Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917Lumholtz, Carl
History
Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917
Lumholtz, Carl
Borneo -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Borneo; Natural history -- Borneo
One day at noon, while we were waiting for the largest prahu to overtake
us, fresh tracks of pig were discovered on the bank, and the Saputan dog,
a very wise animal, was landed. A few minutes later he began the peculiar
barking which indicated that he had caught the scent, and one man seized a
sumpitan and ran off into the utan as fast as his legs could carry him,
holding the weapon in his right hand in a horizontal position, spear end
first. It sounded as if the dog might be holding the pig in the water a
little higher up, but this was soon found to be a mistake when the barking
was heard close by. The Saputan kapala then jumped from my prahu, drew his
parang, and with wonderful elastic movements disappeared in the utan. Two
or three minutes later they returned, one man bearing in his arms a
scarcely half-grown live pig, which had been hit by the sumpitan. The
whole affair lasted barely ten minutes.
At another place, where we were again waiting for the big prahu, the
Penyahbongs amused themselves with wrestling in water up to their
shoulders. After some dancing around, the fight would invariably finish by
both disappearing and after a few seconds coming to view again. This
caused much merriment, especially to the wrestlers themselves, who laughed
immoderately when reappearing.
We entered the tributary Bulau, and a couple of hours later arrived at its
junction with Bakkaang, at the source of which we expected to cross the
watershed. The river, which was rather narrow, would be difficult to
ascend unless we had showers. Luckily rain fell during the night, and
although delayed by trees that had fallen across the stream, which was
from six to ten metres wide, we made a good day's work and camped at an
attractive old clearing of rattan gatherers.
I spent the next forenoon in an excursion to a place within the jungle,
where birds and animals sometimes congregate in great numbers to obtain
the salt water which issues from the earth or rocks. This masin (salt
water) was known to the Malay rattan seekers in our party, who had snared
birds and deer there. In the dry season hundreds of birds of various kinds
would gather. By wading up a small stream for twenty minutes we reached a
place where water exuded from a rock, especially at its top, and by
following the stream upward for another twenty minutes we arrived at the
larger one, where the ooze from the rocks overflowed the ground. Only
tracks were seen, but our guide said that after three rainless days in
succession birds and animals would be sure to come there. Myriads of
yellowish-gray flies covered the ground as well as the rocks, and after
having taken some specimens of algae, also some white gelatinous stuff
with which the Malays rub themselves when afflicted with beri-beri, I
returned to camp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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