170 ACCOUNT OF EXPEDITIONS TO MT. KINABALU. 
later. He died in Jesselton hospital on July 6th, 1914, 
from wounds received in an affray with native outlaws not 
far from his station. A kinder host and nicer travelling 
companion it would have been difficult to find. 
II. Native Guides from Kiau. 
An inquiry as to who is the chief of Kiau leads one into 
a maze of intricate history, which I am afraid I did not 
succeed in unravelling. It seems that for a long time there 
have been two reigning houses, who, more or less, take it in 
turn to provide a chief of Kiau; occasionally a third family 
seems to come in. These headmen (the chief and pre¬ 
tender for the time) always accompany any Europeans on 
an ascent of Kinabalu. 
On Low’s first ascent, in 1851, Lemaing was the guide; 
in 1858, when St. John and Low reached Kiau, Lemaing 
was again called in to act as guide. St. John gives an 
amusing account of a dispute between Lemaing and 
Lemoung, the chief men of Kiau, the quarrel originally 
arising over the division of Low’s goods seven years before ! 
St. John writes : “ The guide Lemaing carried an enormous 
bundle of charms, and on him fell the duty of praying or 
repeating some forms, which he continued for two hours 
by my watch. To discover what he said, or the real object 
to whom he addressed himself, was almost impossible 
through the medium of our bad interpreters; but I could 
hear him repeating my name, and they said he was address¬ 
ing the spirits of his ancestors, and imploring their for¬ 
giveness for invading in our company their place of rest, 
for it is the belief of all the Ida’an that the summit of Kina 
Balu is the heaven of their race.” 
Later St. John recounts how Lemaing walked off with 
some brass wire. He goes on to say : “I am afraid I very 
much disconcerted him, as with one hand I tore the prize 
from his grasp, and with the other put a revolver to his 
head, and told him to beware of meddling with our bag¬ 
gage.” On my visit to Kinabalu in 1918 I asked Sumpot, 
the present chief of Kiau, if he knew of this incident; he 
laughed, and replied that he had often heard his father, 
Kurou, speak of it. Kurou was the son of Lemaing; the 
present chief is thus the grandson of Low’s guide. 
On St. John’s second journey Lemoung was chosen as 
guide, as Lemaing had been so unsatisfactory before. 
The three ruling families of Kiau and the part they have 
v 
