66 AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT KINA BALU. 



asked for cloth and red beads. Thus, with the exception of the 

 last, it is the necessaries of life which would seem to be required, 

 not trifles, though the red beads, as universally worn by the 

 women, may almost also be regarded as necessaries. Instead of 

 barter I had supplied myself with plenty of small silver, but~was 

 highly astonished to find these coins were almost unknown ; even 

 Malagup, the Dusun chief, living in a comparatively rich district 

 on the coast close to where a large fair is held once or twice a 

 week, did not know the value of a 5-cent piece. These coins 

 were always accepted with distrust, except by a young man in 

 Bungol who had a collection of them. But he had lived in Kudat 

 for some time and spoke Malay fluently. On the other hand, notes 

 (B. N. Borneo has notes clown to the value of $1, 50 cents, and 

 2d cents), silver dollars, and copper cents were always accept- 

 able, copper being apparently the chief currency, though the 

 natives were glad when they could exchange their copper sav- 

 ings for silver dollars with us. In great demand also were the 

 empty provisions tins, especially those with lids, and it was 

 amusing to see the scramble when one threw an empty con- 

 densed milk tin away. 



On the March. We generally started at 8 a.m. and reached 

 the next stopping place about 2 p.m., the villages being at 

 convenient distances from each other. The weather as a rule 

 was fine in the morning, but rain set in nearly always in the 

 early afternoon, so that we seldom reached camp without get- 

 ting wet. However, this made little difference, as we were 

 often soaking wet from fording the rivers. Naturally we al- 

 ways changed on reaching camp and made an attempt to dry 

 our things, but they were generally still wet on the next morn- 

 ing, and when setting out on our march we always put on the 

 wet things from the day before, feeling only little discomfort. 

 There is a narrow path from Pan jut right up to Kiou, just wide 

 enough for one man, but broadening out in the neighbourhood of 

 the villages, and of course branching off here and there. It runs 

 for a considerable distance along the top of the mountain ridges, 

 rather provokingly following every one of their curves, but 

 having the advantage of a free outlook for ascertaining one's 

 whereabouts. Paths along the rivers on this route were ex- 

 ceedingly rare, thus differing essentially from the Tampassuk 



