Tampulan stone , Tenom

In one of his journals, when he was staying at the northern end of the Tenom plain, Frank Witti wrote ;

"At another such clearing there is a stone block on which the division of skulls is made: these Dyaks are said never to go beyond quartering a bead, smaller shares being made up in kind. On that block could be seen the stains of blood. Nearby is a rude scaffolding which serves to exhibit the trophies. But the queerest feature of that spot was a young sugar plant sprinkled with blood and carefully fenced in -why not a forget-me-not?" He does not mention the name of the clearing, but it is probably a reference to Batu Tampulan—'Tampulan's Stone'—near Melalap. The sugar plant is no longer there; the surrounding jungle is gone and rubber trees have taken its place, but the stone is still there, though the blood stains have long since been washed away. It is a large flat stone slab roughly circular in shape, about three feet in diameter, and apparently hot more than six inches or so in thickness; close by are two or three ordinary looking boulders, and a yard from it another- stone which may be a flake from a round boulder; it stands about two feet high, about a foot wide at ground level rising to a point which is curved over towards the flat block—it reminds one of a cobra head—and is said to be a man who was turned into stone whilst squatting down with his eyes fixed on the trophies lying on the block. A few hundred yards away is another stone, 'Batu Belanoi', a small cone two feet high with a circular depression on the tip of the cone, said to have been made by Tampulan, who used it as a seat and wore away its top. Tampulan was a Timogun hero of ancient, times. One day, when he was a child and had been left alone iu the house by his parents, a Spirit came and carried him off into the top of a tall Aru tree where he kept him and instructed him in the use of weapons and in all kinds of wisdom and in magic.

For several months he lived in the tree top, and finally was restored by the Spirit to his parents, who had searched for him in vain all over the country. Tampulan grew up a wise leader of his people and a mighty man of war. He built a great 'Long House' village called Dapulan for himself and his people, and the flat stone was his hearthstone. One day  a,  party of Peluans from the Bokan district from the Ulu Sook came down to raid Kasiai, a Timogun house not far from Dapulan; the news reached Tampulan who seized his weapons and with a single leap sprang from his own house to Kasiai and attacked the enemy: with every stroke a Peluan fell, and in a few minutes . not a single raider was left alive. He collected the heads and took them home and made a great feast over them. Not long afterwards , he set out on a lone raid up the Sook valley and  in the Bokan country found a large party planting padi on a hill side clearing; he muttered some charms and stroked his .hand down his blowpipe, and transformed himself into the likeness of an old Bokan with a long planting stick in his hand. Thus disguised, he joined the unsuspecting planters, and when in the midst of them once more stroked his staff which became again a spear tipped blowpipe, and with quick stabs right and left he slew every one of the planting party. As he was making off with the heads, help arrived, too late and pursuit was vain, for Tampulan leaped to the tree top and  made his way home over the top of the jungle to Dapulan , where he cleaned and prepared the skulls on his hearthstone.  His fame was never forgotten , and after his death his 'people' always assembled round the stone after a successful raid, and there cleaned their trophies and divided his share to every warrior who had borne a part-in the attack.”