“Now compare this to the pig and the fowl,” he continued, “so highly valued by you all, I really do not see what there is against eating an ape.”
“But the likeness! It almost seems like eating your own brother.” [[277]]
“Mercy!” Johannes resumed smiling, “that is an argument overlooked by Darwin while endeavoring to make his celebrated theory acceptable. I mean the horror men have for eating monkey flesh under the impression that he is consuming his own brother. I am happy to say that we Dayaks do not despise the monkey as food, although we are unacquainted with the taste of human flesh.”
But Johannes might have talked till doomsday, he could not convert his mates. The soup remained untouched by the Europeans. He however enjoyed his share of it and helped himself to one of the monkey’s legs, which he ate with great satisfaction.
Dinner being finished the journey was continued. Since their departure from kotta Djangkan, the country had gradually become more rugged and they had approached a range of hills between which the Kapoeas made its way. They now perceived lofty mountains in the north and north-west, the tops of which were clearly defined in the distance. Johannes pointed out to his companions that they would have to traverse those mountains in order to reach the Chinese sea. But he added: “We are only commencing to see its southern slopes. God only knows when we will be able to descend the other side.”
They rowed with all their might until about three o’clock, when Amai Kotong signalled them to halt. They had now arrived opposite the mouth of the soengei Samoehing, which, after a short consultation, they entered. Johannes asked Harimaoung Boekit his reason for so doing, as they had full three hours to spare and in that time might perhaps reach Toembang Roengoi.
Without a word of reply the Poenan pointed towards the [[278]]sky in the north which was getting rapidly darker, presaging a thunder-storm. Dalim told the Europeans that a soho, or flood, called bandjer amongst the Malays, could be extremely dangerous sometimes, for the waters rise suddenly and run with irresistible force. Vessels caught by the soho are frequently carried away and are exposed to the danger of foundering in one of the whirlpools, or of being shattered against the cliffs of the kihams. As soon as they entered the mouth of the soengei Samoehing they landed and drew their boats as high on the shore as possible in order to place them beyond the reach of the flood. They were still occupied in this work when a noise like distant thunder was heard approaching nearer and nearer. The Europeans really believed it to be thunder, a conviction which seemed to be confirmed by the increasing darkness of the sky and the large drops of rain that began to fall. Dalim, however, called the deserters aside and together they mounted the hill which separated the Kapoeas from the Samoehing. There they had a magnificent view over the whole river. Perfect silence reigned everywhere; not a leaf moved, not a blade of grass vibrated, not a bird twittered nor a moth took wing. The clouds heavily pressed downward on the earth causing an insufferable heat, a feeling of depression under which the whole universe seemed to labor. Nothing but the still distant roar was heard gradually approaching nearer and nearer.
“Look! Look!” Schlickeisen cried, pointing to the upper part of the stream in anxious astonishment, whence with a roar like thunder there advanced a wall of water from twelve to fifteen feet high, as if about to overwhelm everything—hill and wood [[279]]and travellers. Rushing forward and carrying every obstacle before it, it hurried on like a perpendicular cliff, foaming and seething as if discharged from some subterranean volcano. Under the irresistible influence of the waters rocks groaned as if wrenched from their base; trees were uprooted and carried away; large masses of stones became dislodged from their encasements of clay in the banks and fell into the surging flood, being kept afloat for a moment by the immense power and rapidity of the stream.
The appearance of this wall of water lasted for an instant only, but when it had passed our travellers like a shadow, the surface of the river had risen some fifteen feet and kept rising still, so that where only a few moments before a crystalline stream had sped over its bed of clear white sand and pebbles, nothing but a roaring and seething yellow turbid mass of water was now to be seen.
Our Europeans had looked on at this phenomenon with the highest admiration, but before the swift-moving wall of water had entirely disappeared from view their attention was diverted by the storm which suddenly burst forth in all its majestic grandeur.