They Seemed To Be Very Angry, All Talking At Once, And
I Still Heard The Sound Of Their Angry Voices Above The Paddles' Beat,
Long After They Had Disappeared Up A Narrow Creek On The Other Side.
I had intended going with my two servants further up the river and
living for some time among the Dayaks, but Dr. Hose made objections
to my doing so.
He said it would be very unsafe for me to live among
these Kapit Dayaks at the present time, as they were naturally in a
very excitable state, and would have thought little of killing one of
the "orang puteh" (white men), whom they no doubt considered the cause
of all their trouble. They would be sure to take me for a government
official. Hose instead advised me to go up a small unexplored branch
river below Sibu, so as the launch was returning to Sibu I determined
to return in her, leaving Hose and Shelford at Kapit.
During my short stay at Kapit I added very few new specimens to
my collections of birds and butterflies; in fact, it was the worst
collecting-ground that I struck during more than a year's wanderings
in Borneo. I, however, made a fine collection of Dayak weapons,
shields and war ornaments from our friendly Dayaks, who seemed very
low-spirited now that there was to be no fighting, and on this
account traded some of their property to me which at other times
nothing would have induced them to part with, at a very low figure.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 179 of 217
Words from 48565 to 48824
of 59060
