Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra13141884roya).pdf/291

 comparative cleanliness of the bulk of the houses. Instead of the objectionable split nibong, the floors are made of beaten out bamboo, the walls, of the same material, neatly plaited, chess-board pattern. There are regular sleeping compartments, and a fine broad verandah runs from end to end of the house along the front of it. Our beds were arranged in the main body of the house, a fine lofty, airy apartment where dirt and mosquitoes were equally conspicuous by their absence. We noticed as a curious fact in these Dusuns, that they made use, in talking, of the letter Z, which would seem to point to their affinity to the Milânaus of Sarawak.

An early start on the ensuing morning brought us, after a seven-mile tramp, among the foot-hills of the coast range. We were here some twelve miles, or more, inland. On our way we passed the debouchure of the river Sugut, which joins the Putatan on its proper left bauk, and further up, on the opposite side, the confluence of the Pagunan river, which is the true Putatan, the river bearing that name from this point, which we followed up, being in reality only a small tributary stream flowing from S.E. Pursuing our way up the valley of the latter, we reached our destination, a house at the foot of the hills, tenanted by an old Chinaman and his Dusun wife and daughter. We were here beyond the limits of the highly cultivated Putatan valley, and in a lovely country, at the point where the district of the Dusuus of the plain, marches with that of the Orang Tagâs, or Hill Dusuns. The Putatan valley is, without exception, the finest and most highly cultivated district in North Borneo. Without visiting it, it would be difficult for any one, accustomed only to such cultivation, or the lack of it, as is met with in other parts of North Borneo, to realize that, side by side with such districts, there exists one in which rice cultivation has been carried to the highest pitch of perfection, where every foot of soil is tilled, where substantial, and in many cases ornamental, land-marks of wood and stone have been erected all over the face of the country, and where the price of land ranges from $40 an acre or thereabouts. This country must be the granary of Brunei. The acreage of paddy is immense. One