hour like some strange animal submitted for the first time to the gaze of an
inquiring public. Brass rings were here in the greatest profusion, many of the
women having their arms completely covered with them, as well as their legs
from the ankle to the knee. Round the waist they wear a dozen or more coils of
fine rattan stained red, to which the petticoat is attached. Below this are
generally a number of coils of brass wire, a girdle of small silver coins, and
sometimes a broad belt of brass ring armour. On their heads they wear a conical
hat without a crown, formed of variously coloured beads, kept in shape by rings
of rattan, and forming a fantastic but not unpicturesque headdress.
Walking out to a small hill near the village, cultivated as a rice-field, I had a
fine view of the country, which was becoming quite hilly, and towards the south,
mountainous. I took bearings and sketches of all that was visible, an operation
which caused much astonishment to the Dyaks who accompanied me, and
produced a request to exhibit the compass when I returned. I was then
surrounded by a larger crowd than before, and when I took my evening meal in
the midst of a circle of about a hundred spectators anxiously observing every
movement and criticising every mouthful, my thoughts involuntarily recurred to
the lion at feeding time. Like those noble animals, I too was used to it, and it did
not affect my appetite. The children here were more shy than at Tabókan, and I
could not persuade them to play. I therefore turned showman myself, and
exhibited the shadow of a dog's head eating, which pleased them so much that all
the village in succession came out to see it. The "rabbit on the wall" does not do
in Borneo, as there is no animal it resembles. The boys had tops shaped
something like whipping-tops, but spun with a string.
The next morning we proceeded as before, but the river had become so rapid
and shallow and the boats were all so small, that though I had nothing with me
but a change of clothes, a gun, and a few cooking utensils, two were required to
take me on. The rock which appeared here and there on the riverbank was an
indurated clay-slate, sometimes crystalline, and thrown up almost vertically.
Right and left of us rose isolated limestone mountains, their white precipices
glistening in the sun and contrasting beautifully with the luxuriant vegetation
that elsewhere clothed them. The river bed was a mass of pebbles, mostly pure
white quartz, but with abundance of jasper and agate, presenting a beautifully
variegated appearance. It was only ten in the morning when we arrived at Budw,
and, though there were plenty of people about, I could not induce them to allow
me to go on to the next village. The Orang Kaya said that if I insisted on having
men, of course he would get them, but when I took him at his word and said I
must have them, there came a fresh remonstrance; and the idea of my going on