Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ground, I have seen them use the Bamboo pegs only, without the upright Bamboo which
renders them so much more secure.
The outer rind of the Bamboo, split and shaved thin, is the strongest material for baskets;
hen-coops, bird-cages, and conical fish-traps are very quickly made from a single joint, by
splitting off the skin in narrow strips left attached to one end, while rings of the same mater-
ial or of rattan are twisted in at regular distances. Water is brought to the houses by little
aqueducts formed of large Bamboos split in half and supported on crossed sticks of various
heights so as to give it a regular fall. Thin long-jointed Bamboos form the Dyaks' only
water-vessels, and a dozen of them stand in the corner of every house. They are clean, light,
and easily carried, and are in many ways superior to earthen vessels for the same purpose.
They also make excellent cooking utensils; vegetables and rice can be boiled in them to per-
fection, and they are often used when travelling. Salted fruit or fish, sugar, vinegar, and
honey are preserved in them instead of in jars or bottles. 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 obli-
quely 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 Saráwak.
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 bot-
anists, here reach their greatest development. Every mountain-top abounds with them, run-
ning 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.
One of the broad sort, Nepenthes rajah, will hold two quarts of water in its pitcher. Another,
Nepenthes Edwardsiania, has a narrow pitcher twenty inches long; while the plant itself
grows to a length of twenty feet.
Ferns are abundant, but are not so varied as on the volcanic mountains of Java; and Tree-
ferns are neither so plentiful nor so large as in that island. They grow, however, quite down
