Bujang affirms that the Pablats muster nearly a thousand fighting men; and that, with the Kadayans, or Mahomedans of the Hills, they have an offensive and defensive alliance, which enables them to hold their own, and not be treated as the other kampongs are. He was very proud that they would not suffer the rajahs to take their women, except with the parents’ consent. It is a fact that an unbetrothed girl, of decent appearance, can never be kept by her parents. A rajah sees her, and orders her to be sent to his harïm, that he may honour her by taking her as a concubine. They, therefore, betroth their children in childhood, and then they are usually safe. He says, and the Bisayas have a similar tradition, that Brunei was formerly a lake, that burst through into the sea near the island of Iñgaran.
3 p.m.—We have only walked two hours and a half to-day, as, when we arrived at the hut of the Adang hunters, our Muruts were unwilling to go farther, hoping to come in for a very good share of the flesh of the wild pig that was hung up around: so we stopped, though anxious to get to a river. It is a great luxury, after a walk, to get a bathe in a fresh, running stream. Now we are encamped on an elevation of 3,000 feet, with only a very tiny spring of water near. With the party of Adang Muruts there is an old chief who has agreed to return with us to his village, leaving his young men to gather honey and wax. The few Adangs that we have met have rather a heavy, forbidding appearance, except the old chief and another.
Nearly all of this party of hunters were armed with sumpitans, which were as usual of dark hard red wood, and had a spear-head, lashed on very neatly with rattans on one side of the muzzle, and an iron sight on the other. The arrows were carried in very neatly-carved bamboo cases, and were themselves but slips of wood, tipped with spear-shaped heads cut out of bamboo. The poison looks like a translucent gum, of a rich brown colour; and when dipped into water of a temperature of one hundred and fifty degrees, it began to melt immediately; but on being withdrawn and placed over the flame of a lighted candle, it instantly became hard again. The butt of the arrow is fixed in a round piece of the pith of a palm, which fits the bore of the blow-pipe. The natives say also, that the juice from one kind of creeper is even more virulent than that of the upas. On inquiry, I find that none of the people of these countries can manufacture the sumpitan themselves, but purchase them from traders, who procure them at Bintulu and Rejang from the wild Punans and Pakatans, and are therefore very dear, and highly prized, and no price offered will induce a man to part with a favourite sumpitan.
These Muruts were furnished with war jackets and helmets. The former were well padded, and thickly covered over with cowrie shells; the latter was of the same material, with flaps hanging, so as to protect the wearer’s neck from poisoned arrows. I heard that the supplying of cowrie shells formed a sort of trade in the Trusan districts. These Muruts, like those seen near the coast, often wear their hair tied in a knot behind, and keep it in its place by a great pin, fashioned something like a spear-head both in size as well as in appearance, which is made, according to the means of the wearer, either of brass or of bamboo.
Our walk to-day presented no feature of interest: a stiff climb to a narrow ridge, and then along it rising gradually to the hunter’s temporary hut. We but occasionally got glimpses of the country through the trees, and it presents one general view of forest, covering hill and valley. If we are to take such short walks as these, the journey will be an easy one indeed. I did not regret our little progress to-day, as it enabled old Japer to come up with us, his acute attack having left him. I never was in such a country for bees: they everywhere swarm in the most disagreeable manner, and ants and other insects are equally numerous.
12th.—There was much thunder and lightning last night, with rain; but, notwithstanding the continued drizzle, I got away before seven, the chief sending his son. Our walk was more direct to-day, as the path was well known to the guide, he having just used it. The course was generally in a S. by E. direction; on the whole, over a very similar country to yesterday; got no view whatever. We crossed numerous streams, as the Sañgin, Ropan, and Gritang, and have now stopped at a very pleasant one, the Lemilang, encamping on a high bank about 100 feet above it (900 feet above the level of the sea). We have done more work to-day, walking more than six hours. Noticed some tracks of the tambadau. The Kalio hills, perhaps 5,500 feet high, have been on our left all day. The most active man I have ever seen is a young Murut, who walked part of the way with us to-day: he had a perfect figure, and is the only pleasant-looking man besides the chief that belonged to the party of hunters.
13th.—I have little to enter, except that we walked five hours south-east, then four east, then another north, passing over the same kind of country as usual. The only noticeable event was catching some fine fish in the Madihit, just below the junction of the Rapaw and the Obar. The operation is simple: stones are hurled into a pool in the river; the fish fly for concealment under the stones and to the holes in the rocks; the men jump in and soon bring them out of their hiding-places. They caught five large and above a dozen small fish; one was eighteen inches long, and very fat. Ahtan was successful in getting a fine one, which he is at present engaged in cooking, so that we shall each dine off half of it to-night. The scales are very large; it is the same kind as I have previously noticed in the Madalam and Tampasuk.
After this good fortune, we crossed the river, and ascended the steep hill of Pakong Lubfing, till we reached a little rivulet running into the Obar. I really believe that the great loss of blood from leeches is the cause of the faintness I feel to-night; I have pushed off hundreds, and the wounds continue to bleed for some time. Perhaps this, and the very heavy day’s work, may account for the strong disinclination I feel to write my journal. The Muruts are beginning to be full of dismal stories of enemies, saying they have suffered much lately from the attacks of neighbouring tribes, who have shot at them with their poisoned arrows, many dying, including some women and children. However, there is not much reliance to be placed in such stories when told in the woods. During the evening a very disagreeable-looking insect kept attacking my candle. It looked like a dead but branched twig, and an ordinary observer would scarcely notice the difference till he saw it move; its legs are represented by four dead branches. There is another more common, that has wings like a couple of bright green leaves. (Our camp 1,500 feet.)
The Murut guides are but scantily provided with food, and search eagerly for snakes, tortoises, and fresh-water turtle. The last would be a grand find, as it is often three feet long, without including the head and neck: its upper shell and chest are covered with a soft skin, large openings being left for the limbs, each of which has five fingers, three of them armed with thin but strong claws, those on the thumbs being the largest; the fourth and fifth fingers have no claws, and their joints are such as to admit of much movement in a lateral direction, particularly the fifth, which, when the fin is distended, is at right angles to the first three. The back is of an uniform dark gray; the upper part of the head dark olive green, mottled with yellow spots; the nose is prolonged into a non-retractile, pointed soft snout, about an inch in length, and the nostrils are rather large; the tail is about three inches long and very fleshy. Its stomach, when opened, often contains many kinds of fruits, particularly wild figs and some large kernels, which, though not harder than filberts, pass unbroken through his horny jaws, which appear, however, well adapted for cutting up food of this consistence. I may add, that the lower part of its neck is covered with a fold of loose cartilaginous skin, into which it withdraws its head, with the exception of the pig-like snout.
14th.—Walked to-day seven hours in a general east-north-east direction; in fact, from the range that separates the Madihit waters from the Limbang, the Adang mountains were pointed out, bearing east-north-east. We had a distant view of some high peaks, bearing due south, said to be those in the interior of Baram. We had also a tolerable view of the Molu range, which enabled me to fix our position. I found to-day, just as we were crossing the ridge, one of the most curious insects I have ever seen; it appeared like a gigantic moth, above four inches in length, and was of a brown colour, with a band of bright green just across its neck; although it had the look of a moth, on closer examination it looked like a great horse-fly. I have little to enter to-day, as the walking has been over the same style of ground, and there has been no incident to vary the ordinary routine. We pass a good many abandoned huts, with an occasional deer-skin hanging up to dry, the mark of the hunter; and, to our great disappointment, we find the same men have been poisoning the river with the beaten out roots of the tuba plant, capturing all the good fish near the encampment. Some of the hungry ones strayed farther down, and saw several of a very large kind, but they escaped into such deep holes that it was impossible to get them out.