NORTH BORNEO. 
45 
as if he had any misfortune during the next month, it would be put down to the “ Orang 
puteh’s ” medicine, and might cause you some trouble. As our house has no door we are 
visited by the people’s fowls and cats, all coming, like their owners, to see what they can 
get; sometimes Dusun dogs prowl about outside, and once they carried off a Hornbill’s 
skin which had been put in the sun to dry. 
The natives also bring me a few birds and animals. Once they brought me a fine 
Fish-Eagle ( Polioaetus ichthyaetus ): I also bought a beautiful little opossum-like animal, 
the Slow Loris ( Nycticebus tardigradus ), with large bright yellow eyes, which lived for some 
weeks tied up in our house ; it was most active at night-time, and broke several articles 
I could ill afford to iose, but in the end it made its escape. 
The larger Mammalia were fairly abundant on this river: wild cattle, semi-wild 
Buffaloes, Sambur and other species of deer, Malayan FIoney-Bears, and wild pigs. The wild 
cattle used to frequent at nights a large open grassy plain some distance from our dwelling, 
the whole place being covered with their tracks ; but though we often remained watching 
there until all hours of the night, only on one occasion did I get a glimpse of their white 
bellies as a small herd passed about one hundred yards distance between an open space of 
a few yards, when my native guide whispered to me not to shoot, as they were sure to come 
out in the open beyond; but we never saw them again: Nyhan, however, had several shots, 
which he missed. The wild buffaloes on this river are the offspring of those which have 
strayed away some generations back, and have become now quite wild and would prove 
more dangerous to the sportsman than most Bornean animals. One of the Orang Sungei— 
Otto by name—formed a great attachment for myself and servants. Fie was a middle-aged 
man, well mannered, and never begged for anything, often bringing us small presents of 
coconuts and jungle-fruit. We often used to go out after big game with him up to all 
hours in the night. In his company we several times visited a large stretch of thick jungle, 
and followed the tracks made by the buffaloes through it; but several times we heard them 
crashing their way through the dense undergrowth, and though only a few yards off it was 
impossible to get a glimpse of them. It was perhaps just as well that we never met one of 
these huge brutes face to face in such a place, as if wounded the buffalo would have had 
decidedly the best of it, retreat being on our part impossible. We several times noticed the 
tracks of the Malayan Bear in the soft mud, which my men declared were the footprints of no 
less than the “ old gentleman ” himself. As bears’ feet are very like short-fingered hands, and 
opinions are so divided as to what impression his Satanic Majesty’s foot really would leave, I 
could not refute this point, though I had always been educated up to the goat’s-hoof theory, 
and the Kadyans evidently to the bear’s-foot; thus nothing could be gained by discussing 
this point further with them. 
Sambur deer were numerous, and might be heard barking at nightfall before they left 
their forest-haunts to visit the native paddi-fields. We also shot several “ Kijangs, a 
small forest-loving species about the size of a goat. The little Mouse-deer ( Tragulus 
javanicus ), the smallest member of the family Cervidce, known in Borneo as the “ Plandok. 
and about the size of a rabbit, was fairlv common in the forests. Just before dark it bestirs 
itself in search of food, and by understanding its habits may be easily obtained. A\ hen 
trotting over the dry leaves which carpet these forests, the Plandok makes a slight rustling 
