carry snuff-boxes in their ears. Everywhere here inland
we find the native cloth is made from the “ lamb a ”
fibre dyed a deep blue-black with native indigo. I procured
specimens of this fibre-weaving apparatus, and
prepared cloth, and these may now be seen in the large
Economic Museum at Kew. After dinner “ Kurow,” our
old guide, and “ Boloung,” the headman of this village,
came in with the avowed purpose of having a chat.
They were particularly anxious to hear about the white
man who had come to live on the Tampassuk river (Mr.
Pretyman), who they had been told intended to make
them all pay tribute, which was evidently unpleasant
news to them. They also wanted to know where I had
been since I left their village, and were very much interested
in all I told them about the Sultan of Sulu. The
house was full of people of all ages, who had come to see
us, and among them were a party from a village three
days’ journey inland. These were on their way to the
coast villages to trade. The produce they had with them
was tobacco, bees-wax, india-rubber, and a little “ lamba ”
cloth and raw cotton. These people had never seen a
white man before, and seemed rather interested in all
we did; and in the accounts their Dusun neighbours
gave them of us and our doings, the gist of which was
that we came from a large prahu, or ship, to dig up grass
and shoot birds, that we ate and drank all sorts of curious
things, but singularly enough, as they thought, would not
eat rats or tiger-cats, these being esteemed great delicacies
here by the native trappers. Here, at Kiau, as at all the
Dusun villages along our way, we noticed large quantities
of tame or domesticated bees. These are kept in cylindrical
hives formed of a hollow tree trunk, and are placed
on a shelf fixed under the overhanging eaves of the
houses. In several instances the hives were on shelves
inside the houses, a hole being made through the
“ ataps” corresponding with the hole in the hive, so as
to allow of egress and ingress, a plan similar to that
adopted by the bee-keeping natives of Kashmir.
August 13th.—I and Smith have been busy all morning,
overhauling our stores and goods, and getting ready for
our going up the mountain to-morrow. Our rice had
suffered from damp, but as we find we can buy some
here, it does not matter so much. Several fowls were
also brought in for sale this morning, so that we are not
likely to starve. Having put all our gear into order after
our seven days’ march, we took our guns and a couple of
men, and took the path leading eastward, which led us
across one or two rice and vegetable plots, in which
tobacco plants were growing freely, and at last we crossed
a recent clearing and reached the forest, which crests the
spur or bill range on which the village of Kiau stands.
We turned northwards and climbed the hillside, which was
stiff work, being in places nearly perpendicular. Here
I found a pretty foliage plant, having strap-shaped leaves
six inches in length, glossy green, boldly variegated with
silver-white above, while the underside of the leaves was
of a deep blood colour. Of this I gathered as much as I
desired, and a wild plantain or banana growing near, I
cut one down, and packing my plants close together in
damp moss and earth, I enveloped them in the cool moist
sheathing layers of the banana stem. Thus packed, they
occupy but little space, and are easily carried without risk
of damage by drought or friction. Saw several coelogynes
in flower on the surrounding trees, but other orchids
seemed scarce. I made a collection of ferns, mosses, &c.,
for drying, but nothing striking from a horticultural point
of view was seen. We gained the crest of the ridge after
an hour’s hard work, and followed it eastward for two or