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Yet it was unknown as a tatu design to some Kayans of the Baram river to whom it was shown recently; they informed us that the name of the design was TUANG BUVONG ASU, pattern of dog without tail, and they stated that a somewhat similar design was engraved by them on sword blades.
Such a chief was Laki Avit, a Kenyah, who, some twenty years before the Rajah's officers first entered upon the task of administering the Baram, was recognised throughout all the interior of the district as the leading chief, a position which could only have been achieved by the consistent pursuit of a wise policy of conciliation and just dealing between. Kenyahs and Kayans.
There was a movement through the whole court. "Yes," said Mr. Travers, "Captain Ballantyne had a visitor that night." Baram Singh agreed. "Look round the court and tell the magistrate if you can see here the man who dined with Captain Ballantyne and his wife that night." For a moment the court was filled with the noise of murmuring. The usher cried "Silence!" and the murmuring ceased.
When this boisterous ceremony had been accomplished, the Resident presented to the Lepu Agas a number of presents, calculated to whet their appetite for the products of civilised industry to be found in the Baram bazaar. Very soon all suspicion and reserve were overcome, and all the men of the Resident's party turned to with hearty goodwill to help build a house for their former enemies.
The visitors looked about them and confessed that they still had to be content with bark clothing, bamboo cups, and wooden dishes; 'but, they added, 'if you come to our house you will at least find on the floor a good LAMPIT on which we can all sit together. " The story quickly went the round of the Kayan villages in the Baram, with the result that large LAMPITS quickly came back into general use and the good old custom was preserved.
Travers, asked permission to recall Baram Singh. Permission was granted, and Baram Singh once more took his place in the witness-box. Mr. Travers leant against the desk behind him and put his questions with the most significant slowness. "I wish to ask you, Baram Singh," he said, "about the dinner-table on the Thursday night. You laid it?" "Yes," replied Baram Singh. "For how many?" "For three."
Baram Singh hurriedly finished his work and left the marquee by the passage leading to the kitchen. Ballantyne waited with his eyes upon that passage until the grass-mat screen had ceased to move. Then taking a bunch of keys from his pocket he stooped under the open writing-flap of the bureau and unlocked the lowest of the three drawers.
It had always been a weakness of the Rajah's government that it could assure to the Baram people no protection against attack from those regions, the latter of which, though nominally Dutch territory, was not yet controlled by the Dutch government.
Travers. "Yes," replied Baram Singh. No one understood what was coming. People began to ask themselves whether Thresk was concerned in the murder. Word had been published that he had already left for England. How was it he was here now? Mr. Travers, for his part, was enjoying to the full the suspense which his question had aroused.
In this way a Kayan chief of the Baram would construct a tolerably accurate map of the whole Baram district, putting in Bruni and USUN APO and the heads of the Rejang, Batang Kayan, Tutong, and Balait rivers. He knows that all the rivers run to the sea, though few Kayans have seen the sea or, indeed, been outside the basin of their own river.
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