AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 33 
country like this and I was able to show that one of them at all 
events was quite inaccurate. Belulok had told me that the news 
of the Rajah Muda’s death had reached him last year and that it 
was generally believed all over that district; he was quite surprised 
to hear that, although it was true the Rajah Muda had been very 
ill, he had quite recovered now and was expected in Sarawak again 
before long. There was another rumour current here to the effect 
that a Dutch Controlleur had been killed by the natives in the 
head-waters of the Batang Kayan not many days journey from here; 
this too I contradicted, having heard in Sarawak that this Dutch 
official, reported missing for some time, had come through safely 
after all. [I heard on my return in July that there was prob vably 
some truth in the Kalabit story after all, as inquiries were still 
being made for that particular official]. It took a long time to 
persuade the Tabuns not to take this rumour too literally and I 
went so far as to predict that it was more likely five men had died 
and the rest survived, not the other way about, as the Kalabit 
reported. Yet another story was current, this time, that the 
Government had forbidden any Kalabit to go down river for four 
years because of this dread disease, and further that if any of them 
disobeyed, the down-river tribes had been given permission to take 
their heads! ! 
Tama Belulok is ill with fever to-day, and is afraid he will 
not be well enough to go to-morrow. 
May 22nd: (Temp. 75°, cloudy). Begin dividing out the 
rice, a tedious job which might have been done with advantage 
yesterday. Tama Belulok is worse this morning and decides to 
stay behind; I leave one of his men to look after him; Belulok (his 
son) takes his place as my chief adviser and interpreter. He took 
charge of my expedition last year, and feels that our failure then 
reflects in some measure on him, so that it is incumbent on him 
to get us through to Batu Lawi this ime. Although quite young, 
he has a useful influence over the men; his information is usually 
reliable and his advice is undoubtedly sound. ‘The worst of so 
many of these natives is that they never mind being shown up as 
hars, and they le again at the first opportunity if it is to their 
interest to do so. For instance, when they wanted to stop at 
Klowat’s house for the Dayak-Murut wedding (ten days ago) some 
of them swore positively that there was no place for us to spend the 
night between there and Salindong which we could’nt possibly reach 
that might. Unfortunately for them I had been there last year 
and so knew the nature of that bit of river, with the result that we 
pushed on and found quite a good place for a lancho (kuala 
Smarpit). Nearly every day similar instances cropped up, many 
that did’nt matter, but some that did. Belulok was one of the few 
who never let me down in that way—at least, not that I know of. 
They did not of course do it out of sheer perversity, but generally 
as an excuse for a delay or else in actual ignorance of the subject I 
inquired about. We start at 9.30 and follow a winding path 
R. A. Soc., No. 63, 1912 $ 
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