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when dipped into water of a temperature of one hundred and fifty degrees, it began to melt immediately; but on being withdrawn and placed over the flame of a lighted candle, it instantly became hard again.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.