AND BENGKARUM MOUNTAIN. 47 
twenty feet long and slung so that 1t was parallel with the slope of 
the hill. I understood that when beaten it could be heard at 
Gumbang, a distance of over twenty miles; formerly they were 
used to warn the district of head hunting raids, they are now going 
out of use. J was much amused in watching a number of young- 
sters constructing a head house for themselves, building on slender 
posts jammed into the crevices of the rocks on the steep side of the 
hill over which it hung most perilously. . 
There was no difficulty in finding a coolie to conduct us 
the next morning although they were not certain of the whole route, 
this we should learn at an intermediate house. An early start was 
made ; from this altitude a heavy mist on the lowlands presented a 
somewhat curious effect, all the ridges and hill tops standing out 
clearly above it and isolated from each other like islands in a sea of 
white silent billows; about noon we reached a very dirty and 
dilapidated Dyak house, whence we obtained complete directions to 
Bengkarum, the way being through varied and hilly country; 
we soon commenced to ascend the lower slopes of the mountain ; at 
four o’clock we reached Kampong Temong, a large Dyak house on a 
spur of the mountain; we accommodated ourselves in the head 
house, a very high awkward structure, but its airy position gave it 
a decided advantage over the usually low building, in that it 
was well above the most unpleasant association of a Dyak village, 
the scent of the pigs! My first visitor was an elderly gentle- 
man who obviously wished to impress us with his importance; this 
was somewhat suddenly interrupted by the appearance of the Orang 
Kaya himself, a fine, well made man; he told me on enquiring, 
that the ascent was an easy matter and that near the top was 
a large lanko (shelter ) in which we could pass the night, as the 
ascent and descent could not be accomplished on the same day; he 
also arranged to have coolies ready for me to start the next 
morning. During the evening the elderly gentleman called, to say 
that he had decided to go with me and asked what provision 
we had made for water; as this seemed rather a serious matter, 
I told him that we could carry enough with us in bamboos; at this 
he gave a grunt and smile of superiority to which Dyaks at times 
give way, I found later in the evening that it was his little 
joke, there was plenty of water on top. 
_ At eight o’clock the following morning all stores were packed and 
with my friend as guide we commenced the ascent ; for some distance 
we followed a small stream and on its widening out into a good 
clear pool, I was astonished to see the elderly gentleman who was 
leading, stop and divest himself of the few clothes he was wearing. 
At my protest, he answered that it was a good place for a bath and 
he had not been there for some time. The ascent is steep but 
nowhere difficult, for a short distance the path is on a ridge formed 
by a sandstone bed, which has been thrown over at right angles to 
its plane of bedding. As it is not more than two feet wide and 
either side is a drop of fifty to eighty feet, the passage across 
R. A. Soc., No. 60, 1911 
