To have the right kind of
provisions is as important in the equatorial regions as in the arctic, and
civilised humanity would be better off if there were a more general
recognition of the fact that suitable food is the best medicine.
Our Dayaks from Apo Kayan, who had proved very satisfactory, left us at
Long Pangian. They had to wait several days before their friends caught up
with them, so they could continue their long journey. This party of
Dayaks, after spending one month at home in gathering rubber, had
travelled in five prahus, covered some distance on land by walking over
the watershed, and then made five new prahus in which they had navigated
the long distance to Tandjong Selor. Ten men had been able to make one
prahu in four days, and these were solid good boats, not made of bark.
Already these people had been three months on the road, and from here to
their homes they estimated that at least one month would intervene,
probably more.
The rubber which they had brought was sold for f. 2,500 to Hong Seng. They
had also sold three rhinoceros horns, as well as stones from the
gall-bladder and intestines of monkeys and the big porcupine, all valuable
in the Chinese pharmacopoea. Each kilogram of rhino horn may fetch f. 140.
These articles are dispensed for medical effect by scraping off a little,
which is taken internally with water. On their return trip the Dayaks
bring salt from the government's monopoly, gaudy cloths for the women,
beads, ivory rings for bracelets and armlets, and also rice for the
journey. Should the supply of rice become exhausted they eat native herbs.
At Long Pangian we were able to develop plates effectively by hauling
clear and comparatively cool water from a spring fifteen or twenty minutes
away. By allowing six cans (five-gallon oil tins) of water to stand over
night, and developing from 4.30 next morning, we got very good results,
though the water would show nearly 76 F. My kinematograph was out of
order, and desiring to use it on my journey higher up the river, I decided
to go again to Tandjong Selor in an endeavour to have it repaired. The
delay was somewhat irritating, but as the trip down-stream consumed only
two days, I started off in a small, swift boat kindly loaned to me by the
posthouder. Fortunately Mr. J.A. Uljee, a Dutch engineer who was in town,
possessed considerable mechanical talent: in a few days he succeeded in
mending the apparatus temporarily.
As I was preparing to return, another party arrived from Apo Kayan.
