There
was little animation, especially at the beginning of the sport, and no
spears were used. Several tons of bark must have been utilized, at least
eight or ten times as much as at the Isau River, and I regretted that they
should have so little reward for their trouble. Five days were spent in
travel, two days in making "bring" and gathering tuba, and they had
pounded tuba for eight hours, since two o'clock in the morning. After all
these exertions many prahus must have returned without fish. Possibly the
fish had been practically exterminated by the tuba poisoning of former
years. One man told me that many fish remain dead at the bottom, which
partly accounts for the scanty result.
I was desirous of having Chonggat remain here for a week of collecting,
but no Kenyah was willing to stay with him, all being deterred through
fear of Punan head-hunters, who, on this river, not so long ago, had
killed some rubber-gatherers from Sarawak. Besides, they also anticipated
revenge on the part of Kayans, eleven of whom had been killed by the
Kenyahs in Apo Kayan one and a half years previously. According to their
own reports and that of the Chinese interpreter, the heads of six men and
five women had been taken after a successful attack on the two prahus in
which the Kayans (Oma-Lakan) travelled. The Kenyahs (Oma-Kulit) who had
committed the outrage had been apprehended by the Company, as the
government is called by the natives. The brother of the chief of Long
Pelaban, who was with us fishing, three months previously had returned
from Samarinda, where he had spent one year in prison for having been
implicated in a minor way in this crime, while the main offenders were
serving labor terms of six years in Sorabaia, Java.
This report was confirmed by a Dutch officer whom I met a month later and
who came from Apo Kayan. The attacking Kenyahs were eighty in number, of
whom ten were punished. The affair took place in 1912 at a distance of six
hours, going down-stream, from Long Nawang. Though head-hunters are known
to travel wide and far, and distant Apo Kayan is not too remote for them,
nevertheless to me, as well as to Chonggat, the risks seemed unfounded;
however, there remained no alternative but for all of us to return to Long
Pelaban.
CHAPTER X
IN FOG AND DARKNESS - A RAID BY ANTS - DEPARTURE FROM LONG PELABAN - AN
EXCITING PASSAGE - RETURN TO TANDJONG SELOR
During April and the first half of May the weather was warm with very
little rain, though at times thunder was heard at a distance. But during
the second half of May thunder and lightning in the evening was the usual
occurrence, with an occasional thunder-clap at close quarters. At night it
rained continually though not heavily, but this was accompanied by a dense
fog which did not clear away until nine o'clock in the morning.
