This description of the house I resided in for some time,
applies more or less to all the Dayak houses I saw in Borneo.
This house or village was called Menus, and the old chief's name
was Usit. In spelling these names one has to be entirely guided by
the sounds and write them after the fashion of the English method
of spelling Malay. The village or house of Menus seemed to contain
about one hundred inhabitants, not counting small children. Upon my
arrival I was soon surrounded by a most curious throng, many of whom
gazed at me with open mouths, in astonishment at the sight of an
"orang puteh" (white man), as of course no white man had ever been
here before and but very few of the people had ever seen one. One old
woman remembered having seen a white man, and some of the older men
had from time to time seen government officials on the Rejang River,
but except to these few I was a complete novelty. Considering this,
I was greatly astonished at their friendliness, as not only the men,
but the women and children squatted around me in the most amicable
fashion, and sometimes even became a decided nuisance. My first evening
among them, however, I found extremely amusing, and as my Chinese cook
placed the food he had cooked before me, and as I ate it with knife,
fork and spoon, they watched every mouthful I took amid a loud buzz
of comments and exclamations of delight.
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