KINA BALIJ: SECOND EXPEDITION. 
155 
Koung Dusun only seven months before; and as our route lay through that village, the old 
man was afraid to accompany us. Thus we were left without our interpreter ; but Gamboie 
and the Kadyans managed to understand each other pretty well, and after full instructions 
from Billio as to what we wanted to do when we reached Kiau, this Dusun was able 
to do all the palavering necessary. Our path led up and down the steepest of hills, 
across a good-sized stream which drains the other side of the Melangkap spur. We passed 
through two or three Dusun villages. At Tambatuan the Dusuns were anxious for us to 
stop the night in their village, promising to kill “ another cow ” and make a feast: this 
offer was most tempting to the Melangkaps, but not to myself, as I did not wish for 
another cow’s leg to my debit; and besides this we passed a cow shortly before we came 
to the village—this cow had died a natural death; so for these reasons I did not look upon 
this invitation so graciously as I might otherwise have done, knowing that Dusuns are not 
particular, and, curiously enough, it w T as in this very campong that the Assistant-Resident 
wrote me the letter about the poll-tax cow last year. After leaving Tambatuan the route 
descends to the Tampassuk, which has to be forded several times before Koung is reached. 
Some of the granite boulders in the bed of the Tampassuk are of immense size. The Dusun 
paddi and kaladi are to be seen wherever the ground is suitable for cultivation. We 
reached the village of Koung at 3.30 p.m. ; but our Dusun porters were far behind, so we 
walked through the village and waited beside the river until they arrived. The village of 
Koung is very prettily situated on a level green sward round which the Tampassuk flows in 
a graceful curve. On the left hand is the curious mountain of Saduc Saduc, the “ Anak 
Kina Balu ” (child of Kina Balu) of the Dusuns ; this mountain is pointed, and the side 
visible from Melangkap is very precipitous. On the opposite side of the river the mountains 
rise abruptly; the green is planted with coconut-palms, which seem to thrive here. 
Our porters arrived before dark. My men and myself shared a large paddi-house, as 
the Koungs appeared by no means friendly and did not invite us to their houses. The 
paddi-house was more like a large bird-cage, but, though in cold and airy quarters, we passed 
a comfortable night. Our carriers mingled with the Koungs, sleeping in their houses, 
which on the next morning had the following result. 
22nd.—As soon as we were ready to resume our journey to Kiau, the Melangkaps 
refused to move, saying that they had no more rice, and unless I provided them with some 
they would not go any further. This of course I refused to do, as it is always part of a 
traveller’s agreement that local porters carry their own rations; after a deal of threatening 
several of them produced their own rice and ate it. This was the work of the Koungs, who 
persuaded the Melangkaps to refuse to go further, hoping no doubt to benefit themselves by 
this manoeuvre by earning wages from their village to Kiau. The Melangkaps having been 
paid beforehand willingly acquiesced in playing their part. But as we proceeded to cross 
the river the Melangkaps soon followed. The Koungs are apparently a well-to-do lot of 
people, and are physically finer and better-looking than the Melangkaps, especially the young 
women, who were handsomer than any Dusuns I saw round about Kina Balu. 
The headman of this village (I do not know his name) is a handsome man with a some¬ 
what sharp and disagreeable look ; when I offered him a present on the morning before we 
started, more than equal to the hospitality he had shown us, he refused to accept it, so I gave 
him nothing else and left his village: he was no doubt angry because we had gained the 
