78 



BORNEO, 



[CUAP, V. 



stant nibbing of the feet and the smoke of years hecome 

 dark and polished, like walnut or old oak, so that their 

 real material can hardly be recognjjsed. What labour is 

 here saved to a savage whose only tools are an axe and a 

 knife, and who, if he wants boards, must hew them out of 

 tiie solid trunk of a tree, and must give days and weeks of 

 labour to obtain a surface as smooth and beautiful as the 

 Bamboo thus treated affords him. Again, if a temporary- 

 house is wanted, either by the native in his plantation or 

 by the traveller in the forest, nothing is so convenient as 

 the Bamboo, with which a house can be constructed with 

 a quarter of the labour and time than if other materials 

 are used. 



As 1 have already mentioned, the Hill Dyaks in the 

 interior of Sarawak make paths for long distances from 

 village to village and to their cultivated grounds, in the 

 course of which they have to cross many gullies and 

 ravines, and even rivers ; or sometimes, to avoid a long 

 circuit, to carry the path along the face of a precipice. • In 

 aU these cases the bridges they constmct ai^e of Bamboo, 

 and so admirably adapted is the material for this purpose, 



