and we soon had a tolerably good audience around us.
One by one our followers came in, and we soon availed
ourselves of the comfort of a rub over with a towel and
dry clothes, after which we arranged the various plants
collected during the day, and continued our journals.
“ Bongsur” brought in a fine brown owl and a pretty
scarlet bird with black wing-tips, neither of which we had
Pri vate Apart m e r its .
Path.
Public Room. TJCÏ
Hearth. Hearth. Hearth.
PLAN OP LARGE DUSUN HOUSE AT KIAU, N.W. BORNEO.
seen before. For dinner we had boiled fowl and rice,
followed by coffee and a cigarette of native tobacco
wrapped in maize-husk. We lay on our mats and rugs at
one end of the large public room, all our men being
cooking and jabbering away to their hearts’ content, the
Babel of sounds, partly Malay and partly Dusun, being
deafening. Tobacco was brought in for sale soon after
our arrival, and one man brought a fowl, but as he asked
double its value we refused to buy it.
The greatest interest was shown in all we did, more
especially by the boys and young girls who crowded on
the pathway just in front of where we lay. When we
extinguished our lamp and turned into our blankets they
soon became quiet, the people of the house retiring to
their private apartments, and the others to their houses
in the village. It was a wet night, and we felt chilly, but
slept well. Our first task after breakfast in the morning
was to overhaul all our stores, arranging those we wanted
on the mountain so that they could be easily carried, and
packing the rest so that they could be left with safety.
Our stock of rice was so low that we were rather alarmed,
but “ Musa” assured us that he should be able to buy
some in the village. After re-arranging all our things,
we took our guns and walked over the hill. We saw
very few birds, nor were the plants we discovered of any
particular interest, with the exception of a large white-
flowered arundina, having a rich amethyst-coloured lip.
We saw some immense gingerworts, having leafy stems
fen or twelve feet in height; also large ferns of the
angiopteris type, while Mikania volubilis overran the
bushes along our route.
Beturning to the house, we engaged Boloung and
Kurow, the acting head men of the village, and six of
their followers, to take us up the mountain on the
morrow. “ Musa” and Pangeran Raman did most of
the bargaining on our side, and at length concluded the
matter by paying over the amount of cloth and brass
wire as agreed. Next morning we selected sixteen of
our men and started for the mountain. In a rich bit of
shady forest on the other side of the Kiau ridge we found
the evergreen Calanthe macroloba, bearing spikes of white
flowers much larger individually than those of G. veratri-
folia. A foliage plant marked with silvery blotches above
and crimson beneath was also collected. Our road was a
H