112 
KINA BALU. 
Cats, or “ Tungow,” are very scarce; there was not one in Melangkap, and I only saw 
one in Kiau. Cats are common in the houses of the coast people; but as a Dusun 
can both catch and eat his own rats and mice, the presence of this animal would be 
superfluous. 
Chickens are fairly plentiful, but hawks commit great depredations amongst them. 
At night they are packed away in long baskets under the houses; over these baskets it has 
been my misfortune to sleep, when the rooster wakes one before daylight with one or two 
powerful crows, let off as it were in one’s ear. 
Bees are kept in hollow logs about two feet long, blocked at the ends, with a small 
hole at the side. The logs are generally fastened outside the windows; but honey is 
apparently scarce. 
All the land that it is possible to cultivate belongs to families; some own considerably 
more than others. An orphan—a little girl in this village—was quite an heiress, owning a 
good deal of rice-land that had returned to forest, and therefore the more valuable. The 
Dusuns advised one of the Kadyans, whom they had taken a fancy to, as his ideas of the 
Mohammedan faith were not too strict, to marry this girl, as they told him that she had 
plenty of land, and the rattans had not been cut there for years. So landed property has 
its rights, which are handed down to the children. Some of the larger land-owners who are 
short-handed employ their less fortunate brethren at the harvest-time, the payment 
of wages being made in rolls of tobacco. The same land is used once in about seven years 
for rice-planting, when from three to six acres are planted. Kina Balu itself and the 
uncultivated spurs are portioned off to the various tribes which surround it, each village 
owning the collecting and sporting rights over the country opposite their village. I do not 
think this etiquette is ever transgressed; whenever I visited these forests, the people of the 
village where I was living always took me to their part of Kina Balu. The Kiau Dusuns 
have the rights over the only pass to the summit, which perhaps is also shared with 
the villagers of Teung Tuhan, and it would probably cause a disturbance if a traveller tried 
to follow this path with baggage-carriers other than Kiaus. In their partitions of the 
mountain they set dozens of rat-traps. I remember asking a Kiau Dusun what he would 
do if he found another man taking game, i. e. rats, from his traps ; his answer was that 
he would kill him ; though perhaps this was merely swagger, the etiquette regarding traps 
is very strict. In Melangkap there was only one bad character, a stout idle young fellow 
named “ Saggi.” This man used to rob his fellows by digging up their kaladi and sweet- 
potatoes at night. An old man, who had been robbed, on one occasion challenged Saggi on 
the village-green to come out and fight him; the old fellow made a good deal of noise and 
flourished the household sword about for some time. Saggi, if he does not mend his ways, 
will either have to leave Melangkap or will come to a violent end. 
The Dusuns are a very honest people; during the whole of my lengthened intercourse 
with the Melangkaps I never had the smallest article stolen by them, though opportunities 
were many. The only thieves I met with amongst these tribes were the Kuro family 
at Kiau; and when I informed the villagers of this fact, they were most anxious that 
I should not give their village a bad name. 
I will now proceed to give an account of our daily doings, and of the natural 
