36 _ AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 
on our right; our general direction is E. S. E. until we reach a 
high ridge and follow it south, alt. 4,700 ft. to 5,000 ft. This is 
evidently the top of the high range which barred our view of Batu 
Lawi from Penribut’s house, as we can now see through the trees 
the whole mountain opposite and apparently quite close. We camp 
in a sheltered hollow a little way down the eastern slope of this 
hill, which is called Mt. Derian,* having walked for a bare three 
hours from our last camping place; temperature at 2 p.m. down to 
62° Fahr. (rain). Our first day’s walk was similarly short, so that 
it ought to be possible to accomplish the journey so far in two long 
days’ walk instead of four. However yesterday and the day before 
were long and tiring, up and down these steep hills, and the men 
are heavily burdened. I have just said that we had a fine view 
of Batu Lawi from this point, but as a matter of fact the jungle is 
so thick that one can only catch a glimpse of its outlines and for 
the greater part of the day it was hidden in clouds. Madu, my 
Land-Dayak boy, volunteered to climb a tree and off came his coat 
with which he tied his feet securely together (or rather about 
twelve inches apart) and up he went hand over hand, gripping the 
trunk of the tree with the soles of his feet which were prevented 
from slipping by the coat. He soon disappeared up the smooth 
straight trunk into the branches high up over our heads, out of 
sight and almost out of earshot. He told us, when he came down, 
that there appeared to be a deep valley between us and Batu Lawi, 
but that two spurs sloped down towards it one on our left and the 
other on our right. Poor little Madu, he died from dysentry three 
months after we got back. He stood about 4 ft. 10 in., but strong 
and well-made at that; always bright and cheerful, the life and soul 
of the party, everybody made friends with him at once; many a 
time he amused us greatly ordering the Kalabits and Muruts about 
in a loud voice and it was quite wonderful to see how they did what 
he wanted, for they did’nt know a word of each other’s language. 
I had been particularly keen to bring him for that particular reason, 
as it has been suggested that the Land-Dayaks and Muruts show 
evidences of relationship in their languages. I frequently made 
him talk Land-Dayak to both Muruts and Kalabits, but they never 
understood him nor could they find a word in common. Also, try 
as he might, he could only understand a word of Murut or Kalabit. 
Later we tried with Penan, but beyond a few words of wide dis- 
tribution in Malaya (such as ramin, house, ta’in, stomach, dipeu, 
tooth, etc.) their languages proved quite unintelligible to one 
another. Madu was quite a travelled native, especially for a Land- 
Dayak, who as a rule is rather stay-at-home and unenterprising : 
*According to the natives, so-named on account of a huge Durian ? tree 
growing on the path along the top. The tree was certainly unlike the cultivat- 
ed Durian and according to my Dayaks, quite unlike any wild Durian ; one 
suggested subsequently that‘Derian’ was the Kalabit for ‘Dian’, meaning that 
the tree was one of those kinds whose bark makes good torches. We were 
unable to solve the point. 
Jour. Straits Branch 
