It is so bad that many people refuse to
taste it. It is a very large and heavy fruit, covered with strong,
sharp spines, and as it grows on a very tall tree, it is dangerous
to walk underneath in the fruiting season when they are falling,
accidents being common among the Dayaks through this cause. I myself
had a narrow escape one windy day. I was sitting at the foot of one
of these trees eating some of the fallen fruit, when a large "durian"
fell from above and buried itself in the mud not half a yard from me.
Danna, the second chief, would always leave one or two of the fruit
for me on a box close by my head where I slept, before he went off
to his "padi "-planting early in the morning, so that I got quite
used to the bad smell.
The Dayak house was surrounded on three sides by a horrible swamp,
the roads through which consisted of fallen trees laid end to end,
or else of two or three thick poles, laid side by side, and kept in
place by being lashed here and there to two upright stakes, so that
I had to balance myself well or come to grief in the thick mud. The
Dayak bridges, made chiefly of poles and bamboos, were in many cases
awkward things to negotiate, and I had one or two rather nasty falls
from them.
