AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 17 
“The Murut ladies of the house give an exhibition of feeding ; 
a more disgusting sight can hardly be imagined (especially 
when one is eating in the same room) than to see these three seated 
on the floor stuffing handfuls of rice into their mouths and then 
stoking it in with their fingers........ I was delighted to see an 
instance of a human being searching for bugs, etc., in the hair of 
another; this being performed by a little boy who thus amused 
himself with his mother’s hair while she lay on the floor playing 
with her baby.” The eating of the “captures” I saw later on. 
In spite of the somewhat low social status of these Muruts, they 
were very pleasant and friendly, always courteous and respectful, 
without any of that unpleasant cringing manner so typical of many 
Malays. ‘The men always showed great interest in our guns and 
with one I exchanged an empty brass cartridge-case for one of his 
cartridge-cases; viz. a neatly carved little bamboo tube divided 
into two compartments, one for powder and the other for shot, with — 
a wooden plug at each end. 
After leaving Klowat’s house we made good progress except 
over the rapids where the men usually had to jump overboard and 
pull the boats up. About three o’clock clouds began to gather 
and we pulled up at the kuala Smarpit on the left bank and made 
a lancho (shelter) for the night. 
May 13th: (7.30 a.m. temp. 80°). A fine morning and the 
river still just right. The Dayak who reported bad dreams before 
and wanted to return for that reason, comes this morning with 
woeful tidings; he dreamt he had lost al! his teeth. This is the 7 
last straw, so I allow him to go home, which means a half day’s walk 
for him through pathless jungle to Kiowat’s house and there await 
for a chance boat to take him: down to Limbang. I learnt afterwards 
that he always did the same thing, even when out with Dayaks: 
alone; after a few days he would feel homesick, plead bad dreams ' 
and return! We leave soon after 7 a.m. and spend the whole 
day poling and dragging the boats up the rapids. Pass the Sertab 
rapid in safety; this has a bad reputation and is supposed to be 
very dangerous when there is a lot of water in the river; in its 
present condition however we have nothing to fear. Passing 
through sandstone we come to a limestone patch and enter the long 
wide reach that ends at the Kuala Saladong, late in the afternoon 
in torrents of rain. We find remains of some recently used lanchos, 
which are soon enlarged and made habitable with our kadjang 
coverings, and a bottle of gin to the crews helps to keep the cold out. 
Luckily the rain stops about 8 p.m. and the general opinion is that 
it is only local rain, so that it should not seriously affect the state 
of the river. I feel rather nervous about it, remembering a six 
days sojourn in this very place last year waiting for the river to 
subside, nor have I forgotten an attempt to advance against the 
flood resulting in one boat being swamped and the greater part of 
our baggage nicely moistened. ‘ama Belulok tells me how the 
Kalabits from the interior come down and buy buffaloes from the 
R, A. Soc., No. 63, 1912 
*Q 
