The Dayaks Told
Me That There Were Plenty Of Bears Here, But I Never Saw Any Myself In
This Part Of Borneo.
They told me the bears were very fierce, and had
often nearly killed some of their friends.
The Dayak dogs are fearful
cowards, and I was told that they run away at the sight of a wild pig.
Animal life here was not plentiful, and quite the reverse of what I
had seen in the forests of North Borneo, where it was very plentiful.
I noticed the prevalence of that horrible scurvy-like skin-disease
among several of the Dayaks. It was common in New Guinea among
the Papuans, where it was termed "supuma." I cured two little Dayak
children of intermittent fever by giving them quinine and Eno's fruit
salts. The result was that I was greatly troubled by demands on my
limited stock of medicines. One old man had been growing blind for
the last two years, and another was troubled with aches all over him,
and they would hardly believe me when I said that I could not cure
them. They told Dubi that they thought that the white people who
could make such things as I possessed could do anything. So much of
my property seemed to amuse and astonish them, that it was a treat to
show them such things as my looking-glass, hair-brush, socks, guns,
umbrella, watch, etc. I showed them that child's trick of making the
lid of my watch fly open, and they were delighted.
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