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Updated: May 22, 2025
He had penetrated, in the train of a Chinese pedlar, up one or two of the Bornean rivers into the country of the Dyaks. He had also been in the interior of Mindanao, where there are people who live in trees savages, no better than animals; but a hairy brute like Pedro, with his great fangs and ferocious growls, was altogether beyond his conception of anything that could be looked upon as human.
Very often he returns to the ground with his head swollen to twice the size it was previous to his going up! Not a very pleasant profession is that of a Bornean bee-hunter! As the party proceeded onward, they observed several other tapang-trees, with ladders attached to them; and at the bottom of one of these which was the tallest they had yet seen the guide made a halt.
They watched him with eager gaze, trembling between hope and fear Captain Redwood more apprehensive than the rest. He knew that in this part of the Bornean coast months often pass without a single shower of rain; and if no stream or spring should be found they would still be in danger of perishing by thirst.
"Are you a pilot for this river, Achang?" asked Scott, as the party came together in the waist, the space forward of the engine. "I am; but there is not much piloting to be done, for all you have to do is to keep in the middle of the stream," replied the Bornean.
At such a distance it appeared not bigger than a squirrel; but, for all that, it was a Bornean bear; and the spot of vivid orange upon its breast could be seen shining like a coal of fire. Close by its snout a whitish mass appeared attached under the branches.
Labohm, the chief forester, told me that in the Sampit River region northeast of here, and about twenty metres above the sea, he walked for two days on whitish sand, among rosaceae and azale, the forest being very thin. The comparatively clear water is slightly tinged with reddish brown on account of its connection with the Pembuang River, which has the usual colour of Bornean rivers.
The tobacco cultivated in Sumatra and British North Borneo is used chiefly for wrappers for cigars, for which purpose a very fine, thin, elastic leaf is required and one that has a good colour and will burn well and evenly, with a fine white ash. It is said that 2 lbs. or 2-1/2 lbs. weight of Bornean tobacco will cover 1,000 cigars.
This cannot be made without the use of a metal rod for boring, and, since none of the Bornean tribes which still lead the nomad life know how to work metals, it may be inferred that they have learnt the craft of making the SUMPITAN from more cultured neighbours, procuring from them by barter the iron tools required as they still do.
When I awoke again, I was a baby-ape in Bornean forests, perched among fragrant trailers and fantastic orchis flowers; and as I looked down, beneath the green roof, into the clear waters paved with unknown water-lilies on which the sun had never shone, I saw my face reflected in the pool a melancholy, thoughtful countenance, with large projecting brow it might have been a negro child's.
As a conclusion to the foregoing account of Bornean tatu we add a table which summarises in the briefest possible manner all our information; its chief use perhaps will lie in showing in a graphic manner the blanks in our knowledge that still remain.
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