It was very monotonous at first, as the giant plumes
of the NIPA palm hid everything from my view. My Malays worked hard
at their paddles, and late in the afternoon we left the main Sarekei
River and paddled up a small and extremely narrow stream. There we
found ourselves in the depth of a most luxuriant vegetation. We were
in a regular tunnel formed by arching ferns and orchid-laden trees,
giant PANDANUS, various palms and arborescent ferns and CALADIUMS. Here
grew the largest CRINUM lilies I had ever seen. They literally towered
over me, and the sweet-scented white and pink flowers grew in huge
bunches on stems nearly as thick as my arm.
After the bright sun on the main river, the dark, gloomy depths of this
side-stream were very striking. It was so narrow that sometimes the
vegetation on both sides was forced into the canoes, and the "atap"
(palm-thatched) roof of my canoe came in for severe treatment as it
brushed against prickly PANDANUS and thorny rattans.
The entrance to this stream was completely hidden from view, and no
one but these Malays, who had been up here before, trading with the
Dayaks, could have discovered it. I had told the Malay chief that I
wished to visit a Dayak village where no white man had ever been and
where they were head-hunters.
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