IN BURU. 



307 



sundown, and might not be camped on it, w© had to pass the 

 uight again in the forest in a dense rain, on the slope above our 

 former camp, 1500 feet above tho sea. At break of next day 

 we continued the aacent of Jdount i^Iakka to about 2000 feet 

 above the sea, passing through low sparse jungle full oiDrpfe-n's 

 horsfieldii ferns and thickets of the bracken (which so often 

 accompanies itl, till w^e came on the Eft lug region which had 

 been a great forest, but had only recently been burned down 

 leaving many of the lifeless stems shmding, and from the 

 falling of whose dead limbs the Al^fums seemed to stand in 

 great dread. No one dared to speak to his neighbour during 

 our passage ; I was besought not to shoot, and above all no 

 one might use certain proscribed words for fear of disaster. 

 No Burnese of the interior, it is said, can dare to approach 

 the sea so near as to hear the beating of the surf without 

 falling ill. Whether the superstition has arisen from the fact 

 that the sea could be seen from the high elevation we were 

 on, or whether it was because it might be the residing place of 

 hostile spirits, I do not know. All along the way 1 could hear 

 them repeating some sort of invocation, and on quitting the 

 noxious region, one of the men stopped behind to erect another 

 of those little white stakes three to five feet high, which we 

 had seen at various places along the tabooed region — a branch 

 carefttlly stripped of all its bark, its extremity wrapped round 

 with a piece of scarlet cloth, and sharpened, to be tipped with a 

 morsel of pinang nut. I imagine these pillars to he thanks- 

 giving offerings to the spirit of the place for a safe passage. 



Descending to the rivoi Wohangan, which we crossed at 

 about 1000 feet above the sea, we halted for lunch, the 

 Al^funis rubbing their limbs and bodies till they were quite 

 blistered, with the leaves of a very sharp stinging nettle, 

 Urtica omlifolia, "to take away their fatigue," We had at 

 last entered a more wooded country, and 1 noted on the damp 

 shade many line Zingiheracem never seen before in flower^ and 

 a Bidijmocarpus with a white corolla margined with deep 

 indigo. Along the banks of the stream I observed also quite 

 a number of butterflies I had not seen elsewhere, and were 

 I to retnra to Bum I should certainly make a prolonged stav 

 near this river. 



Rain compelled us again to camp in the f'tn^Kt. After a 



