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 Malay kampong, Pembuang, I procured a large pomelo, in Borneo
called limao, a delicious juicy fruit of the citrus order, but light-pink
inside and with little or no acidity. After the exertions of the night
this, together with canned bacon, fried and boiled potatoes, furnished an
ideal midday meal. Necessary repairs having been made to the engine, next
day, on a charming, peaceful afternoon, we continued our trip up the
river. An unusually large number of monkeys were seen on both sides, and
the men sat on the railing, with their feet hanging outside, to look at
them. The red, long-nosed variety did not retreat, but looked at us calmly
from the branch where it sat; other species hurried off, making incredibly
long leaps from branch to branch. Shortly after sunset we threw anchor.
Lake Sembulo is about sixteen kilometres long by about one in width. The
lake is entered suddenly, amid clumps of a big species of water plant
which in season has long white odoriferous flowers. Very striking is the
white bottom and the beaches consisting of gravel or sand. How far the
sandy region extends I am unable to say, but Mr. Labohm, the chief
forester, told me that in the Sampit River region northeast of here, and
about twenty metres above the sea, he walked for two days on whitish sand,
among rosaceae and azale, the forest being very thin. The comparatively
clear water is slightly tinged with reddish brown on account of its
connection with the Pembuang River, which has the usual colour of Bornean
rivers. Low receding hills rise all around as we steam along, and the
utan, which more or less covers the country, looks attractive, though at
first the forests surrounding the ladangs of the Malays are partly defaced
by dead trees, purposely killed by fire in order to gain more fields.
After a couple of hours we arrived at kampong Sembulo, which has an
alluring look when viewed from the lake, lying on a peninsula with
handsome trees which mercifully hide most of the houses. The kapala of
this Malay settlement, who came on board in a carefully laundered white
cotton suit, had courteous manners. He kindly arranged for three prahus to
take us and our belongings ashore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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