INTERIOR OF BORNEO. 59 



fifty of these strange wild people awaiting our arrival. They 

 live entirely on the produce of the jungle. Wild sago and 

 fruit constitute the greater part of their food. When they 

 find a clump of wild sago they encamp there until it is finished 

 and then move on in search of more. They work the sago in 

 the usual way by felling the trunk and then splitting it in two, 

 then the pith is scooped out with a piece of bamboo tied on to 

 the end of a stick. The end of the bamboo is scraped until it 

 presents a sharp edge which easily works through the soft 

 pith. 



Their chief weapon of offence and defence is the deadly 

 blowpipe, from which they shoot out poisoned darts. With 

 these they kill pig and deer, and even rhinoceros have been 

 known to die from the effects. 



We spent the night at Long Taoh, as Dyau Blawing had 

 decided to attempt to shoot the rapids below here, the water 

 being just the right height to enable us to do so; "as if the 

 water is too high the waves are so big that a canoe could not 

 stand them • whilst if the water is too low the sharp edged 

 rocks show up, making it too dangerous to proceed 



This was a great piece of luck, as it saved us making the 

 ascent of Bukit Sigerun Sigop again, and thereby we gained 

 a day, to say nothing of escaping the trouble and labour of the 

 climb. Besides this we had the exciting experience of shoot- 

 ing the dangerous rapids through the gorge, about which I had 

 heard so much ; and was glad of having the chance of seeing 

 them. 



We started early the next morning and soon got to the 

 mouth of the gorge, where two spurs of the mountains, one 

 from each side, run down to the river and form a narrow gate- 

 away about twenty yards broad. As the river above this place is 

 about a hundred yards in width, it can be imagined the pace at 

 which the water pours through this narrow neck. We held 

 on to the rocks here whilst the appearance of the water below 

 was examined. It was a wonderful sight looking down the 

 gorge. The river ran pretty straight at first and one could 

 see for about a mile the water pouring down between cliffs, 

 which rose perpendicular to the height of two or three hundred 



R. A. Hoc, No. 49, 1907, 



