Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
other substitutes requiring much cutting and smoothing, and not being equally good when
finished. When, however, a flat, close floor is required, excellent boards are made by split-
ting open large Bamboos on one side only, and flattening them out so as to form slabs eight-
een inches wide and six feet long, with which some Dyaks floor their houses. These with
constant rubbing of the feet and the smoke of years become dark and polished, like walnut
or old oak, so that their real material can hardly be recognised. What labour is here saved to
a savage whose only tools are an axe and a knife, and who, if he wants boards, must hew
them out of the solid trunk of a tree, and must give days and weeks of labour to obtain a sur-
face as smooth and beautiful as the Bamboo thus treated affords him. Again, if a temporary
house is wanted, either by the native in his plantation or by the traveller in the forest, noth-
ing is so convenient as the Bamboo, with which a house can be constructed with a quarter of
the labour and time than if other materials are used.
As I have already mentioned, the Hill Dyaks in the interior of Saráwak make paths for
long distances from village to village and to their cultivated grounds, in the course of which
they have to cross many gullies and ravines, and even rivers; or sometimes, to avoid a long
circuit, to carry the path along the face of a precipice. In all these cases the bridges they con-
struct are of Bamboo, and so admirably adapted is the material for this purpose, that it
seems doubtful whether they ever would have attempted such works if they had not pos-
sessed it. The Dyak bridge is simple but well designed. It consists merely of stout Bamboos
crossing each other at the roadway like the letter X, and rising a few feet above it. At the
crossing they are firmly bound together, and to a large Bamboo which lays upon them and
forms the only pathway, with a slender and often very shaky one to serve as a handrail.
When a river is to be crossed an overhanging tree is chosen, from which the bridge is partly
suspended and partly supported by diagonal struts from the banks, so as to avoid placing
posts in the stream itself, which would be liable to be carried away by floods. In carrying a
path along the face of a precipice, trees and roots are made use of for suspension; struts arise
from suitable notches or crevices in the rocks, and if these are not sufficient, immense Bam-
boos fifty or sixty feet long are fixed on the banks or on the branch of a tree below. These
bridges are traversed daily by men and women carrying heavy loads, so that any insecurity
is soon discovered, and, as the materials are close at hand, immediately repaired. When a
path goes over very steep ground, and becomes slippery in very wet or very dry weather, the
Bamboo is used in another way. Pieces are cut about a yard long, and opposite notches be-
ing made at each end, holes are formed through which pegs are driven, and firm and con-
venient steps are thus formed with the greatest ease and celerity. It is true that much of this
