the stings of the bees.
The Dyak hunter has no shaggy coating to protect him; so he goes about
robbing the bees in a more scientific manner.

The bees seem to prefer the mengalis tree, which has so many angles and
hollow places about its trunk that to build the comb is an easy matter.
Not infrequently there may be fifty or more swarms in a single tree.
When a bee-tree is to be robbed, great piles of a certain plant or weed
are collected and put in such a position that the smoke will be carried
against the nesting-places of the swarms. The piles are then fired. The
smoke neither kills the bees nor does it drive them off; it merely
stupefies them. When the humming of the bees is hushed, comb and honey
are easily removed. A considerable part of the wax is exported, but
thousands of tons are wasted.

Hunting in the forests of Borneo has its unpleasant features, for the
leeches are almost as numerous as the leaves of the trees. They are big,
fat, ugly-looking slugs, but they can stretch their bodies into a small,
thin form. When waiting for a victim they lengthen and sway their
threadlike bodies to and fro, ready to launch out at the first
opportunity. So gently do they commence their work that the pricking
sensation is felt only when they are gorged with blood and begin to
loosen their hold.

The gathering of edible birds' nests, built by a kind of swallow, is
quite an industry, and is confined to the rocky-cliff sections of
certain parts of the coast where cover abounds. This species of swallow
is smaller than the common swallow and builds its nest either in the
dark limestone caverns or in the crevices and nooks of the overhanging
cliffs. The chief material used in constructing the nest is a glutinous
saliva produced by the bird itself. The Chinese are very fond of the
nests, and Chinese merchants buy most of them.

The roofs of some of the caves frequented by these swallows are several
hundred feet above their floors, and to reach the nests, scattered over
the curved roofs and sides, it is necessary to construct ladders and
stages. These are made out of rattan and bamboo and are fastened by pegs
driven into the limestone walls. Crawling up on these slender supports
with a candle and forked bamboo pole, the native proceeds to detach the
nests, which he passes to a companion below. When the nests are built
in caves and crevices, near the top of cliffs, a swinging ladder is
dropped from above.

There are two kinds of