limited supply, Saloo had spent the
last few days of their sojourn upon the coast in the manufacture of a
weapon well suited for such a purpose, even better than musket or rifle.
It was the "Sumpitan," or blow-gun. This the Malay had made, along
with a complete set of "sumpits," or arrows, and a quiver to contain
them. The sumpitan itself--eight feet in length--he fashioned from a
straight sapling of the beautiful _casuarina_ tree, which grows
throughout the islands of the Malayan Archipelago; while the little
arrows, only eight inches long, he obtained from the medium of the
leaflets of the _nibong_ palms, many of which were found near the spot
where they had encamped. The pith of the same palm served him for the
swell of the arrow, which, being compressible like cork, fills up the
tube of the sumpitan, and renders the shaft subject to propulsion from
the quick puff of breath which the blow-gun marksman, from long
practice, knows how to give it.

Saloo had been one of the best sumpitan shooters in all Sumatra, and
could send an arrow with true aim a distance of a hundred and fifty
yards. But to make its effect deadly at this distance, something more
than the mere pricking of the tiny "sumpit" was needed. This something
was a strong vegetable poison which he also knew how to prepare; and the
upas-tree, that had so nearly proved fatal to all of them, was now
called into requisition to effect a friendly service. Drawing upon its
sap, and mixing it with that of another poisonous plant--the _bina_--
Saloo gave the points of his sumpits a coating of the combined juices,
so that they would carry death into the veins of any animal having the
ill-fortune to be pierced by them.

Thus armed and equipped, he had little fear on the score of a scarcity
of provisions during the journey. On the contrary, he declared himself
confident of being able to keep the commissariat up to a point of supply
sufficient for the whole party.

It may be thought strange that they did not speculate on the chances of
arriving at some town or settlement of the natives. Indeed they did so,
but only with the thought of avoiding them; for the minds of all--the
Malay not excepted--were filled with apprehensions respecting the Dyak
and other savage tribes, which report places in the interior of Borneo,
and to whom long accredited, though perhaps only imaginative, stories
have given a character alike terrible and mysterious. They could think
of the