‘AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 93 
When the stream is very strong it is impossible to get a boat 
round a point like that marked A, as the moment the bow of the boat 
enters the stream the water rushes in and swamps the boat ; one then 
has to make a hut on the bank and sit patiently watching the river 
for a month, or less, as the case may be. Again when the current 
is pretty strong the man have to paddle all the know in order to get 
across from one point to another, like those marked A and B; 
otherwise the boat is swept down past B to the point below, marked 
C; then the distance A to C has to be covered again by wearily 
poling and dragging at the bank as far as A, where the dash across 
has to be attempted again. 
The Tabuns say that the island at the mouth of the Delong is 
the site of an ancient murut graveyard, but there is nothing 
to be seen there now. 
At one place the river made a huge horseshoe bend which took 
us an hour to get round by boat, while some walked across in a 
couple of minutes. After some four hours poling we enter a long 
wide reach and meet some Kalabits removing wood to build a house ; 
these are the first people we have met since leaving Klowat’s house 
and we pull in alongside the bank to discuss the latest news from 
the front. The kuala Madihit is just ahead of us and we paddle 
into its shady waters at 12.30, glad to get out of the hot midday 
sun; we congratulate each other on the successful accomplishment 
of the uncertain part of the journey; the rest depends entirely on 
ourselves now. ‘The Tabuns and Muruts have seen or heard good 
omens every day and the Dayaks have had no bad dreams, which 
accounts for our success so far; and as we enter the Madihit, Tama 
Belulok hears another good bird and our eventual arrival at Batu 
Lawi is now assured. - | 
At the entrance of the Madihit, the Limbang winds away to 
the Hast and according to the natives soon becomes impassable for 
boats. The Madihit itself is quite a small stream, pleasantly 
sluggish at the mouth when we entered, but we soon come to the 
inevitable rapid, and after half an hour’s struggling reach the land- 
ing-place of a Kalabit house. Here we are met by a dozen or so 
clean-limbed well-built natives, headed by Tama Kuling, the young 
chief of the Kalabits of this district. We climb the steep bank to 
his house which is built some way up in the hollow of a hill; the 
_ jungle has been felled all round and the heat is consequently great. 
Tama Kuling only recently succeeded his father, one Saribu, a 
powerful chief in his time, until he:met an untimely end last year 
shooting the rapids at kuala Tuan. Huis body was recovered and ~ 
they are now preparing an enormous feast to celebrate the final: 
burial of his bones. All the countryside are invited to it, the 
Adangs from Okap’s house three days away, the Kalabits from 
Seridan and Malinau; most of all the Madihit Kalabits and some 
down-river Muruts have already arrived. Tama Kuling shows me 
no less than 35 great jars of tuach (the fative whisky-and-very-little- 
soda, made from fermented rice) awaiting consumption. An 
R. A. Soc., No. 63 1912. 
