I
soon felt completely restored in spite of the fact that a painless swelling
of the ankle remained.
Two months later I had another attack, as sudden and unexpected as the
first. This was ushered in by a chill exactly like that preceding malaria,
but the fever that followed was less severe than on the former occasion,
and in a few days I was well again.
More than a year afterward hypodermic injections of sodium cacodylate were
attempted with apparent success, though the swellings continued. Many
months later an improvement in the condition of the leg was gradually
brought about, to which perhaps a liberal consumption of oranges separate
from meals, largely contributed. This affection is not common in Borneo. A
native authority in Kasungan, on the Katingan River in South Borneo,
himself a Kahayan, told me of a remedy by which he and eight other natives
had been completely cured. It is a diffusion from three kinds of plants,
applied externally, samples of which I took.
On the last day of April we were able to continue our journey down the
Kasao River, in seven prahus with twenty-eight men, twenty-four of whom
were Penihings, who, with their raja, as the chiefs are called on the
Mahakam, had arrived from below by appointment. Owing to my recent
distressing experience I was not sorry to say farewell to Data Laong,
where the women and children were afraid of me to the last, on account of
my desire to have them photographed. The Saputans are kind, but their
intellect is of a low order, and the unusual prevalence of skin disease
renders them unattractive though always interesting subjects.
A glorious morning! The river, running high and of a dirty yellowish-green
colour, carried us swiftly with the current in the cool atmosphere of the
morning mist which the sun gradually cleared away. Repeatedly, though for
a few moments only, an enchanting fragrance was wafted to me from large,
funnel-shaped, fleshy white flowers with violet longitudinal stripes that
covered one of the numerous varieties of trees on our way. Many blossoms
had fallen into the water and floated on the current with us. It was a
pleasure to have again real Dayak paddlers, which I had not had since my
travels in the Bultmgan.
We dashed through the tall waves of many smaller rapids and suddenly,
while I was having breakfast, which to save time is always taken in the
prahus, I found myself near what appeared to be a rapidly declining kiham.
A fathomless abyss seemed yawning before us, although the approach thereto
was enticing, as the rushing waters turned into white foam and played in
the strong sunlight. We passed a timid prahu which was waiting at one side
of the course, but had I desired to do so there was no time to stop my
prahu.
