122 THE ENDAU AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



salary, which, he seldom, if ever, enjoys the sight of, though it is, no 

 doubt, transmitted regularly from Singapore. But this is merely 

 bv the way, an illustration of personal characteristics which do not 

 end with the Jakuns. 



Now the Jakuns cannot get on without rice, of which the Malays 

 have taught them the value, but which was not originally in their 

 list of articles of food ; they have gone so far as to cultivate it for 

 the last 30 years when allowed the needful leisure. During our 

 ascent of the S ! mibrong, we met a dilapidated Jahun in a more 

 dilapidated canoe, who told us he had had no rice for three days 

 with the air of one starved, and so the poor creature looked. We 

 gave him temporary supplies. 



On the 8th September we left our Batu Bahara friend in posses- 

 sion of the jalor at Chendia Bemban, and six hours' walking brought 

 us to Ayer Jamban, our resting place for the night. Our course for 

 the first hour or so was in a South-East direction, it then turned 

 South, and later South-South- West. The country was undulating, 

 rising nowhere above 150 feet, though the gradients were some- 

 times pretty steep ; the low grounds were mostly swamps, occa- 

 sionally made more cheerful by a small stream, but more often 

 remarkable for their plentiful supply of thorny rattans. The nar- 

 row pass of Bukit Pctoclak was the stony bed of a stream, strewn 

 with quartz, sandstone, and a little iron ore. Almost the whole 

 way the path was fairly wide and clear, being a " denei " or wild 

 beast path ; it was marked throughout by elephant tracks, and 

 occasionally we came upon another diverging track, shewing the 

 recent passage of elephants by its newly broken boughs and fresh 

 fallen leaves scattered about. The vegetation was luxuriant, ferns, 

 lycopodiums and various plants with handsome leaves in many 

 places completely covering the ground ; I noticed a standard varie- 

 ty of lycopodium rising as high as the waist. The Ayer Jamban 

 is a tributary of the Sedili, and is large and deep enough to be use- 

 ful were it cleared of obstructions. From a hill not far off, the 

 Jakuns procured a good supply of ddun gdyong (or umbrella 

 leaves) to roof their huts with for the night, but I noticed that, 

 like those in the kampong at Kwala Madek, they were much smaller 

 than the variety growing on Gunoug Mentahak, and so, I gathered, 

 were all the ddun pdyong in this part of the country. Six hours' 



