II.—An Expedition to the Bah Country of 
Central Borneo.— By R. S. Douglas, Resident of 
Bakam, Sarawak. 
I suppose that to the great majority of persons, 
Borneo, with perhaps the exception of New Guinea, is 
quite the least known country in the world, and the fact 
that a “ Wild Man” came from there and a famous race¬ 
horse was named after him, and a vague-idea of head¬ 
hunters and pirates are the limits of knowledge of the 
ordinary individual about this island. I remember on 
one occasion when I was at home on leave, in the course 
of conversation with a dear old lady, she acquired the 
information that I was working in Borneo, and remarked, 
“ Oh dear, how interesting ! Let me see, that is some¬ 
where in the West Indies, is it not ?” It would certainly 
surprise a great many people in England to know that 
nearlv half of this enormous island is under British 
protection, the greater part of this being ruled by an 
Englishman, Sir Charles Brooke, as Rajah of Sarawak, 
and the remainder is governed partly by the British 
North Borneo Company and partly by the Sultan of 
Brunei under direct British control, and that under 
these different regimes, piracy and headdmnting have 
practically become things of the past, and instead flour¬ 
ishing towns and villages exist along the coast, and 
savagery and jungle are giving way to such things as 
electric light, telephones and telegraphs, railways, and 
even that latest herald of civilization, the motor-car. 
However, far away in the interior, the native still 
reigns supreme in his pristine state of wildness, and, 
although a parental Government tries to persuade him 
to divert his energy into working jungle produce, such as 
gutta-percha, india-rubber or rattans, every now and 
then the spirit of the old Adam bursts out and a party of 
young braves will go dancing over the border and burn 
down the village of a neighbouring tribe and slaughter as 
many of the inhabitants as possible. This, of course, 
means retaliation on the part of the injured tribe, and 
so a blood feud is at once started and goes on merrily 
until the Government interferes and due punishment is 
2 
Sar. Mus. Journ., No. 2, 1912. 
