AN EXPEDITION TO MOUNT BATU LAWI. 51 
which we found nearly dry. The Bruneis had built a little hut 
here and had been waiting from some 6 days to get all their gutta 
across. ‘They had two small canoes and two large boats here, but 
could not use them yet owing to the lack of water in the stream; I 
persuaded them to lend me one of the small boats and intended 
trying to continue the journey in her to-morrow. 
June 10th. A little rain last night has caused the Sidam to 
rise slightly, but still hardly enough to float our small canoe. 
Only four of us can get in,—a Brunei, Belulok, Madu and myself, 
—the others are going to walk across to the Melana river and wait 
there till we can send up a boat to fetch them from the nearest Ka- 
yan house. ‘The first hour is spent in wading down the Sidam and 
dragging the boat over the rocks; the boat which is very old and 
rotten resents this treatment and wearily sinks at the first stretch 
of deep water we come to. A large piece out of the bottom 
is the cause and we find it is far too bad to mend, so have to leave 
it there and rescue the cargo, luckily very little, as we had only 
brought bare necessities for two nights, leaving the rest to be 
carried overland to the Melana. Returned to our hut at Long 
Teborror about 11 o’clock and discussed what was the next thing 
to be done. Our immediate objective was a large Kayan house 
on the Apoh river; once there we could be passed on from house 
to house down the Apoh river and eventually into the Baram River, 
ending at Claudetown. ‘The only way to get to that Kayan house 
was to paddle down the Sidam stream and thence on down the 
Melana which joined the Apoh river quite close to the house; this 
was roughly two days’ journey. Unfortunately the Sidam was too 
dry to float the only sound boats, so there seemed to be nothing for 
it but to stay and wait till sufficient rain fell to make it rise. 
There was a path across country to the Melana, but that did not 
help because there was no means of reaching or communicating 
with the Kayan house some 6 hours further on down river without 
a boat. Eventually one of the Bruneis offered to try and take his 
small canoe, which would just hold himself and one companion, 
down the Sidam and Melana to call the Kayans up to fetch us, 
if we would walk across to the Melana and wait for them there. 
The Kalabits were none too pleased over this as they thought their 
part of conveying my things was finished, however I had to take 
some of them on and we persuaded three wandering Penans to help. 
A little party of six of these strange people arrived in the evening, 
a very old couple, a young man and girl and two children; clothing 
as usual of the scantiest nature, the women in just a short skirt and 
the men with chawats (loin cloths). Their pale skins contrasted 
strongly with those of the brown Kalabits, Muruts and Dayaks. 
They seemed very shy and a little frightened at having run into 
such a large party. I understood from Belulok that a Penan had 
lately shot a Kayan with a poisoned dart and that consequently all 
the Penans of this district were rather fearing a wholesale revenge. 
However we reassured them and the old couple and the young ms: 
R. A. Soc., No. 63, 1912. 
NS ees 
— ee re 
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