modelled, being fastened together with stout wooden
pegs. After our men had cooked their rice and fish, we
again started up the river for Meringit, a Kadyan settlement
at the head of the Meropok branch; but owing to
the strong current coming down, we did not reach the
place until after dark, and, as before remarked, in a
drenching thunder-storm. It was so dark that our men
could not find the proper landing-place, and having
ourselves just left a fairly lighted boat, we could not see
a yard ahead in the blinding rain, and so we were soon
drenched as we floundered along up to our knees in the
soft mud of the river bank. At last two boys came down
from the houses in answer to the shouts of our boatmen,
and under their guidance we reached dry quarters after a
few stumbles over logs and through the long grass. Our
first cafe was to throw off our wet things and get on dry
ones, after a rub with a dry towel, and we then ate our
dinner, surrounded by most of the swarthy-skinned villagers,
who flocked in to look at us. Afterwards it
cleared up a bit, and hearing music in a neighbouring
house, we adjourned thereto, and found a few of the
young men and women enjoying themselves. Their instruments
consisted of a native-made violin on a European
model, a curious kind of native banjo made of a
single joint of a large bamboo, a triangle, or its music
rather, being represented by two or three steel hatchet
heads, which were laid across laths on the floor, and
beaten in time with a bit of iron. The _ music so produced
was of a rather melancholy description, and one
or two of the girls and boys danced a little, a mat being
spread for the purpose; but their dancing is merely
shuffling about in a more or less slow and stately manner,
a singular effect being produced by the graceful way m
which the arms are waved about in all directions. This
was particularly noticeable in the case of one of the
performers, who waved a handkerchief about during the
dance, changing it from one hand to the other, until
eventually it vanished from sight altogether; still the
arms waved, and the fingers, in their ever slow changing
movement, resembled tentaculae groping for their prey
as they were slowly waved through the air in every
possible direction, presumably in quest of the lost article,
the ultimate recovery of which terminated the dance.
The only light in the apartment was the lurid flickering
of a dammar torch, and its reflections on the faces and
slightly-draped forms of the performers and lookers-on
produced a weird effect, which was intensified by the
silence of all present.
The next day “ Bongsur,” a well-known bird-hunter of
the district, and a party of natives, undertook to guide us
to the forest we wished to explore, and we set off up one
of the largest creeks in a canoe, followed by two or three
others containing our men and guides. After paddling
about a mile we landed, and after walking through
several clearings in the hot sun, the primaeval forest was
at length reached, where it was much cooler and more
pleasant, the sun’s rays being screened from us by the
masses of leaves, epiphytes, and flowers overhead. After
mountain climbing, and the wonders of the sea, perhaps
nothing suggests one’s own littleness more forcibly than
a walk through the old forests which exist in tropical
lowlands. There is a comparative dearth of undergrowth,
—but a hundred feet or more overhead the birds, insects,
and flowers enjoy the bright light and warmth denied to
all below. The monkeys and birds too find their favourite
fruits aloft, and fling the husks below at your feet.
Nothing can possibly be of more interest to lovers of
exotic plants generally, than to be able to form some
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