The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

200 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
length, and from this side the stem is hollowed.
When, by chopping out the centre, the thickness
of this shell has been reduced to a thickness
of some five inches, it is brought down to the
river. This is effected by laying through the jungle
a track consisting of smooth poles laid across the
direction of progress ; the hollowed stem is pulled
endwise over this track with the aid of rattans,
perhaps a hundred or more men combining their
strength. If the stem proves too heavy to be
moved at any part of the journey by their direct
pull and push, a rough windlass is constructed by
fixing the stem of a small tree across two standing
trees and winding the rattans upon this, the trimmed
branches of the tree serving as the arms of the
windlass. The Kayans are skilled in this kind of
transport of heavy timber ; for the building of their
houses and of the larger tombs involves similar
difficulties, though the timbers required for these
purposes are not so huge as those used for the
war-boats. Arrived at the river bank, the hollowed
stem is launched upon the water and towed down
stream to the village at a time when the water is
high. It is made fast to the bank before the village
at as high a point as the water will allow, so that
when the river subsides it is left high and dry. A
leaf shelter is then built over it to protect it and
the workers from the sun. The shell is then further
hollowed, partly by firing it with shavings inside
and out, and by scraping away the charred surfaces.
The inside is fired first ; then the hollow is filled
with water, and the outside is fired.
When in this way the shell has been reduced to
a thickness of a few inches, it is opened out, while
hot from firing and still filled with water, by wedging
stout sticks some six to seven feet in length
between the lateral walls, so that the hollow stem
(which hitherto has had the form of a hollow cylinder