s painful as that of the
common wasp, experience seems to have rendered the Dyak almost
indifferent to it. He ascends the flimsy ladder without fear--carrying
a blazing torch in his hand, and a cane basket on his back. By means of
the torch, he ejects the bees from their aerial domiciles; and, then
having torn their combs from the branches, he deposits them in his
basket--the incensed insects all the while buzzing around his ears, and
inflicting numerous wounds over his face and throat, as well as upon his
naked arms! Very often he returns to the ground with his head swollen
to twice the size it was previous to his going up! Not a very pleasant
profession is that of a Bornean bee-hunter!

CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN.

THE BRUANG.

As the party proceeded onward, they observed several other tapang-trees,
with ladders attached to them; and at the bottom of one of these--which
was the tallest they had yet seen--the guide made a halt.

Taking off his _kris_, and throwing to the ground an axe, which he had
brought along, he commenced ascending the tree.

Our hunters inquired his object. They knew it could not be either honey
or wax. There had been a bees' nest upon this tree--as the ladder
told--but that had been removed long ago; and there now appeared nothing
among the branches that should make it worth while to climb up to them.
The answer of the bee-hunter explained his purpose. He was merely
ascending to have a lookout over the forest--which in that neighbourhood
could not be obtained by any other means than by the climbing of a
_tapang_.

It was fearful to watch the man ascending to such a dizzy height, and
with such a flimsy, uncertain support beneath his feet. It reminded
them of what they had seen at the Palombiere of the Pyrenees.

The Dyak soon reached the top of the ladder; and for some ten minutes or
more clung there--screwing his head around, and appearing to examine the
forest on all sides. At length his head rested steadily upon his
shoulders; and his gaze appeared to be fixed in one particular
direction. He was too distant for the party at the bottom of the tree
to note the expression upon his countenance; but his attitude told them
that he had made some discovery.

Shortly after he came down; and reported this discovery in laconic
phrase, simply saying:--

"_Bruang_--see him!"

The hunters knew that "bruang" was the Malayan name for bear; and the
coincidence of this word with the _sobrique