98 
KINA BALK. 
do anything for me, as he has only a nominal power over those actually dependent on him, 
—his lazy loafing retainers and slaves. So the letter kindly given me by the Assistant- 
Resident of Gaya was evidently useless, the Company’s paid chiefs being totally unable by 
their influence to help me—the reason of their incapability being that for years their followers 
have robbed and murdered the Dusuns, and now most of the Bajows have blood-feuds with 
these people, and consequently they dare not show their faces inland. So in my hour of 
need I turned to my little fat friend the Ilanun, Sultan Paitailan. 
As none of my followers could speak a word of the Dusun dialect, it was necessary to 
procure the services of an interpreter. After some inquiries, an old Bajow offered his 
services. He was married to a woman who had belonged to one of the Dusun villages ; he 
said he could speak the language perfectly, and was well known to the mountaineers; but 
he stipulated that he was not to accompany me to Kiau, as he had a feud with those people. 
I engaged this man to accompany us, bringing up our party to nine. This Bajow was one 
of the most cunning and amusing rogues I have ever met, always seeking to benefit himself 
by every transaction. His name being a lewd one, we rechristened him “ Billio ”— i. e. the 
“ old man ”; and by this name he always went while in my service. He proved most 
useful, having a perfect knowledge of the Dusun tongue, was good at making bargains 
with the people, and worked hard to please me. 
“Jack,” the Chinese dog, found the nights rather too hot for him and the mosquitoes 
too numerous, so he sought a cooler sleeping-place on the damp sand a few yards distant 
from the water. One night, soon after dark, when sleeping there he had a narrow escape 
from a crocodile. The reptile had swum close up to him, and in trying to knock the dog 
into the water it struck the ground a tremendous blow with its tail. Jack uttered one 
terrified howl and disappeared into the coarse canes which bordered the river, and did not 
appear until late the following morning. 
On the evening of the 4th February, Sultan Paitailan succeeded in collecting sufficient 
of his followers with their buffaloes to carry my baggage, and with twelve Ilanuns came to 
the hut to choose their wages and rope up the baggage they would have to carry. I paid 
these men for four days, some in cloth, others in silver dollars, which they w r anted to pay 
their poll-tax, so was able to settle with all without parting with too much cloth. They 
were willing to carry my baggage—the heaviest part consisting of rice—for tw T o days inland, 
after which they told me buffaloes could not travel, the country being too rough. This 
would land us some distance inland, and I expected then to obtain Dusun porters. 
The next morning all the buffaloes were under weigh by 7 o’clock, each Ilanun 
having carefully weighed his load the night before and tied it up in two parcels of equal 
weight, which were slung across the buffalo’s back—those which Carried the rice having 
the heaviest, though the easiest portions to manage. It seems curious, but it is really 
necessary, if you have more than one or two followers, to carry large quantities of rice into 
a rice-growing country with you, but I have always found great difficulty in procuring rice 
from the aborigines of Borneo. Of course, if you merely travel through villages you can 
generally procure enough for one or two meals, but often then at exorbitant prices, and for 
a lengthened stay this would be impossible. 
Our party was to pick up Billio at his village en route , where he was to receive part of 
