AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 25 
which stayed there quite passively; the ants also did not object, 
though occasionally one would walk in the way of the butterfly’s 
proboscis and then one antenna would come down slowly as if 
in gentle remonstrance. Both antennae were held well back over 
the butterfly’s head and the wings were closed erect, in the usual 
manner of this subfamily of Lycaenidae. I watched the process 
for some minutes, squatting quite close to the performers. 
In the evening it rained, and just before dusk we were startled 
by the sudden arrival of a party of Adangs rushing down the hill- 
side with parangs (swords) drawn. ‘They rushed round the house 
in the pouring rain cutting down any low-growing shrub in their 
path and then climbed up the ladder into the house breathless; | 
was unable to find out the exact significance of this custom; later 
we go through the gin and tuach process again in honour of the 
new arrivals who have come in during the day and now fill the 
house. Instead of the usual dancing the Kalabits entertain us 
with a curious sing-song, which is quite pleasant to the ear with 
its full tones and gentle cadences, one or two singing a part together, 
others answering and then a loud chorus before beginning another 
verse. They went on most of the night and the jar of drink 
was still in requisition in the morning. This jar is stood in the 
middle of the long common-room which runs the length of’ the 
house as in Murut houses, and round it sit all the people. One 
(or sometimes two) appears to be in charge of it and his duty is 
to lead the visitor up to have a pull at the bamboo tube stuck in the 
lid, or else when the lid is off to bale out a cupful and take it round. 
There is always a great deal of fuss made before the thirsty visitor 
permits himself to drink, and after several good-tempered attempts 
to refuse it he eventually accepts, having insisted on the host taking 
a sip first. It is then a point of honour to drain the cup dry— 
none too easy to task when the liquid is neat gin! The head of 
the Adangs, Tama Kuling, Penribut, Tama Belulok and I drank 
each other’s health going through this same ceremony; thus Tama 
Kuling refused the drink I offered him till I had tasted it myself 
and when my turn came for one of them to offer me a drink I, 
being in Kalabit-land, must needs do as Kalabits do, and so was 
equally persistent in refusing the proffered drink until the bearer 
of it had tasted it himself first. 
The women appeared singularly ill-favoured, though cleaner 
and whiter-skinned than the Muruts down-river. They wore a 
little collection of metal rings (tin or iron) suspended from the 
lobe of the ear; and their arms (wrist to shoulder) and legs (ankle 
to knee) were usually tatooed with some linear pattern. Their 
only garment was a short skirt, which some writer has rather aptly 
described “as beginning, too late and ending too soon.” : The men 
wear a long tooth (tigetr-cat’s or bear’s) through the hole in the 
upper part of each ear and sometimes a brass ring or lump sus- 
pended from the lobe as well. JI measured a few Kalabits in the 
house and found the height of adult males varied from 5 ft. 1 in. 
R.A. Soc., No. 63, 1912. 
