KINA BALU. 
119 
which take up their place behind the last insect. If the party flying clown stream meet 
another coming from the opposite direction there is a collision, and both parties mount 
straight up in the air, swirling round and round, presently to break up into numerous 
small parties of three or four individuals, which proceed as before. 
On this river I saw for the first time that beautiful, and at one time highly prized, insect 
Ornithoptera broolciana. Its flight is swift and flickering, the wings being worked very fast. 
This butterfly used to pass up and down stream, low over the rocks, nearly every day, and 
occasionally with other species would visit the neighbourhood of our camp, where the 
refuse was very attractive. If the weather had only been fairly fine,, I could have made a 
large collection; as it was, I only captured about a hundred specimens, six of which were 
new. Hidden suspended amongst the roots of some large trees, the soil having been 
washed away by the river-floods, causing a large dry roofed-in chamber, I discovered 
several most beautifully designed wasp’s nests. The nest, of which I give an illustration 
(p. 118), is composed of chewed wood; the comb, which contains about a dozen cells, is in 
the upper part of the nest, and, as far as my observations go, is attended by one wasp. 
The genus, Mr. Waterhouse tells me, is Isclmogaster, sp. X 
27th, 28th.—The event of the day was a visit from Billio, who brought with him six 
Dusuns. The object of this visit was to deliver a letter from the Assistant-Resident of 
Gaya, who was visiting for the first time for many years some of the Dusun tribes round 
about the mountain. Billio brought news of a fight that had taken place at a tamel just 
below Melangkap in the dry bed of the Panataran, in which a Kapar Dusun had been 
killed by a Bungal man. The Dusuns of the two villages near Melangkap were in an 
excited state, and had collected together at Melangkap with the intention of attacking the 
villagers of Bungal; but discretion overcame valour, and they disbanded without striking a 
blow. The following year, however, when I returned from Melangkap from Kiau, a small 
party, composed of the youth of three villages—Kapar, Teung, and Melangkap—were 
out on the war-path. After hovering round about the outskirts of the Bungal village for 
nearly three weeks, they returned to their homes without the desired head, and doubtless 
they will make expeditions to that district once or twice a year until they are able to 
pounce upon some unfortunate individual of that tribe. I should think that head-hunting 
amongst the Dusuns could be easily stamped out; but to do this it would be necessary for 
the Company to locate a European controlleur somewhere within easy distance of these 
tribes, when their disputes could be settled before they led to bloodshed. 
The native custom of fining those who have the balance of heads in their favour, and 
handing over the said fines to their enemies could, I believe, be carried out without the loss 
of a life and with very little trouble. The officer in charge formerly living in Abai has 
been removed, and an attempt is being made to govern the whole of this large district 
from Pulo Gaya, which is an impossibility, as the officer placed there has not sufficient 
time at his disposal to travel so far. Thus the Bajows of the coast have full scope for 
their cattle-lifting propensities, which causes frequent murders amongst themselves and 
bloodshed between them and the Dusuns inland. Up to the present the Kina Balu 
Dusuns have never had their affairs settled; a police expedition is merely a raid into the 
district, and as no officer is stationed in the country afterwards, little good accrues from 
such expeditions. 
