various heights so as to give it a regular fall. Thin long-
jointed Bamboos form the Dyaks’ only water-vessels? and a
dozen of them stand in the corner of every house. They
are clean, light, and easily carried, and are in many ways
superior to earthen vessels for the same purpose. They
also make excellent cooking utensils; vegetables and rice
can be boiled in them to perfection, and they are often
used when travelling. Salted fruit or fish, sugar, vinegar,
and honey are preserved in them instead of in jars or
bottles. In a small Bamboo case, prettily carved and
ornamented, the Dyak earries his sirih and lime for betel
chewing, and his little long-bladed knife has a Bamboo
sheath. His favourite pipe is a huge hubble-bubble, which
he will construct in a few minutes by inserting a small
piece of Bamboo for a bowl obliquely into a large cylinder
about six inches from the bottom containing water, through
which the smoke • passes to „a long slender Bamboo tube.
There are many other small matters for which Bamboo is
daily used, but enough has now been mentioned to show
its value. In other parts of the Archipelago I have
myself seen it applied to many new uses, and it is probable
that my limited means of observation did not make
me acquainted with one-half the ways in which it is serviceable
to the Dyaks of Sarawak.
While upon the subject of plants I may here mention a
few of the more striking vegetable productions of Borneo.
The wonderful Pitcher-plants, forming the genus Nepenthes
of botanists, here reach their greatest development.
Every mountain-top abounds with them, running along
the ground, or climbing over shrubs and stunted trees;
their elegant pitchers hanging in every direction. Some
of these are long and slender, resembling in form the
beautiful Philippine lace-sponge (Euplectella), which has
now become so common; others are broad and short. Their
colours are green, variously tinted and mottled with red
or purple. The finest yet known were obtained on the
summit of Kini-balou, in North-west Borneo. One of the
broad sort, Nepenthes rajah, will hold two quarts of water
in its pitcher. Another, Nepenthes Edwardsiania, has a
narrow pitcher twenty inches long; while the plant itself
grows to a length of twenty feet.
Ferns are abundant, but are not so varied as on the
volcanic mountains of Jav a ; and Tree-ferns are neither so
plentiful nor so large as in that island. They grow, however,
quite down to the level of the sea, and are generally
slender and graceful plants from eight to fifteen feet high.
Without devoting much time to the search I collected fifty
species of Ferns in Borneo, and I have no doubt a good
botanist would have obtained twice the number. The
interesting group of Orchids is very abundant, but, as is
generally the case, nine-tenths of the species have small
and inconspicuous flowers. Among the exceptions are the