After the snake had been duly skinned, the women of the kampong told the travellers that their husbands were all absent gathering rosin. On the previous night an old woman had been awakened from her sleep by a sensation of pressure on her stomach; she stretched her hands out in the dark to ascertain the cause and felt a cold and clammy object which moved at her touch. She jumped up at once, uttering horrible cries and shrieking for assistance. The neighbors were soon at hand, but the glimmer of their lamps showed them nothing but a black mass crawling along the floor and finally disappearing in the darkness. Upon entering the room in which the old woman had slept they found her husband killed by a wound under his lower ribs, large enough to receive a human head. The riddle was now solved. The kampong had been visited by a boa, an occurrence by no means frequent in these marshy regions. The women, not being able to consult their better-halves, had bethought them of setting a bait, in the shape of a live ape fastened to a hook—with the result of finding the boa caught on the following evening. Disturbed at his meal of the night before, his hunger remained unappeased and he was readily snared. After this narrative Johannes answered the questions of the women as to whence they had come. He commenced to tell them that he was going up country for trading purposes, when a piercing “lēēēēh, lèlèlèlèlè, oeiiiit,” was heard in the direction of their boat, followed by a few rifle-shots. This gave grave cause for apprehension. They hurried away as fast as possible and found La Cueille and the Dayak engaged in a fight with the occupants of several djoekoengs. Who the assailants were could not for the moment be ascertained. Our friends leaped into their boats, took their rifles and fired as if they meant to disperse a whole army. Their vigorous attack soon put the assailants to flight. After the retreat of the djoekoengs the adventurers endeavored to discover whence the attack had proceeded. Calling a few women who had been following them, Dalim asked whether they knew who their assailants were. “These men are rosin-seekers who have just returned home,” said one of the women. Then raising her voice she called: “Oōōōh Mihing!!” To this summons Mihing, probably her husband, responded from the wood with a similar “Oōōōh.” They quickly obtained all particulars of the mistaken aggression. A few canoes had preceded the rosin-gatherers and on nearing the kampong had heard the cries of the women. Fearing treason they had returned to summon their mates and hence their number. They observed a canoe hidden amongst the shrubs close to the kampong and they felt quite sure that a troop of head-hunters had dropped down the Doesson and Mantangei and were busily engaged in operating upon their wives and children.