KINA BALK. 
105 
Gamboie’s bouse is a small one, arid divided in half by a planked partition, the bouses 
of these people being arranged like those of the Lawas Muruts. One of the small divisions 
or cubicles the Chinaman uses for my kitchen and also as his sleeping-apartment. I prefer 
the large open public apartment, being better ventilated and free from smoke ; by slinging 
my mosquito-net I have a very small but private bed-chamber of my own. Billio, with his 
usual cuteness, has secured two rite-mortars and a plank, which he has placed across them, 
which forms a plank-bed about a foot from the floor. The other cubicle belongs to another 
Dusun, who is at present living in his paddi-flelds; and the door of this part is fastened up. 
In these small dark private apartments the Dusuns sleep and do their cooking; the fire 
is made on a mud hearth, and has a light bamboo framework built over it for drying rice 
and placing a few earthen cooking-pots. In the public apartment the Dusuns do their 
daily work, such as pounding rice, making fishing-nets, ropes for their buffaloes, baskets and 
hats to be sold at the tamels. 
Dusuns are decidedly of a sociable turn of mind, assembling in small working-parties, 
after the day’s toil is done, at each other’s houses. Light is admitted by windows and 
small doorways in the plank sides; the shutters have rattan hinges. In some houses the 
whole of one side of the public apartment is open. As there is no special outlet for the 
smoke, the roof and nearly everything inside is black and dirty. A house lasts from five 
to seven years, when it falls or is pulled down, the plank sides being used again for the 
new one. Some of these planks are of great age, and it is wonderful how smooth they are 
considering the tools at command. The floors are made of bamboo : the bamboo is split 
from end to end when green, then each joint is cut through in many places; after this 
operation the bamboo is forced open and laid fiat on the ground, heavy stones being placed 
on it to keep it so until dry, when it remains perfectly flat and soon becomes beautifully 
polished, but, I am sorry to say, affords a splendid covert between the tiny cracks for 
numerous specimens of most disgusting insects. The bugs which infest these floors at 
times becorrie sufficiently troublesome for the Dusuns even to take an interest in their ever- 
increasing numbers. It is no uncommon sight to see a Dusun who is patiently working 
at a rope or fishing-net suddenly jump up and commence scratching himself; then he 
walks to the fireplace, on which he proceeds to boil some water in his small earthenware 
cooking-pot; this, when ready, he pours over these bug-infested planks, and once more 
proceeds with his occupation. As most Dusuns at home wear the chawat, their interest in 
these pests may be well understood. 
The Dusuns are at first sight fairly clean, especially the younger men and women; but 
it is only after living for months with these people that the traveller discovers how filthy 
they really are. A mother seldom washes herself or her children, some of the latter being- 
besmeared from head to foot with mud and filth, in which state they remain for months. 
A child of Kuro’s had a mark on the centre of its chest as though some lump of mud had 
been thrown at it; the pattern of this dirt was there during the whole time we remained in 
Kiau—nearly three months. The heads of the children are shaved for the first few years, 
after which the hair is allowed to grow. The young men do not shave their heads or cut 
then hair until they become fathers; consequently many youths have fine heads of long 
black locks, which they generally tie up beneath their head-cloths or “ cigare,” as the 
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