Through Central Borneo An Account Of Two Years' Travel In The Land Of The Head-Hunters Between The Years 1913 And 1917 By Carl Lumholtz
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One Of The Combatants Clasped His Nippers Firmly Around One Leg Of The
Other, Which For Several Hours Struggled In Vain To Get Free.
A small ant
was hanging on to one of the victor's antennae, but disappeared after a
couple of hours.
Under a magnifying-glass I could see that each fighter
had lost a leg. I placed the end of a stick against the legs of the one
that was kept in this merciless vice, and he immediately attached himself
to it. As I lifted the stick up he held on by one leg, supporting in this
way both his own weight and that of his antagonist. Finally, they ceased
to move about, but did not separate in spite of two heavy showers in the
afternoon, and at four o'clock they were still maintaining their relative
positions; but next morning they and the other ants had disappeared.
CHAPTER V
MEETING PUNANS, THE SHY JUNGLE PEOPLE - DOWN THE RIVER AGAIN - MY
ENTHUSIASTIC BOATMEN-MALAYS VERSUS DAYAKS
At my request the raja, with a few companions, went out in search of some
of the shy jungle people called Punans. Seven days afterward he actually
returned with twelve men, who were followed by seven more the next day.
All the women had been left one day's journey from here. These Punans had
been encountered at some distance from kampong Bruen, higher up the river,
and, according to reports, made up the entire nomadic population of the
lower Kayan River. Most of them were rather tall, well-made men, but, as a
result of spending all their lives in the darkness of the jungle, [*]
their skin colour, a pale yellowish brown, was strikingly lighter,
especially the face, than that of the Kayans.
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