KINA BALU. 
123 
utterly exhausted. Thus to-day we have accomplished in a few hours the same distance, over 
a slightly less trying country, which under the Sultan’s guidance took us a day and a half. 
The Thumb-Hadji left in charge of my baggage has collected a number of birds, but 
all are badly skinned. There are, however, two specimens, the only ones as yet obtained, 
of a new Sparrow-Hawk (Accipiter rufotibialis). 
15th.—The whole day has been passed by us bartering with the Husuns for rice, and 
in the end we only secured sufficient for seven days, and this at an exorbitant price, so after 
this is finished we must return to the coast. 
16th.—The Melangkaps are anxious to make brothers of our party, and are going to 
sacrifice a cow to celebrate this occasion. Their object in doing this is to make us, by 
accepting their gifts of food and returning other like presents, vow always to be friendly 
Avith the tribe, and in our absence never to do them any harm. Strange as it may seem, the 
aborigines of Borneo believe that people have power over each other though separated by 
many miles. This of course was at one time, and is even noAv, the belief of the ignorant 
even in enlightened England. 
17th.—The Dusuns killed the coav to-day, and presented us with one of the legs : they 
have also given me a quantity of rice, every household in the village presenting us with a 
small quantity. When the evening meal came, I ate my beef and rice surrounded by all 
the chief men of the village ; I also had to drink some of their disagreeable “ tuak.” In 
return I did my best AAnth the small stock of provisions at my disposal, but I had still two 
bottles of “ Three Star Brandy,” which could not have been more appreciated. Before the 
feast was over, several of the Dusun nobility were intoxicated ; when they shortly afterwards 
started for their homes, they returned, only to start for their homes again. Later in the 
evening we were visited by the young men and women of the tribe, Avhen several youths per¬ 
formed their monotonous dance. The success of the evening was Billio’s performance, which 
delighted everyone, and it Avas not until nearly midnight that the festivities came to an end. 
The only unpleasantness caused by these festivities Avas that I received on the 22nd 
March a letter from the Assistant-Resident, on the day he left Tambatuan for the coast, in 
Avhich he said that he had heard that Ave had eaten the Company’s poll-tax cow, and he 
thought that my men had been imposing on our Melangkap friends by pretending that we 
Avere North Borneo Company’s officials. This' gentleman also advised me to cut their 
Avages, as the value of the coav Avould go to our debit Avhen Ave returned to Gaya—and 
civilization. As the Melangkaps had never once received a visit from any North Borneo 
Company’s official, I failed to understand hoAv the defunct and devoured coav belonged to 
the Company. I am sure when travelling in North Borneo I have always been most careful 
to let the aborigines knoAv that I had no connection Avith the Company Avhatever, as I 
imagined by doing this I should meet with a better reception than if I posed as one of the 
Company’s officials. HoAA 7 ever, on receipt of this letter I called a meeting of the head men— 
the knights of the three-stars-brandy brand,—and through Billio the interpreter I asked 
them Avhether they gave us that coav’s leg believing that Ave had any connection Avith the 
Company; to this they replied they sacrificed the said coav to bind us as their friends, and 
that we were “ Orang Labuan.” After all, a coav’s leg is not a very serious loss. I should 
have refused to pay the Assistant-Resident for any other portions, as the Dusuns ate the rest. 
