KINA BALU. 
99 
his wages in advance and a blanket, which he said was necessary as the nights in the 
mountain villages Avere very cold. My spirits began to revive Avhen I saw all the buffaloes 
really started on this the second part of our journey. Kina Balu, our “ promised land,” 
stood out clear in the morning sky, and diming our ivalk the Kadyans speculated on the 
Avell-knoAvn wonders of the mountain : the lake at the top, in which a solitary tree groivs 
—the Lagundi tree—Avhich, if they could reach and eat of its fruit, would make them 
everlastingly youthful; then of the golden plates and the dragon: all these myths to them 
formed a pleasant topic of discussion. In the folloAving year, Avhen tAvo of these men 
did reach the summit Avith me, they saAV neither lake, Lagundi tree, gold plates, nor 
anything else, but a field of stone; so I am afraid Kina Balu dropped many points in 
their estimation. 
The first feAV miles of our journey traversed the Tampassuk plain. The level country 
at this time of the day Avas slightly veiled in the morning’s mists, different to the quivering 
atmosphere over it during the heat of the day, caused by the radiation of heat from the 
plain, Avhich makes the landscape dance before one’s eyes. 
Shortly before reaching Billio’s village, the fat little Sultan fell off his buffalo into the 
mud and, according to his OAvn account, Avas nearly killed. At his Adllage Billio met us, and 
bid fareAvell to his family. He presented the blanket I had given him, “ as it would be so 
cold in the hills,” to his AAnfe ; this, of course, I could not alloAv, as he would have demanded 
another Avhen Ave arrived inland. He Avas dressed in his walking-costume, Avhich consisted 
of a light cotton coat and a pair of trousers, or rather bathing-drawers, of the same material. 
On his back he carried all his belongings in a small bamboo basket, on Avhich Avas tied 
cooking-pots and coconut-shell drinking-cups; in his hand he carried a long spear. Thus 
attired, Billio led us on the march, taking short cuts over parts of the country Avhich the 
buffaloes could not traverse. 
After passing several BajoAV villages, which are situated on the river’s banks amongst 
mango- and coconut-trees, we forded the Tampassuk for the first time, where the river 
broadened out and the bottom Avas level and gravelly, the Avater being up to our waists; on 
the other side the same fiat land continues until some Ioav hills, composed of reddish soil, 
Avere reached. After crossing these hills the track again leads to the plains, Avhere the first 
Dusun villages are to be seen. The houses are long ones, divided into half a dozen 
partitions, each Avith its OAvn door, the presence of pigs being sufficient to advertise the 
fact that the traveller is no longer in the land of the Mohammedan Bajow. These Dusuns 
are knoAvn as the Piasau Dusuns (piasau = coconut); they cultivate rice largely, and are 
apparently more industrious than the BajoAvs. 
We crossed the river once again before mid-day, the path following the old courses of 
the Tampassuk, Avhich Avas fairly easy travelling, though the sun before Ave halted had 
heated the stones sufficiently to make the barefooted Kadyans find Avalking unpleasant. 
The Tampassuk seems to change its course pretty frequently, a AA r ide stretch of country 
between the Ioav hills on either side being at one time or other part of the river-bed. 
At mid-day, after a tiring and hot march since 7 o’clock, Ave halted for the Sultan and 
his folloAvers : they began to arrive in about half an hour in straggling parties of tivo or 
three, each man on arriving relieving his mount of the baggage and leading the animal to 
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