BY R. S. DOUGLAS. 
25 
in a long cylindrical shape. This salt is then exchanged 
with the neighbouring tribes for weapons, rubber, or 
paddy, and is also valuable as a cure for goitre on 
account of its iodide properties. 
The springs were comparatively small holes in the 
ground, but I was informed that they had been flowing 
since the memory of man and showed no signs of failing. 
The water on being tasted was very brackish and bitter 
and reminded one of Epsom Salts. This taste by a 
curious contradiction of sense is called by the Kalabits 
‘‘mein ” meaning sweet, and the salt is actually given in 
small pieces to the children to nibble, in the same way 
that we give a child a lump of sugar to keep it quiet. 
From Ballang Maran’s house we marched on for a 
couple of days accompanied by small embassies from the 
different tribes with whom we had just made peace until 
we got to the village of Tama Abo Tingang on the 
Lemudoh River. We had marched all the time down 
this cultivated plateau and through several small 
villages, until on the second day we struck the Baram 
River once more. It was here an insignificant stream 
of about ten yards wide. The Kayans playfully cut off 
chips of wood and threw them into the stream, asking 
them to bear tender messages to their wives and loved 
ones down-river. 
We spent four days at this village and went through 
the same performance as at Ballang Maran’s house with 
the tribes from the Karayan River, with the exception 
that it was much more ticklish work, as these were the 
actual people who had been attacked by the Government. 
Tingang had got all the chiefs ready to receive me, but 
at my first appearance they all bolted like rabbits into 
the house. However, everything passed off successfully. 
From here onwards at every village up the Baram River 
we were met by embassies from the neighbouring tribes 
and luckily no disturbances took place, and my followers 
began to acquire quite a liking for these peacemakings, 
as after the strain of the first meeting of hostile parties 
was over, it meant unlimited rice beer, and pig and 
buffalo meat galore. The Kayan and Kenyah chiefs 
kept their men well in hand, and in spite of all these 
jollifications I never once saw a Kayan or a Kenyah 
intoxicated. 
