Tower musket on the last journey I made in this direction.
I notice that such of my men as speak the Brunei
language can converse with the Dusun very readily after
a few days’ residence amongst them. This fact was
noted by Mr. St. John, and from what I know of the
language myself after a year’s residence, and aided by
vocabularies carefully collected, I believe the language of
these people is intermediate between that spoken in the
capital, Brunei, and that of the Sulus. Bees-wax and
caoutchouc or rubber are frequently offered for barter as
we pass through the villages. “ Lapayang ” welcomed
us in his own way by firing a salute, and a gong was
beaten to announce our arrival. I was sorry to find that
his father had died since my last visit, when he had
received us with many expressions of good-will, and told
us of Mr. Low’s first visit to the mountain, which he
remembered well. As we had arrived before our supplies,
“ Lapayang” brought us some rice and a fowl as a
present, and one of his sisters gave us some eggs and a
fine cluster of bananas. I felt thankful when we arrived
at Koung, since I knew the way from this place to the
mountain quite well, and had not to trust to lazy guides,
who have not the slightest idea of time or its value to the
traveller. My buffalo also had reason to he glad, for
here the plucky little beast had the luxury of good
herbage on which to feed, a much better thing for him
than the miscellaneous browsing afforded by our former
halting places. The river runs about fifty yards from
our quarters, and is very much swollen, having in many
places overflowed its banks. Capital shooting may be
had here at the large blue pigeons which roost in the
trees beside the river, quite close to the houses.
August Vith.—Again a lovely morning as we crossed
the ford just at the end of the village and pushed on for
Kiau. The road lies by the sides of the river most of the
way until the turn to the left is taken up the open rice-
fields, which lie below the last-named village. We crossed
this river thirteen times to-day, and some of the crossings
were deep and rapid. Met troops of natives male and
female—mostly laden with large baskets of tobacco, which
they were taking down to the villages nearer the coast to
barter for cloth, knives, and other goods, as no traders
appear to venture further inland than the first Dusun
villages. Most of the men were armed with a long slender-
shafted spear, which is .especially useful to them in fording
the streams. In addition they had the “ parang,’ a
sort of scimetar-shaped sword, having a good keen edge.
This is slung to a broad belt worn sash-wise over one
shoulder, the part which crosses the breast being ornamented
with cowrie shells sewn on very thickly. I was
very glad when we reached the little farms of the Kiau
villagers, and could see their dwellings and palm-trees in
the distance. In some of the clearings the crimsonleaved
dracaena {IK terminalis) was conspicuous. It has
here slender stems five or six feet in height, each terminated
by a tuft of bright coloured leaves. Going up the
hill slowly, I made a little collection of the weeds found
among the rice and kaladi crops. Among these were two
pretty little plants of the daisy family (Composite), the
one with purple and the other with yellow florets. A
tiny species of torenia formed spreading tufts of purplish
leaves and stems, and bore rather pretty purple and white
flowers. A woolly-leaved gnaphalium attaining a foot in
height, and bearing dense clusters of yellow immortellelike
flowers, was especially noticeable. There are numerous
springs of cool water, clear as crystal, in this hillside,
and these are brought down to the path in tiny troughs or
aqueducts of bamboo, so that one has only to stoop very