"In cooking the pandanus, a little water is first poured in, and the fruit piled above it and steamed; when sufficiently done, the bread is prepared by the same method as practised on the coast.
"Several paths led beyond the camp; and following one, we crossed a small stream by a tree bridge (a couple of saplings laid side by side), 300 or 400 yards beyond which we arrived at the bank of the Dagmar River, here a stream about 40 yards wide flowing between low jungle-covered banks.
"Once more by the sea we photographed Awang and his family, bought some of his belongings, and also took possession of about twenty megapodes' eggs which he had collected for us.
"The Shom Peṅ we had seen, he informed us, were all there were in the neighbourhood, although far back in the interior were other, but unfriendly, groups. The only child in the village was his own son, and the same old story was repeated—that where formerly there were two or three men with their families in each house, now there was only one.
"In the afternoon we walked along the shore of Casuarina Bay to the mouth of the Dagmar. Fortunately the tide was low, and exposed a broad strip of hard wet sand, which made the tramp very pleasant, in spite of the hot sun. On the way, we passed the half-dry bed of a small stream, crammed with thousands of a little black red-bellied mud-fish, so crowded together that numbers had died.
"The Dagmar River emerges suddenly from jungle, with banks almost free from mangrove and nipah, and makes its way to the sea through a curving channel in the sand, where at low tide it is very shallow.
"Bundles of rattan hung from several trees, and a small hut full of the same material stood near a path that evidently led to the Shom Peṅ village. More cane was to be seen across the river, and a canoe lay on the bank.
MEN OF THE SHOM PEṄ (in profile.)
"So much we discovered by a little exploring; then, after climbing a palm and refreshing ourselves with stolen coconuts, we set out on the return walk, in order to avoid being overtaken by darkness."