BORNEO.
THE DYAKS, THEIR APPEARANCE AND DRESS.
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.
[Illustration: (1.) ILLINOAN PIRATE AND SAGHAI DYAK. (See page 1112.)]
[Illustration: (2.) DYAK WOMEN. (See page 1118.)]
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.