ARRIVAL AT BAHANDANG - ON THE EQUATOR - A STARTLING ROBBERY - OUR
MOST LABORIOUS JOURNEY - HORN-BILLS - THE SNAKE AND THE INTREPID
PENYAHBONG - ARRIVAL AT TAMALOE
Bahandang, where we arrived early in the second afternoon, is the
headquarters of some Malay rubber and rattan gatherers of the surrounding
utan. A house had been built at the conflux with the river of a small
affluent, and here lived an old Malay who was employed in receiving the
products from the workers in the field. Only his wife was present, he
having gone to Naan on the Djuloi River, but was expected to return soon.
The place is unattractive and looked abandoned. Evidently at a previous
time effort had been made to clear the jungle and to cultivate bananas and
cassavas. Among felled trees and the exuberance of a new growth of
vegetation a few straggling bananas were observable, but all the big
cassava plants had been uprooted and turned over by the wild pigs, tending
to increase the dismal look of the place. A lieutenant in charge of a
patrouille had put up a rough pasang-grahan here, where our lieutenant and
the soldiers took refuge, while I had the ground cleared near one end of
it, and there placed my tent.
Not far off stood a magnificent tree with full, straight stem, towering in
lonely solitude fifty metres above the overgrown clearing. In a straight
line up its tall trunk wooden plugs had been driven in firmly about thirty
centimetres apart. This is the way Dayaks, and Malays who have learned it
from them, climb trees to get the honey and wax of the bees' nests
suspended from the high branches. On the Barito, from the deck of the
Otto, I had observed similar contrivances on still taller trees of the
same kind called tapang, which are left standing when the jungle is
cleared to make ladangs.
A few days later the rest of our party arrived and, having picked up six
rubber gatherers, brought the remainder of the luggage from their camp.
Some men were then sent to bring up the goods stored in the utan below,
and on February 3 this was accomplished. An Ot-Danum from the Djuloi
River, with wife and daughter, camped here for a few days, hunting for
gold in the river soil, which is auriferous as in many other rivers of
Borneo. They told me they were glad to make sixty cents a day, and if they
were lucky the result might be two florins.
We found ourselves in the midst of the vast jungles that cover Borneo,
serving to keep the atmosphere cool and prevent air currents from
ascending in these windless tropics. We were almost exactly on the
equator, at an elevation of about 100 metres. In January there had been
little rain and in daytime the weather had been rather muggy, but with no
excessive heat to speak of, provided one's raiment is suited to the
tropics. On the last day of the month, at seven o'clock in the morning,
after a clear and beautiful night, the temperature was 72 F. (22 C.).
During the additional three weeks passed here, showers fell occasionally
and sometimes it rained all night. As a rule the days were bright, warm,
and beautiful; the few which were cloudy seemed actually chilly and made
one desire the return of the sun.
Our first task was to make arrangements for the further journey up the
Busang River to Tamaloe, a remote kampong recently formed by the
Penyahbongs on the upper part of the river. We were about to enter the
great accumulation of kihams which make travel on the Busang peculiarly
difficult. The lieutenant's hope that we might secure more men from among
the rubber gatherers was not fulfilled. The few who were present made
excuses, and as for the others, they were far away in the utan, nobody
knew where. We still had some Malays, and, always scheming for money or
advantage to themselves, they began to invent new difficulties and demand
higher wages. Although I was willing to make allowances, it was impossible
to go beyond a certain limit, because the tribes we should meet later
would demand the same payment as their predecessors had received. The old
Malay resident, who in the meantime had returned from his absence, could
offer no advice.
Finally exorbitant wages were demanded, and all wanted to return except
four. As the lieutenant had expressed his willingness to proceed to
Tamaloe in advance of the party and try to hire the necessary men there,
it was immediately decided that he should start with our four remaining
men and one soldier, while the rest of us waited here with the sergeant
and four soldiers. On February 4 the party was off, as lightly equipped as
possible, and if all went well we expected to have the necessary men
within three weeks.
On the same afternoon Djobing and three companions, who were going up to
another rattan station, Djudjang, on a path through the jungle, proposed
to me to transport some of our luggage in one of my prahus. The offer was
gladly accepted, a liberal price paid, and similar tempting conditions
offered if they and a few men, known to be at the station above, would
unite in taking all our goods up that far. The following morning they
started off.
The Malays of these regions, who are mainly from the upper part of the
Kapuas River in the western division and began to come here ten years
previously, are physically much superior to the Malays we brought, and for
work in the kihams are as fine as Dayaks. They remain here for years,
spending two or three months at a time in the utan.
