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
In the afternoon, Mr. Krol, the mining engineer, returned from a trip of a
month's duration, wearing a pedometer around his neck. He had walked
twenty miles in the jungle that day. A Dayak who had accompanied him from
Pa-au, one day's march toward the east, gave me some information about the
giant pig, known to exist in Southern Borneo from a single skull which at
present is in the Agricultural High School Museum of Berlin. During my
Bornean travels I constantly made inquiries in regard to this enormous
pig, which is supposed to be as large as a Jersey cow. From information
gathered, Pa-au appears to be the most likely place where a hunt for this
animal, very desirable from a scientific point of view, might be started
with prospect of success. An otherwise reliable old Malay once told me
about a pig of extraordinary size which had been killed by the Dayaks many
years ago, above Potosibau, in the Western Division. The Dayaks of Pa-au,
judging from the one I saw and the information he gave, are Mohammedans,
speak Malay, and have no weapons but spears.
The vaccinateur started in advance of us to prepare the people for our
arrival. Our new paddlers, who were jolly and diligent men, brought their
rice packed in palm-leaves, one parcel for the men of each prahu. They use
leaves of the banana even more frequently for such purposes, as also do
Javanese and Dayaks, and spread on the ground they form a neat and
inviting setting for the food, serving the purpose of a fresh table-cloth.
The men ate rapidly with their fingers and afterward drank water from the
kali (river), throwing it into the mouth with the hand, as is the Malay
custom. I did not notice that they brought dried fish, which is the usual
complement to a meal. In this section of the country there is much
admixture of blood between Dayaks and Malays, which accounts for the fact
that the latter are more genial and agreeable than their lower classes
usually are. At Pinang the small population turned out in full force,
standing picturesquely near the mosque on an open space between the
cocoanut-trees that grew on the high river-bank. It was evident that
visitors are not often seen there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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