In A Small Bamboo Case,
Prettily Carved And Ornamented, The Dyak Carries His Sirih And
Lime For Betel Chewing, And His Little Long-Bladed Knife Has A
Bamboo Sheath.
His favourite pipe is a huge hubble-bubble, which
he will construct in a few minutes by inserting a small piece of
Bamboo for a bowl obliquely into a large cylinder about six
inches from the bottom containing water, through which the smoke
passes to a long slender Bamboo tube.
There are many other small
matters for which Bamboo is daily used, but enough has now been
mentioned to show its value. In other parts of the Archipelago I
have myself seen it applied to many new uses, and it is probable
that my limited means of observation did not make me acquainted
with one-half the ways in which it is serviceable to the Dyaks of
Sarawak.
While upon the subject of plants I may here mention a few of the
more striking vegetable productions of Borneo. The wonderful
Pitcher-plants, forming the genus Nepenthes of botanists, here
reach their greatest development. Every mountain-top abounds with
them, running along the ground, or climbing over shrubs and
stunted trees; their elegant pitchers hanging in every direction.
Some of these are long and slender, resembling in form the
beautiful Philippine lace-sponge (Euplectella), which has now
become so common; others are broad and short. Their colours are
green, variously tinted and mottled with red or purple. The
finest yet known were obtained on the summit of Kini-balou, in
North-west Borneo.
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