams of his house, 
always raised several feet above the level of the ground, or of 
the water, as the case may be, and, split up into lathes of the 
requisite size, forms the frame-work of the walls and roof, 
and constitutes the flooring throughout. With the pithy cen- 
tre removed, the zzdong forms an efficient aqueduct, in the 
absence of bambu, end its young, growing shoot affords a 
cabbage, or salad, second only to that furnished by the coco- 
nut, which will next come into view, together with the betel | 
(Areca) nut palm, if the river visited is an inhabited one; but 
if uninhabited, the traveller will find nothing but thick, almost 
impenetrable jungle, with mighty trees shooting up one hun- 
