268 KLIENG S WAR-RAID TO THE SKIES. 
With spoon-leaf si77/ spreading in septiform branches ; 
And tangled tobacco mossing like the hairy kelindang fern. 
And they fell to talking till the morning hours, speaking 
of many things. 
Tutong-— What report, cousin, what news ? 
What is talked of in the land ? 
Nyelai—We wish to cut into the top of the wide spreading bee- 
tree. 
We wish to tie the feet of the great wood pigeon, 
And net the adong fish at the head of the stream. 
Weask for Kumang to wed our cousin the Traveller here. 
Lutong—My sister does not marry anybody. 
I require a man who has found a mosquito’s probosis big 
enough for a stanchion of a boat’s bow. 
I require one who has found a pangolin’s tooth fit for a 
band of the nyabor* sheath. 
But my speech is that of joke and laugh, 
Tal spoken without thought. 
But truly I require a man who can lead me to rescue my 
father and motherfrom Tedai in the halved deep heavens ; 
One who can lead me to wage war where the dim red sky is 
Secile | 
This is the man whom I seek, whom I search for, to borrow 
as a debt. 
Kiieng—J am the man, cousin Tutong: if to-night we split 
a bunch of ripe pinangs,t to-morrow we carry war to the 
halved deep heavens. 
If we split the red-spathed pinang, I can lead you to wage 
war to the zenith of the roomy heavens. 
So they agreed to split the pinang; but the elder brother 
of Tutong refused consent; and Ngelais company returned 
carrying faces of shame unable to meet the gaze of others ; 
with faces red like a lump of dragon’s blood. Coming to his 
own room, Ngelai wentto his sleeping place carved like the lumi- 
* A Dyak sword. 
t “Mélah Pinang,” splitting the betel-nut, is the name given to the 
marriage ceremony, of which that action forms the central part, 
