These Punans are a nomadic tribe who wander
about through the great forests with no settled dwelling-places, but
build themselves rough huts and hunt the wild game of the forest and
feed on the many wild fruits that are found in these forests. Hose
at once decided to go up to Fort Kapit and punish these Dayaks, and
gave me leave to accompany him and Shelford. So one morning at six
o'clock we boarded a large steam launch with a party of the Rangers,
mentioned above, as the Rajah's troops. We took, from near Sibu,
several friendly Dayaks, who were armed to the teeth with spears,
"parangs," "sumpitans," shields and war ornaments, all highly elated
at the prospect of the fighting in store for them.
In a short account like this, it is of course impossible to describe
the many interesting things that I saw on the journey up the river. We
passed many of the long, curious Dayak houses and plenty of canoes full
of these picturesque people, and at some of the villages little Dayak
children hurriedly pushed out small canoes from the shore so as to
get rocked by the waves made by our launch. This they seemed to enjoy,
to judge from the delighted yells they gave forth. I several times saw
a most ingenious invention for frightening away the birds and monkeys
from the large fruit trees which surrounded every Dayak village.
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