76 
NORTH: BORNEO. 
like a chisel. The bore of these blow-pipes is as clean and bright as that of a gun-barrel, 
and is about six feet long, and drilled through a log of hard wood; the log is then pared 
down and rounded to less than an inch in diameter. At one end a spear-head is bound on 
with the sight. The ammunition is carried in a neatly made bamboo case, with a prong at 
the side for fixing in the chawat, and ornamented with rattan plaits (see illustration, 
fig. V.): these darts are made from the stem of a palm-leaf—as hard as the tough nebong 
fibre—which is cut into slender strips, tapering into a needle-like point and nearly a foot 
in length. The resistance to the air is obtained by piercing a small piece of dried pith 
(from a species of mountain sago-palm) on a brass needle, which is fixed in the centre of a 
small length of rattan, previously pared to fit the barrel; then by paring the pith towards 
the needle a neat little cone is formed, already pierced exactly in the centre, the base of 
which, being the same size as the rattan, exactly fits the barrel. In this cone the heavier 
end of the shaft is fixed, the point dipped into a deadly poison, and the arrow is complete. 
War-arrows differ from sporting-arrows by having a loose barbed point attached, either of 
tin or bamboo; this point is besmeared thickly with poison, and when shot home would 
remain in the wound with most of the poison. 
The poison is a sticky mixture made from the juices of a poisonous creeper, and mixed 
with strong irritating ingredients, smelling strongly of camphor and pepper ; the com¬ 
position of the mixture is a secret, known only to the tribes of the interior. As a protection 
from these dangerous missiles, the Murut warrior covers his body with rudely formed 
jackets of deer or bear skin, which are sufficiently tough to protect his body. Their fighting 
chawats are very long, and wound round their bodies many times; their head-dresses on 
such occasions are made of rattan like wicker baskets, and covered with monkey-skin, 
ornamented with plumes from the tails and wings of Argus Pheasants, and over three feet 
long. 
The Muruts have a great dislike to the Brunei Pangerans (i. e. nobles) and their 
followers. Their allegiance to the Sultan’s government is but nominal, the Sultan claiming 
to be their suzerain; but now-a-days, owing to the rottenness of the Brunei Government, 
he would be unable to carry out his smallest desires. In former times, when the Brunei 
Government was powerful, it robbed these wretched aborigines of everything they were 
possessed of, even their women and children. If they resisted the exactions of the Brunei 
Pangerans, a horde of head-hunting Kyans would be turned loose on them. But times 
have changed: the Company on the one side, with Sarawak on the other, have gradually 
absorbed all the Sultan’s territory except one or two rivers, on which the population have 
now discovered the weakness of the Brunei power and are in open rebellion against it. 
The wild tribes who were once willing, for the sake of the heads obtained, to carry out the 
wishes of the Bruneis are now lost to them, having been joined to the Government of 
Sarawak. 
Though the Muruts were very interesting to me, their country was not, as animal life 
was very scarce, owing to their having destroyed for food everything they could possibly 
kill and eat, which in the menu of a Murut means a good deal. 
On the 10th April we bid adieu to our Kadyan friends and left for the sea-coast, where 
