The civilized people of Simujan were not stirring when the party came from their chambers. Felipe had steam up at half-past five, for the captain intended to begin the ascent of the river; but he did not care to leave without bidding adieu to the kindly agent. But they got under way at his order, and ran up the river for a morning airing. The boat had not gone more than a mile when the young men discovered a sampan containing two Malays paddling with all their might for the shore.

They had no guns, and could not shoot their game, whatever it was; but each of them had a biliong. This was the implement Achang had bought in Sarawak. It looked something like a pickaxe with only one arm, the end of which was fashioned like a mortising chisel, and was used as an axe.

The edge of the chisel portion was parallel to the handle; but Achang explained that the Dyaks had another kind of biliong, with the cutting part at right angles with the handle, and this was used as an adze. While Lane, the carpenter, was ridiculing the tool, the Malays on shore moved to a tree in[59] sight of the steamer, which had stopped her screw close to the sampan.

"They are going to cut down a tree with the biliongs," said Achang. "Sometimes do that to get the game."

"They couldn't cut down a tree a foot through with those things in a week!" exclaimed Lane.

"So quick as you could cut it down," insisted the Bornean stoutly.

"Dry up, now, and let us see the Malays work with the thing," interposed the captain.

"Lane, you shall have a trial with a Dyak or a Malay, and I will give a prize of three dollars to the one that fells the tree first," said Louis.

"I should like to try that with any Dyak or Malay," replied Lane good-naturedly; and he was a stout Down-Easter, who had been a logger in the woods before he was a carpenter or a seaman.

"There are two animals in that tree where they are at work," cried Morris, as he pointed to the scene of operations. "One of them is a big one, and the other is a little one," he added, when he obtained a better view of the game the Malays were trying to obtain. "What are they, Achang?"

"Mias! Mias!" exclaimed the native, as a movement of the boat ahead gave him a full view of the creatures. "One is a big one, and the other is her baby."

"But what are the Malays doing now?" asked Louis.[60]

"Make a stage to stand on," replied Achang.

"What do they want of a stage?" demanded Lane contemptuously.

"You will see if you wait," added the captain.

They were picking up poles where they could find them, and cutting saplings, which they dropped with a single blow of the biliong. In a few minutes they had constructed a rude framework on crotched sticks, driven into the soft ground, with a platform of poles on the top. On this one of the two men mounted with his biliong, with which he began his work with a blow at the tree about four feet above the level of the ground. The other Malay brought from the sampan a couple of spears, a parong latok, and a bundle of ropes and rattans.

"Do they use the sumpitan in Borneo now, Achang?" asked Louis.

"Not Dyaks, Mr. Belgrave; Kyans use it; shoot poison arrows; sure death; very bad."

The sumpitan is a kind of blow-gun, like the "bean-blower" formerly used by American boys, which was a tin pipe, or the "pea-shooter," an English plaything. It was used, it is said, by the Dyaks in former times; but recent travellers do not mention it as used by them. It is about eight feet long, and less than an inch in diameter, made of very hard wood, skilfully and accurately bored, and smoothed inside.

The parong latok, already described, is a heavy sword. It has a head, sometimes carved as an orna[61]ment, so that it cannot slip from the hand. At about one-third of its length from this head, it bends at an abrupt angle of about thirty-five degrees, and it makes a very ugly-looking weapon.

"I suppose you all know that a mias is an orang-outang," said Louis. "No doubt the weapons carried up to the tree are to be used in killing the game when the tree comes down. We could easily bring down both; but we won't fire at them, for I think we are all curious to see how the Malays will manage the affair. The chopper has already made a big cut in the tree, and I doubt if Lane could have done the work any quicker."

The carpenter did not say anything, but no doubt he was greatly surprised at the rapid progress the native made with the biliong. He had cut the tree more than half-way through the trunk; and it was evident that he intended it should fall towards the river, for the second Malay was clearing away the ground on that side so that they might have a fair field for the fight that was to ensue. The chopper attacked the other side of the tree, and seemed to deal his blows with even more vigor than before.

The old orang kept up a constant growling. She had a nest just above the limb where she sat, which was quite green, indicating that it had been recently built. It was composed of the branches of the tree small enough to be easily broken off by the "jungle man." They were simply placed in a heap on the limb, with no particular shaping of the resting-place.[62]

"She makes a new nest when the branches of the old one get dry; she like a soft bed," said Achang. "But the tree will come down now; big fight, they kill her."

He had hardly spoken these words before the tree suddenly toppled over, and fell upon the ground with a heavy crash. The orangs seemed to have no idea of what was going on at the foot of the tree, and they were pitched out. The chopper seized one of the spears, and rushed after the old one. The tree prevented the party on board the yacht from seeing the expected battle; and with their rifles in their hands, the "Big Four" sprang ashore, and secured a favorable position. The crew followed them, though the engineer remained at his post.

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