SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF THE DYAKS — NUMBER OF TRIBES — THE SEA AND LAND DYAKS — GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES — TATTOOING MOST PREVALENT AMONG THE LEAST CIVILIZED TRIBES — DRESS AND ORNAMENT — EXTRAORDINARY EARRINGS — FILING AND BLACKENING THE TEETH — A DYAK WARRIOR IN FULL DRESS — A DUSUM WARRIOR IN ORDINARY COSTUME — THE ILLINOAN PIRATES, THEIR ARMAMENTS AND FEROCITY — A SAGHAI DYAK AND HIS STRANGE HEADDRESS — STRENGTH AND ACTIVITY OF THE DYAKS — “BATANG” WALKING — AN OBLIGING DYAK — THEIR ABILITY TO PENETRATE JUNGLES — THE CHAWAT AND SARONG — A DYAK DANDY — DRESS OF THE WOMEN — THE BEDANG AND SLEEVELESS JACKET — THE BEAUTIFUL HAIR OF DYAK WOMEN — THE METALLIC BODICES — A SAIBAS GIRL IN FULL DRESS — DYAK BELLS — TREATMENT OF THE WOMEN.

With the exception of Australia, which may take rank as a continent, Borneo is the largest island in the world. It is situated in the tropics, the equator passing nearly through the centre of it, and forms the centre of the Indian Archipelago.

Until late years, scarcely anything was known of Borneo; but since the late Sir James Brooke accomplished his wonderful series of exploits against the piratical tribes that infested the coast for more than a thousand miles, and destroyed all commerce, the country has been tolerably explored, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants investigated. Following the plan on which this work has been formed, we will only concern ourselves about the natives of Borneo who live to a degree the life of savages, and only possess that amount of civilization which is compatible with savage existence.

Putting aside the Malay Mahometans who have settled in Borneo, we may roughly divide the native tribes into the Land and Sea Dyaks. The former of these divisions seldom go to sea, either for piracy or trade, and in this respect are very different from the Sea Dyaks, whose existence is essentially a naval one.

Mr. Brooke believes that the Land Dyaks have emigrated from a country in which they would be brought in contact with Hindooism, inasmuch as they possess sundry relics of that religion. “The remains of Hindooism found among them, such as stone-shaped bulls and other stone utensils, and the refusal among them to touch the flesh of cattle or deer—and so particular are they that they will fine a man for even spilling the blood of these animals on their premises; the name of their deity being Juwata—these testifying points support a fair conjecture that they must have gained a fair notion of Hindoo worship from people coming into the Kapuas River from the island of Java, which is only distant from some of the outstretching points of Borneo two hundred miles, and fair winds generally prevail between.”

In confirmation of this opinion, Mr. Brooke mentions that the expression, “in the days of the Hindoos,” was formerly employed when any ancient date was signified. There are about nine or ten branches of the Land Dyaks, each of which branches is divided into a considerable number of tribes. It is impossible to give the names and description of the individual tribes on account of their fluctuating character. The people are continually shifting their place in search of new lands for cultivation, and the result is that they quarrel with each other, fight, are dispersed, and thus form new tribes in the spots on which they settle.

It is thought that their number does not exceed forty thousand, many tribes of which have never been near the sea.

Next come the Sea Dyaks, a fairer, a finer, and a more interesting people. They are about three times as numerous as the Land Dyaks, and are at the present day much what the old sea-kings were in days gone by. They are essentially a nation of rovers, living by piracy, and carrying out to the fullest extent the abominable practice of head-hunting, of which we shall see something in the course of a few pages.

They are taller than the Land Dyaks, who seldom exceed five feet six inches in height, and much fairer in complexion. The skin of the Land Dyak is brown, whereas that of the Sea Dyak is many shades lighter, and has been compared to the color of a new saddle—a hue which admirably suits the well-developed forms of these people. They are very proud of their complexion, and the women are fond of an excuse for throwing off the jackets which they wear, in order to exhibit their smooth satiny skins, polished and shining as if of new bronze.

Their various customs in peace and war will be described in their proper places, and we will content ourselves at present with their appearance and dress.

The Dyaks, as a rule, are nearly beardless, and have a cast of countenance which might almost be called effeminate. Occasionally, however, a man does possess a few hairs on his upper lip, of which he is inordinately proud, and one or two instances have been known where a man has possessed a well-developed beard.

Tattooing is practised among many of the tribes, and prevails in inverse ratio to their civilization, those who are furthest from civilization being most profusely tattooed, and those who are brought in contact with it having almost entirely abandoned the practice. The men of some tribes are nearly covered with tattooed patterns, while those of other tribes have stars on their breasts and armlets and bracelets on their legs and arms. The Kanowit Dyaks, who belong to the great Malanau tribe, are tattooed from the breast to the knees with a pattern that has the effect of scale armor, and many of them tattoo their chins and chests so as to look as if they had real beards and moustaches. The tattoo of the women is often more elaborate than that of the men, as we shall presently see.

It is worthy of notice that, as a rule, the Sea Dyaks do not use the tattoo. They have an idea that it is a sign of cowardice, and are very much surprised that English sailors, whose courage they can but respect, will allow themselves to be tattooed with the anchors, true lovers’ knots, ships in full sail, entwined initials, and other figures with which a British sailor loves to disfigure himself. In consequence of this feeling many verbal skirmishes have been waged between the Sea Dyaks and the English seamen. The tribes among whom tattooing reaches its greatest development are mostly those of the Malaccan division, such as the Kanowits, who are mightily despised by the regular Land and Sea Dyaks, and are only tolerated by them as being the means of affording a constant supply of heads.

The Dyaks are exceedingly fertile in their invention of ear ornaments. Most savages content themselves with making one hole in the lobe of the ear, and often enlarge it so that a man’s hand could be passed through the orifice. But the Dyaks go much further in their ideas of adornment.

In common with other savages, they make an enormous hole in the lobe of the ear, increase it by inserting a series of gradually enlarged plugs, and drag it down as far as the shoulder by hanging leaden weights to it. But they also bore a series of holes all round the edge of the ear, and fill them with various ornaments. The favorite plan is, to have a series of brass rings, and to insert them in the holes of the ear, the smallest being at the top, and the lowest, which is large enough to be a bracelet, at the bottom. This decoration prevails chiefly among the Sea Dyaks, and there is a sort of proverb which warns the hearer to beware of a man who wears many earrings.

Often the Dyaks do not content themselves with wearing rings in their ears, but fill the apertures with such a miscellany of objects that they have been described as “châtelaines,” rather than earrings. One young man, the son of a chief, wore only one large ring in each ear, but from this ring depended a number of brass chains, to which were suspended various ornaments. To one ear were thus hung two boar’s tusks, one alligator’s tooth, part of a hornbill’s beak, three small brass rings, and two little bells.

Many of the men wear one large earring in the lobe, and bore a hole in the top of the ear, through which is passed a canine tooth of the tiger-cat.

These ornaments are only worn when the Dyak puts on his dress of ceremony, and at other times the holes in the ears are kept from closing by plugs of wood. And, as the effect of the brass is always to cause ulcerating sores, the ordinary appearance of a Dyak’s ears is not very pleasing. Some of them have a curious fashion of boring one hole at the top of the ear and another at the bottom, and tying to it a brass plate, to which are suspended the jingling ornaments of which these savages are so fond.

The Dyaks are so fully impressed with the idea that nature is meant to be improved by art, that they cannot even allow their teeth to retain their natural shape and color. As a general rule, the men file their front teeth into sharp points, while others improve upon nature still farther by scooping out the front face of each tooth and rendering it concave.

Having thus rendered the shape of the tooth as unlike its natural form as possible, the next process is evidently to change the color as completely as the shape, and to turn them from white to black. The habit of betel-eating has much to do with the darkening of the teeth, but besides, there is a mode by which the Dyaks deliberately stain their teeth black. The method by which the dye is produced and applied is well told by Mr. Boyle, in his “Adventures among the Dyaks”:—

“We made inquiries about the means employed for blackening the teeth, a custom which is universal in the far East. The old medicine man was finally persuaded to show us the process, and very curious it appeared.

“He produced from his stores a piece of dry wood of the kind called sinka: this was set on fire, and held over the blade of a parang (or sword), on which a few drops of water had been poured. As the stick blazed, a black sap oozed from it, and dropped upon the metal, where it mingled with the water, and in a few moments formed a pool of thick, jetty liquid. With this the teeth are stained in childhood, and one application, we are told, will suffice to preserve them black for ever, nor are there any means of removing the color.

“The process seems peculiar, because the wood from which exuded the sap appears to be as dry as dust, and because the dye will not affect any substance except the teeth, not even bone or horn. This is the more curious since some of the Malays file the enamel carefully from their teeth before applying the sinka. Many, indeed, file them to a point as sharp as a needle, as do some of the Dyak tribes.” The reader will remember that several of the West African tribes file their teeth in like manner.

Illustration No. 2, on the 1101st page, represents two Dyak warriors, one in full costume, and the other a Dusum Dyak in ordinary dress. The former of these men carries in his right hand the sumpitan, with its spear head, and the other rests on his wooden shield covered with tufts of human hair. His parang-ihlang or war sword is on his left side, with its tufts of human hair depending from the handle. His ankles, legs, and arms are covered with multitudes of brass rings, he wears a sort of jacket formed from the skin of the orang-outan, and on his head is a kind of coronal made from the feathers of the Argus pheasant. This figure is taken from a photograph.

The next figure represents a man in ordinary costume. He belongs to the tribe of Dusums, who live on the northern coast of Borneo, and who wear less clothing than any of the tribes of the island, their whole dress consisting of the chawat and a number of large metal rings round their necks and hips. The Dusum warriors wear their hair long, merely bound with a piece of cotton cloth, and their spears are as simple as their clothing, being nothing more than a metal head lashed to a shaft of bamboo.

In order to show at a glance the appearance of various tribes of Borneans, two more Dyaks are represented in the engraving No. 1 on the following page. The left-hand figure represents an Illinoan pirate. These men are found at Tampassook or Tampasuk as the name is sometimes spelt, a place on the north-western coast of Borneo, not very much above the island of Labuan.

The Illinoans possess many large and formidable war boats, which are armed in the bows with a very long gun, and have, after the fashion of Bornean boats, an upper deck, which serves as a platform for the combatants and a shelter for the rowers, who sit beneath. There is a small cabin astern for the captain, about the size of a dog kennel, but the boats have no other sleeping accommodation.

The paddles with which the rowers propel the vessel are shaped rather curiously, looking at a distance like mere sticks with flat discs of wood fastened to their ends. The boats are steered by an oar rudder at the starboard side of the stern, and each is furnished with a mast and huge sail, which can be raised in a few minutes, and struck in almost as many seconds. Although the Illinoans are wealthy tribes, and possess quantities of fire-arms, they are rather afraid to use these weapons, and trust in preference to the spear and parang.

The Illinoans were instrumental in the murder of two native chiefs who were friendly to the English, and who had been suspected of aiding the cession of Labuan. One of them, named Bud-ruddeen, a man of celebrity as a warrior, did not fall unavenged. When the enemy approached, he retired to his house, together with his favorite wife and his sister, neither of whom would leave him. By the aid of his followers, he fought desperately to the very last, until nearly all his men were killed, and he himself was dangerously wounded.

He then retired with his wife and sister into an inner chamber, while the enemy crowded into the house in search of him, and then, firing his pistol into a barrel of gunpowder which he had placed there in readiness, blew to pieces himself, his two relatives, and his enemies.

The other figure represents a Saghai Dyak.

This tribe lives on the south-eastern coast of Borneo, and is remarkable for the superb costumes of the men, who have about them an air of barbaric splendor, which they are exceedingly fond of displaying. Wearing, in common with all Dyaks, the chawat or waist cloth, they take a pride in adorning themselves with short tunics made of tiger or leopard skin, or rich and embroidered cloth; while on their heads they wear magnificent caps made of monkey-skin, and decorated with the beautiful feathers of the Argus pheasant, two of the largest feathers being placed so that one droops over each ear. All these Dyaks have a very singular profile, in consequence of their habit of filing the teeth and so reducing their bulk, those who have concave teeth presenting the most curious outline.

Comparatively slight and feeble as the Dyaks look by the side of the stalwart and muscular European, their strength is really wonderful, and enables them to perform tasks which the powerful white man could not by any possibility achieve. On a journey, when an European has fallen from sheer fatigue, a Dyak has taken the burden with which the fallen man was laden, and added it to his own, without seeming to display any particular sense of having increased his own labor; and when the stranger, in spite of the relief, has lain down in absolute inability to move, a little wiry Dyak has picked him up, put him on his back, and proceeded on his journey with perfect ease.

The Dyaks are in the habit of crossing the swamps with which Borneo abounds by means of primitive bridges, called batangs. These are the very simplest form in which the principle of the bridge can be carried out. If the reader wishes to obtain a correct idea of a batang, he can do so easily enough. Two bamboo poles are driven into the ground so as to cross one another near the top, like an X with the lower limbs much developed. They are then lashed together at the intersection, just like the supports between which a modern rope dancer stretches his cord. At about thirty feet distance, another pair of poles are fixed in a similar way, and a horizontal bamboo laid upon them.

In fact, the whole apparatus looks just like a rope dancer’s apparatus, a bamboo taking the place of the rope. Beyond the second supports others are added and connected by horizontal bamboos as far as the marsh extends; and so fond are the natives of these very primitive bridges that they will make them a mile or more in length, and extend them over gorges of terrible depth.

To tread these extraordinary bridges is a task that would tax the powers of a professional rope dancer, and yet a Dyak has been known to take a heavy white man on his back, and carry him a mile or more over these slippery batangs, when, in many places, a false step would be certain destruction for both. He does not seem at all fatigued by this extraordinary feat of muscular power, but rather has a sort of boyish exultation in his strength, and a decided delight that he is able at all events in one respect to prove himself the superior of the white man, whom he regards with the most profound respect as a being of supernatural wisdom and power.

The Dyaks are able, in some astonishing manner, to penetrate with comparative ease through jungles which are absolutely impervious to Europeans. One of these men, while on the march with some English soldiers, exhibited his strength in a very unexpected manner. The path was a terrible one, all up and down steep and slippery hills, so that the Chinese coolies who accompanied the party first threw away their rice, and lastly sat down and wept like children. The English sergeant, a veteran, accustomed to hard marching both in China and India, broke down at the first hill, and declared his inability to move another step under the load which he carried. Mr. Brooke, who was in command of the party, asked one of the Dyaks to carry the sergeant’s burden, and promised him an additional piece of tobacco.

The man was delighted with the proposal, and accepted it. He was already carrying food for three weeks, his whole store of clothes, one twelve-pound shot, two twelve-pound cartridges, a double-barrelled gun, a hundred rounds of ball cartridge, and his own heavy sword and spear. Such a load as this, which would be almost too great even for a man walking on good roads, seemed a mere trifle to the agile Dyak, who went lightly and easily up and down paths which the foreigners could hardly traverse even without having to carry anything except their own weight.

So little, indeed, was he incommoded, that he strapped the whole of the sergeant’s kit on his back, and walked off as easily as if the whole load were but a feather weight. No one who has not actually traversed those paths can form an idea of the miseries attending the journey. The paths themselves are bad enough, but, in addition to the terribly severe labor of walking, the traveller has to endure mosquitoes, sandflies, intense heat at mid-day, and intense cold at night, thirst, wet, and every imaginable discomfort.

Yet the native seems quite easy in the journey, and gets over the ground in a manner that is absolutely exasperating to the Europeans who accompany him. He is able to push his way through prickly thickets and morasses in a way which seems almost impenetrable. Indeed, he says himself that it is impenetrable, and that he achieves these feats by means of certain charms which he carries about with him. On one occasion it happened that at the end of a hard five hours’ journey, a number of sketching materials and other necessaries had been forgotten, and a Dyak was sent to the boats to fetch them, being promised a pocket-knife for his trouble. He started about two P. M. and arrived with the parcels before sunset, having thus, in addition to his first journey with the travellers, and the heavy parcels which he had to carry, twice traversed the distance which had occupied them five hours in the transit.

When questioned about the manner in which he performed the journey, he said that it was owing to the virtues of a charm which he carried, and which he produced. It was a small misshapen horn, which he said that he had cut from the head of an antelope, and that its fellow horn was brass. He further offered to sell it for fifteen dollars, averring that its powers were unfailing, and that even any one who borrowed it was able to traverse the country at the same speed which he had exhibited.

The ordinary dress of the men is simple enough, consisting merely of the “chawat,” or slight strip of cloth, which is twisted round the loins in such a manner that one end falls in front and the other behind. The chawat is often very gaily colored. Sometimes the Dyak wears a sarong, or short petticoat of cotton cloth, which reaches from the waist to a little above the knees. It is simply a strip of cloth, with the two ends sewed together, and is almost large enough to encircle two ordinary men. When it is put on the wearer steps into it, draws it up to his waist, pulls it out in front as far as it will go and then doubles back the fold and turns the edges inward, in such a manner that it is held tight in its place, while the folds caused by its large diameter allow the limbs full play.

One of these chawats in my collection is woven in a sort of plaid pattern, the ground hue being a bright and rather peculiar red, and the cross-lines being nearly white. The texture is rather coarse, and the whole fabric has a stiffness which is characteristic of native fabrics made of this material.

Those young men who are proud of their personal appearance, and are able to afford the expense do not content themselves with the plain chawat, but adorn it with all kinds of strange decorations. One of these young dandies is well described by Mr. Boyle:—“The young man did not dress in Malay trousers like his father, probably because one pair alone of such articles existed in the house; but his chawat was parti-colored, and his ornaments numerous. He was about five feet four inches in height, very fair complexioned, and his face, though Tartar like in character, had a pleasant expression. From the elbow to the knuckles, both his arms were covered with rings of brass, and above the joint were two broad armlets of snowy shells, which contrasted admirably with his yellow-brown skin.

“But the marvel and glory of his array hung behind. To the end of his chawat was attached a long network of agate beads and bugles, which jingled merrily whenever he moved. Round his neck were strings of bright beads, and his knees were encircled by brazen wire. A profusion of dried scalps fluttered from the parang by his side; and in walking before us through the sunny glades of the jungle, his brazen gauntlet flashing in the light, and his beads of agate tinkling behind, he presented the very ideal of a barbaric dandy.”

One chief, desirous of outdoing his fellows, had taken a gong and beaten it out into a belt of solid metal a foot in width. In consequence of the extraordinary value which the Dyaks set upon gongs, this belt was a mark of wealth which no one could venture to challenge. Beside the chawat, the well-to-do man wears a sort of shawl mantle, much like a Scotch plaid, and capable of being disposed after as many different fashions. They display great taste in the graceful folds which they give to it, and seem to take a pride in the variety which they can produce by the different modes of folding this simple garment.

The women dress in a manner somewhat like that of the men; but, in lieu of the sarong, they mostly wear a rather longer petticoat, called a bedang. When obliged to go out in the sun, they also wear a jacket, without sleeves and open in front; but as this jacket hides the glossy brown skin on which they pride themselves, they generally lay it aside when in the house.

In youth they are remarkable for their slender and graceful forms; but, unfortunately, after a woman has passed the age of twenty, she begins to deteriorate, and at thirty is an old woman. The face is pleasing in expression, despite of the artificial means whereby the women do their best to make themselves hideous. The eyes are black, clear, and expressive, and the lashes singularly long. The nose is rather disposed to turn upward than downward, and the mouth is terribly disfigured with the continual chewing of betel and the mode in which the teeth are filed and blackened.

The chief point in a Dyak woman’s beauty is her hair, which is black, wonderfully thick, and shining, and so long that when allowed to flow over the back it nearly touches the ground. Of this ornament the women are inordinately vain, and, when engaged in conversation, are fond of flinging their shining tresses from side to side by coquettish tossings of the head. Unfortunately, the fever which is so prevalent in many parts of Borneo has the effect of bringing off all the hair, so that many a young girl is thus deprived of her chief ornament.

The women belonging to some of the tribes wear a most singular bodice, composed of bark and bamboo, and kept together by successive rings of brass wire, which form a strong and weighty bodice, to the lower part of which is attached the bedang, or petticoat.

Mr. Boyle seems to have taken a strong aversion to these bodices. “When a Dyak lover attempts to pass a tender arm round his sweetheart’s waist, instead of the soft flesh, he finds himself clasping a cuirass of solid metal. Nor is this all; for fashion ordains that the Dyak heiress shall invest her available means in the purchase of long gauntlets of twisted brass wire, reaching from the knuckles to the elbow; and if, in her turn, she encircles her lover’s neck with a responsive arm, the wretched man finds himself clasped by a horrible fetter, which draws a little bit of his flesh between each of its links, and pinches him fearfully. For these reasons, caresses are not common among Dyak lovers; after all, perhaps, they are only a habit.

“But, apart from their inconvenience, these brazen ornaments are decidedly tasteful and pretty. The ordinary color of a Dyak girl, when she does not stain her body with turmeric, is a dull brownish yellow, and the sparkling brass rings are a great relief to this complexion. They are not removed at night, nor, in fact, during the wearer’s lifetime, unless she outgrow them.”

More than once the possession of these strange ornaments has proved fatal to the wearer, the woman having fallen overboard from a canoe, and drowned by the enormous weight of her brass ornaments. In some parts of Borneo the girls are not content with their brass bodices, bracelets, and anklets, but must needs encircle their throats with the same material. They take a long piece of stout brass wire, and twist it spirally round their necks, so that the lower part of the coil rests on the shoulders, and the upper part comes just under the chin, causing the wearer to hold her head upright, and having a most inelegant and awkward effect.

The Kayan women are exceedingly fond of a peculiar bead which is of several colors, looking as if it were a black bead into which pieces of green, yellow, blue, and gray material had been carefully let. A rich woman will sometimes wear several strings of such beads just above the hips. The different strings are connected with each other so as to form a single ornament. For one such hip-lace (as Mr. St. John calls it) a woman has given property equal to thirty-five pounds of our money; and the same woman had several others for which she had given scarcely less, together with a great number of inferior value.

The Kayan women carry the tattoo to a great extent, and follow exactly the same plan as the Samoan warriors, i. e. being completely tattooed from the waist to the knees. They are very fond of this ornament, and are apt to wear their dress open at the side so as to exhibit it. When the women bathe, they think that the tattoo is quite sufficient dress, and at a little distance they really look as if they were wearing short trousers.

As has been already mentioned, the Sea Dyaks do not, as a rule, care for the tattoo, and in this respect the women follow the example of the men. They are, however, equally fond of ornament with their sisters of the land, and adorn themselves with most scrupulous care on festive occasions. Mr. Boyle gives an animated description of the gala-dress worn by the Saibas Dyak girls and women during a great feast given by the chief.

“Meanwhile the female portion of the community had been preparing for their part in the proceedings. At this moment they came from the interior of the house, and the stately magnificence of their appearance showed that time and labor had not been spared in arraying themselves for this great occasion. From the neck to the hips they were covered over with large agate beads; string of them was heaped on string, till many of the women were cuirassed an inch thick in solid stone before and behind.

“Upon their heads was placed a piece of bead-embroidered cloth, in which were arranged thin skewers of painted wood about five inches long: there were about twenty of these bits of wood disposed about their heads, and each was attached to the other by strings of brilliant glass beads. Five or six of these many-colored loops hung from each skewer, and they were entwined into a graceful network. The effect was very pretty, though barbarous, and the solemnity of the ceremonies was much enhanced by the stately uprightness which the women were compelled to observe in moving, on peril of disarrangement of this delicate structure.”

They also wear conical hats, made of split rattan. These hats are very light, and last for a wonderful time. A specimen was presented to me by a lady who had worn it for four years, and had certainly not treated it with any consideration. Yet it is as strong and good as ever, and the colors are as fresh and bright as when the hat was first made. The rattan has been split into very narrow strips, and stained red, yellow, and black, while some of the strips have had the natural color discharged, so as to make them nearly white.

The hat is fixed on the head by a broad loop of plaited palm leaf, which is fastened to the side. Hats made on this principle are prevalent throughout the whole Archipelago.

Among the ornaments which are worn by the Dyaks are the little bells which have already been mentioned as forming part of the appendages of an earring. These ornaments called “garunongs,” and mostly worn by the women on the edges of the bedang or petticoat, are almost exactly like our hawk-bells, being nothing more than little hollow spheres of brass or bronze about the size of a boy’s playing marble, with a small metal ball in the interior by way of a clapper, and a moderately wide slit at the bottom. To some of the bells the remarkable beads are attached. These bells keep up a musical chime or jingle as the wearer walks, and are therefore used in dances and on great occasions.

The general treatment of the Dyak women is good. They certainly have to work hard, but so have their husbands, and, as we shall presently see, they are not the abject slaves such as are too often found among savage nations, but maintain their share of influence in the family, and are perfectly capable of assisting themselves when the occasion requires it. They are accustomed to work in the fields, and the universal chopping-knife or parang is seldom out of their hands. The constant use of this weapon hardens their hands and often deforms the fingers.

When they come home from their work in the field, they have the heaviest portion of their work before them, their evening task being the husking and winnowing of the rice for supper and for the meals of the following day. The rice is first pounded in large troughs by means of long and heavy wooden poles, which are held perpendicularly, lifted up, and then allowed to fall on the grain, and, as a rule each trough occupies three women, who work for about half an hour. This pounding separates the husk from the grain, and the next process is to winnow the rice by means of a shovel and a fan.

The evening meal is then cooked and eaten, the children fed, the bronze dishes put away, and then the women can sit quietly in the veranda, and eat their betel in peace. Although this mode of life seems rather hard, and the husbands appear to be acting harshly toward their partners in letting them work in this manner while they sit in their houses, chew betel, and talk over the gossip of the day, there is really a very fair reciprocity of labor. While the wives have been working in the fields, the husbands have been fishing, and in so doing have repeatedly exposed their lives to danger, the rollers being at certain seasons of the year exceedingly dangerous. At Mukah, as at other places, the wives insist upon being furnished with fish by their husbands, and, in case the men should come home unsuccessful, the women fasten their doors and bar them out. Indeed, so long as the marriage holds good, the relation of husband and wife seems to be conducted in a manner similar to that which is so graphically depicted by Scott in his “Antiquary.”

In order to show the appearance of the Dyak women in their ordinary and gala costumes, two figures are introduced into illustration No. 2 on page 1113. One represents a Dyak girl before arraying herself in the mass of ornaments with which she loves to decorate herself on festivals. She wears, as usual, the bedang, or petticoat, which, if she be of ordinary condition, is made of cotton, but if she be rich, of silk. It is twisted round the waist in the manner practised by the men, but, in addition, is fastened to the brass belts which surround her waist. Her long glossy hair is flowing to the full extent, before the owner gathers up its massive tresses preparatory to adorning her head with the complicated decorations, of full dress.

The other figure represents her as she appears in all the glory of full gala costume. As far as absolute dress goes, she wears no more than she did before, the only alteration being that her bedang is the best which she has, and is sometimes beautifully embroidered. On her arms are several thick rings of brass, and the singularly uncomfortable brass gauntlet extends from the wrist to the elbow. Her neck and bust are nearly covered with the heavy agate beads, and on her head is the complicated cap, with its curious arrangement of wooden spikes and glass beads.