BORNEO--_Continued_.
WAR--_Concluded_.
THE BORNEAN SHIELD, ITS USUAL SHAPE AND DECORATIONS -- MODE OF USING
IT -- A CURIOUS SHIELD IN MY COLLECTION -- HEAD HUNTING AND ITS
ACCOMPANYING HORRORS -- OBJECTS OF SIR JAMES BROOKE’S MISSION -- HIS
MODE OF SUPPRESSING THE PRACTICE -- “OPENING MOURNING” -- THE FISH
SPEARING AND THE FEAST -- VALUE OF HEADS -- TREACHERY AND CUNNING --
THE BAFFLED HEAD HUNTERS -- DYEING AND PRESERVING THE HEADS -- THE
HEAD HOUSES -- COURAGE IN WAR -- STORMING A NATIVE FORT -- A NAVAL
BATTLE -- TRAPS AND PITFALLS -- MAKING PEACE.
By way of defensive weapons, the Dyaks use the shield, which is made
of wood, and is generally of an oblong form. Like the parang, it is
decorated with various ornaments, the chief of which are hair, beads,
and feathers. The hair is made into flat tufts, and fastened at regular
intervals all over the shield, as is seen in an illustration at the
foot of next page, which represents a fine specimen in the magnificent
collection of the late Mr. Christy. In the centre of this shield there
is a rude and evidently conventional representation of the human face,
the eye being circular, of very great size, and painted white in the
centre. At the top and bottom of the shield are similar figures, but of
smaller size. Some shields, which are now very seldom seen, have the
entire human form painted on them, the legs issuing from the chest,
and the neck being entirely dispensed with. The tufts of hair on this
shield are black.
The mode of using the shield and sword is shown in their sword dances,
and Mr. Brooke, who had great experience in the Dyak weapons, gives
the following opinion of their value:--Sword dances with shields were
going on. Each tribe has a peculiar step and code of its own; but as an
attack and defence in earnest they all seemed to be equally ridiculous.
“However, in the event of an opponent using a shield, I feel convinced
that an European could not stand against them, as they are able to
crouch their bodies entirely behind it, and can spring immediately from
such an attitude behind it without losing their balance. But without a
shield a man with a rapier would be more than a match for any of them,
unless, as is possible, a heavy Dyak weapon were to cut a light sword
in two. This, however, no dexterous fencer would be likely to allow,
and, after the first blow from a heavy weapon had fallen, the opponent
would be at the mercy of a light swordsman.”
With due respect to the opinion of so competent an authority, I cannot
but think that, even when furnished with this shield, the Dyak ought
not to overcome a good fencer. The very fact that he is obliged to hold
his shield before him, and consequently to stand either with his left
side or at least his breast fronting his adversary, shows that he can
have but a very short reach with his weapon, while his opponent, armed
with a small sword, and using only the point, can remain entirely out
of reach of the parang’s edge, while he himself is within easy distance
of the Dyak, and ready to bring in the fatal point of his weapon at the
slightest opening made by his opponent.
The reader may remember that the parang described on page 1125 has
attached to it, among other ornaments, a single feather. This feather
has been taken from the rhinoceros hornbill, a bird which the Dyaks
hold in much respect, and which they will not eat, however hungry they
may be. The quill feathers of the wing and tail are black, with a band
of white, and by both Malays and Dyaks they are thought to possess
certain virtues, and are used as talismans. The bird is considered to
be an emblem of war, and for this reason the sword sheaths, shields,
and cloaks worn in war time are decorated with its feathers; and the
huge horny beak of the bird is scraped thin, polished, and made into
earrings.
[Illustration: (1.) DYAK KRIS (See page 1126.)]
[Illustration: (2.) BORNESE SHIELD. (See page 1131.)]
[Illustration: (3.) PARANG WITH CHARMS. (See page 1125.)]
[Illustration: (4.) SPEAR. (See page 1132.)]
[Illustration: (5.) DYAK SHIELD (See page 1128.)]
I insert also on page 1129, a figure of a shield in my collection,
which I believe to be of Bornean make, the materials and mode of
employing them being evidently Bornean. In shape it exactly resembles
the small shields used by horsemen in the early age of English history,
and, small as it is, it forms a very efficient defence. It is twenty
inches in length, and thirteen inches in width, and it is wielded by
means of a separate handle, firmly lashed to the body of the shield
by strips of rattan. The characteristic feature of the shield is the
manner in which it is built up of a number of pieces, the whole, though
merely bound together by rattan, being as firm as if it were cut out of
one piece of wood.
If the reader will look at figure 2, which shows the back of the
shield, he will see that it is made of four flat pieces of wood, which
are laid side by side. These pieces are of a lightish colored wood,
and are but slightly smoothed. The handle is cut from a separate piece
of wood, which runs the whole length of the shield. As is usual with
Bornean weapons, the handle is much too small for the grasp of an
European.
The front of the shield is made of a single flat piece of wood, to
which the others are lashed, or rather sewed, by means of rattan
passing through holes. In order to hold all these cross-pieces more
firmly together, a deep groove has been cut in a thick rattan, which
has been bound round the shield so as to receive the edges of the
wood in the groove, and has been sewed to them by rattan at regular
intervals.
The shield is further strengthened by an upright piece of wood, which
runs along the front, and to which the handle at the back is lashed
by rattan, so that the handle and the corresponding piece in front
actually strengthen the shield instead of being a strain upon it.
The materials have been chosen with the eye for color which the Dyak
usually possesses. The thin flat wooden plate which forms the front of
the shield is nearly black, the central piece is yellowish white, and
the rattans with which it is edged and sewed are of a bright yellow.
The weight of the shield is exactly a pound and a half. Besides the
centre ornament on the front, a section of the shield is also given,
so as to show the form of the handle, and the slight curvature of the
whole implement.
The perpetual feuds that rage among the Dyak tribes are mostly caused
by the practice of “head hunting,” which is exactly analogous to the
scalp hunting propensities of the North American tribes. Mr. Boyle
has sketched the outlines of this horrid custom in a few nervous
words, which will afterward be examined in detail. “The great tribes
of Sakarrang and Saribas have never been more than nominally subject
to the Malays of Kuching or Bruni, and Sir James Brooke is the first
master whom they have really obeyed. Every year a cloud of murderous
pirates issued from their rivers and swept the adjacent coasts. No man
was safe by reason of his poverty or insignificance, for human heads
were the booty sought by these rovers, and not wealth alone. Villages
were attacked in the dead of the night, and every adult cut off; the
women and grown girls were frequently slaughtered with the men, and
children alone were preserved to be the slaves of the conquerors.
“Never was warfare so terrible as this. Head hunting, a fashion of
comparatively modern growth, became a mania, which spread like a
horrible disease over the whole land. No longer were the trophies
regarded as proofs of individual valor; they became the indiscriminate
property of the clan, and were valued for their number alone. Murder
lurked in the jungle and on the river; the aged of the people were
no longer safe among their own kindred, and corpses were secretly
disinterred to increase the grisly store.
“Superstition soon added its ready impulse to the general movement. The
aged warrior could not rest in his grave till his relations had taken
a head in his name; the maiden disdained the weak-hearted suitor whose
hand was not yet stained with some cowardly murder.
“Bitterly did the Malay Pangerans of Kuching regret the folly which had
disseminated this frenzy. They themselves had fostered the bloodthirsty
superstition in furtherance of their political ends, but it had grown
beyond their control, and the country was one red field of battle
and murder. Pretexts for war were neither sought nor expected; the
possession of a human head, no matter how obtained, was the sole
happiness coveted throughout the land.”
It was in order to stop this terrible custom that Sir James Brooke
undertook his rule. The sultan of Bruni, in despair at the state of
things, and utterly unable to check the increasing rage for head
hunting, ceded the territory to him, hoping that the Englishman,
with his small forces, would succeed where he himself with all
his soldiers had failed. Although these tribes were nominally his
subjects, they never thought of obeying him, and the only sign of
their subjection was a small tribute very irregularly paid. The sultan
was right in his conjecture, and we know how the Englishman, with his
steady, unflinching rule, succeeded in abolishing head hunting as an
acknowledged practice, and, by his system of inflicting heavy fines
on any one who took a head, gradually and steadily put an end to
the practice. For several years the Dyaks could not understand the
prohibition, and the English rajah and his officers were continually
pestered with requests from Dyaks to be allowed to go and take heads.
An old man, for example, had lost his wife, and begged piteously to be
allowed to take just one head, so that she might rest quietly in her
grave. Then a young man would come, who had been rejected by a Dyak
damsel, lay his case before the authorities, and beseech them to permit
him to take a head, and so to win the hand of the disdainful lady. One
man, after meeting with the usual refusal, proposed a compromise, and
asked whether he might not go and take the head of a Pakarran, because
Pakarrans really could not be considered as men. In fact, as Mr.
Brooke well remarks, the Dyaks behaved just like children crying after
sugar-plums. No plan could have been devised which was more effective
than that which was carried out by the English rajah. Whenever a party
of Dyaks started surreptitiously off on a head hunting expedition, a
force was always despatched after them, in order to cut them off and
bring them to justice, when they were fined heavily. If they succeeded
in procuring heads, their trophies were taken away from them, and they
were fined still more heavily. Those who refused to submit to the
punishment were declared to be enemies to the government, and their
houses were burnt down. Dyaks of more peaceful tribes were always
employed in such expeditions, as, owing to the feuds which had existed
for so long, they had been exasperated by the numerous murders which
had been perpetrated by the more warlike tribes. The English rule,
unlike that of the Malay sultan, was irrespective of persons, and the
highest chiefs were punished as swiftly and surely as the lowest of
the people. On one occasion, a quarrel arose between two parties of
Dyaks, one of which, commanded by a chief named Jannah, was entirely
in the wrong, having first trespassed on the property of the other
party, and then got up a quarrel because they had hurt themselves
against the spiked bamboos, which were planted by way of fences. In the
fight that ensued Jannah himself shot the other chief; but he gained
little by his act. As soon as the facts were known, Mr. Brooke sent a
large force against him, and he was fined nearly two hundred pounds.
He and his party took to the bush, but they were soon starved out,
and had to submit. The other chiefs were delighted at the result, and
were accustomed ever afterward to check those who wished to go head
hunting by telling them to remember Jannah and his two hundred pounds.
It is rather curious that this high-handed proceeding inspired Jannah
with the greatest respect and affection for Mr. Brooke, for whom he
afterward entertained a sincere friendship. He asserted that the three
years subsequent to this episode in his life had been marked by very
much better harvests than he had before obtained from his land, and
attributed his prosperity to his friendship for the white man.
One ingenious portion of the system was, that a large share of the
fines was distributed among chiefs who had abstained from head-hunting.
This plan had a double effect; it proved to the Dyaks that they were
not fined for the benefit of the English, and it induced them to be
always on the look-out for those who were going to hunt after heads.
* * * * *
It has been mentioned that the heads are wanted to “open the mourning”
after the death of any person. This phrase requires some little
explanation. When a chief loses a relative, he closes some stream
during the time of mourning. This is done by driving spears into the
bank, on either side, and fastening bamboos to them across the stream.
No one is allowed to pass this obstruction until the mourning is over,
an event which cannot take place, according to Dyak custom, until a
head had been obtained.
When he has brought home the required trophy, he leaves it at the head
house to be prepared, while he makes ready for the feast with which a
new head is received. He takes some plants, the juice of which has a
stupifying quality, pounds them, and throws them into the river. The
fish come floating to the surface, and are then captured by means of
barbed spears, which are flung at them from the bank. The spears are
very light, their shafts being made of bamboo, so that they always
float, and enable the thrower to recover both the spear and the fish
which it has struck. The spears and poles which closed the stream are
removed in order to allow the fishermen to use their weapons, and thus,
by the arrival of the coveted head, the stream is again thrown open.
One of these fish spears is shown on page 1129. It is five feet in
length, and the shaft, which is three-quarters of an inch in diameter,
is made of hollow bamboo, and is exceedingly light. The four prongs
are made of iron, and very slightly barbed. Owing to the manner in
which they are lashed to the shaft, they are very elastic, so that
their slight barbs are perfectly capable of retaining the fish. With
the natural love of ornament which distinguishes the Dyaks, the owner
of this spear has decorated it with several broad belts of split
rattan, plaited in a very artistic manner. One was placed just below
the head of the spear, another was placed at the centre of gravity, so
as to guide the hand at once to the “balance” of the weapon, and the
third was near the butt. Of the three, however, only the central belt
remained when the spear reached me.
Owing to the enormous demand for heads, quantity rather than quality
was the chief requisite, so that at the time when Sir James Brooke
undertook the task of putting down the practice of head hunting, no
practical distinction was made between the head of a stalwart warrior
and that of a tender girl. A head was a head; the body to which it
belonged was of no consequence.
The rage for heads was so great that in one head house an Englishman,
who happened to know something of comparative anatomy, espied a head
which seemed scarcely human, and which, on examination, turned out to
be that of an orang-outan. The proprietors of the head house at first
indignantly denied that any imposture had been practised, and adhered
to the human origin of the head. At last, however, they were obliged to
yield to a certain degree, but they only said that the head in question
was that of an Antu or goblin, which had infested the village for a
considerable time, and had at last been killed.
One exception was made in the value of these trophies, the head of a
white man being beyond all price, and being so valued that a Dyak who
had obtained one would not place it in the common head house, but would
build a special house to contain it. One of these Dyak warriors was
seen exposing himself to great danger in his anxiety to secure a white
man’s head. A boatman had been killed, and one of the Dyak murderers
was observed dragging up the hill the body of the slain man, hacking
with his knife at the neck so as to secure the head, regardless of the
fact that he was likely to be shot in the endeavor.
As the possession of a head is the height of a Dyak’s ambition, it is
not extraordinary that the natives should use all their powers of force
or craft to secure the trophy. One example of treachery is narrated by
Mr. Brooke (the present Rajah).
“Five years ago the Saribas Malays were living at the mouth of their
river, and, with very few exceptions, were hostile to us. Still they
were on friendly terms so far as gaining trade, and making use of
the merchandise they could only get by communication with Sarawak. A
party of five people, three men and two women, left Sakarrang to go to
Saribas for the purpose of meeting some of their relatives. After they
had been absent a considerable time, the news was brought back that
they had been beheaded by Dyaks in the river.
“It happened thus: They met a boat’s crew of Dyaks while in Saribas,
and spoke together, saying they were traders, and were also seeking
for fish. When the Malays were leaving Saribas to return, the Dyak
boat followed in their wake, entered this river together, and on the
following day proceeded to carry out their sly and murderous design.
“In the morning they offered their swords for sale, and sold or
exchanged one, suffering the Malays to make an exceedingly profitable
bargain. They then proposed fishing with a hand net on the mud bank,
and persuaded a Malay named Limin (who was well known, and considered a
brave man) to separate from the others and cast the net. This was done,
and for some time they were successful in bagging fish, and were going
further and further from the boats.
“At length the net fouled on a stump at the bottom, and one of the
Dyaks immediately took off his sword and dived down, as poor Limin
thought, to clear it, but, instead of doing so, the wily rascal twisted
it firmly round and round, came up to take breath, and then again
dived, and again twisted it in various ways round the stumps; he then
rose, and said he could not clear it, but asked Limin to try. Limin
unsuspectingly took off his sword, dived, and, on approaching the
surface breathless, the two Dyaks struck and decapitated him without a
sound. They then took his head and returned to their boat.
“A third Malay was persuaded to administer some cure to a Dyak’s foot,
which was bleeding slightly. While the Malay was leaning over and
looking to the wound, one of them chopped off his head from behind.
After this, the woman was decapitated. They lost one head, which
tumbled into the water, but the other four, with all the property
belonging to the Malay party, were taken and carried away to Sadok.”
On another occasion, a party of Dyaks in a canoe met a boat containing
a man, his wife, and their young daughter. They stopped the boat, and
offered betel-nut for sale. As soon as they came within reach, they
drew their swords, struck off the woman’s head, and took the girl
prisoner, but the father had just time to jump overboard and swim
ashore.
This occurred in the Saribas River, and, strangely enough, the
murderer, whose name was Sadji, nearly came in contact with Mr. Brooke,
who had gone out expressly to check his head hunting propensities. Mr.
Brooke passed him on the river, but, not being acquainted with him,
did not arrest him. This, as was afterward learned, was fortunate for
Sadji sat in the boat with his sword drawn, and if the captive girl had
called for help, or if the English had shown any signs of arresting
him, he would have struck off her head, jumped with it into the river,
swum ashore, and escaped together with his followers through the jungle.
The same author gives another example of head hunting, which is a
curious mixture of the terrible and the ludicrous. A young man named
Achang was brought before Mr. Brooke in irons. He was only nineteen
years of age, and yet he had gray hair, the natural color having
vanished in consequence of his troubles. Some time previously, he had
fallen in love with a young Dyak girl, who spurned all his advances
because he had never taken a head, and so proved himself to be a
warrior. She was evidently a girl of energy, for she proposed that he
should go to the Saribas fort, and take the head of Bakir, the Dyak
chief, or of the Tuan Hassan, _i. e._ Mr. Watson.
Being thus pressed, Achang, with another lad of his own age, set
off for the fort, and on the way suffered the usual drawbacks of
bad birds, bad dreams, and missing the path, so that when they came
within sight of the fort they thought they had better change their
plans. They determined on going to a Chinaman’s house under pretext of
purchasing his goods, and taking his head while he was off his guard.
When well cooked and dried, one head would do as well as another, and
they thought that they would have no difficulty in passing off the
Chinaman’s head for that of the white man.
Accordingly, they went to a Chinaman’s house, had their supper with
him very amicably, and then retired to rest, after agreeing that
at midnight they would strike the fatal blow. Now it happened that
Achang overslept himself, and his friend thought that he might as well
take advantage of his drowsiness, and secure the head for himself.
Accordingly, at midnight, hideous yells were heard from the Chinaman’s
house, and when the people rushed into the room, they found the
unfortunate owner with his face gashed all down one side, the Dyak
youth having missed his blow in his haste. The actual perpetrator
escaped, but Achang was found still fast asleep, and was instantly put
in irons.
Next day he was brought down to Sakarrang, with a chain round his
waist, and on the way he was followed by a body of Dyaks, who were
trying to bribe his keepers to let them take his head. They actually
held an auction for his head as they went along, each bidding higher
than the other, and the horrors of that twelve-mile march were such
that the poor lad became gray before the next morning.
After all, Achang was really a most gentle and innocent lad, and was
only following the habits of his country in obeying the behests of his
mistress. He was kept in irons for about a month, and then released,
after which he attached himself to the service of the white men, worked
in the garden, and, as the saying is, made himself generally useful.
The heads are subjected to a sort of drying process, called “cooking,”
which is tolerably effectual, but is far inferior to that which is
employed by the New Zealanders, and, for a considerable time after the
heads are cooked, they are very offensive to European nostrils, though
Dyaks seem to be quite unconscious of the evil odor. They are always
kept in the pangarangs, or head houses, which are very unlike the
ordinary dwelling-houses of the Dyaks. A very good account of a head
house is given by Mr. F. S. Marryat:--
“We were escorted, through a crowd of wandering Dyaks, to a house in
the centre of the village, which was very different in construction
from the others. It was perfectly round, and well ventilated by
numerous port-holes in the roof, which was pointed. We ascended to the
room above by means of a rough ladder, and when we entered, we were
rather taken aback by finding that we were in the head house, as it is
termed, and that the beams were lined with human heads, all hanging by
a small line passed through the top of the skull.
“They were painted in the most fantastic and hideous manner. Pieces
of wood painted to imitate the eyes were inserted in the sockets, and
added not a little to their ghastly, grinning appearance. The strangest
part of the story, and which added very much to the effect of the
scene, was, that these skulls were perpetually moving to and fro, and
knocking against each other. This, I presume, was occasioned by the
different currents of air blowing in at the port-holes cut in the roof;
but what with their continual motion, their nodding their chins when
they hit each other, and their grinning teeth, they really appeared to
be endowed with new life, and to be a very merry set of fellows.
“However, whatever might be the first impression occasioned by this
very unusual sight, it very soon wore off, and we amused ourselves with
their motions, which were not life, as Byron says; and in the course
of the day we succeeded in making a very excellent dinner in company
with these gentlemen, although we were none of us sufficiently Don
Giovannistic to invite our friends above to supper.”
These head houses are, as we have just seen, the places wherein guests
are received, and we can therefore understand that the natives of any
village would have a pride in showing to their visitors the trophies
won by themselves. One of these houses scantily furnished with heads
would be held as a scandal to the village, so that the three emotions
of pride, love, and sorrow have all their effect in aiding the custom
of head hunting.
In these head houses, the unmarried men of the village sleep. The
reason for this custom is two-fold. In the first place, the bachelors
are kept out of mischief; and in the next, they are always ready with
their arms at hand to turn out in defence of the village should it be
attacked. In such expeditions, the head house is always the central
object of attack, and by having the young warriors at hand the Dyaks
ensure the security of their cherished trophies.
Some of the horrors of the head hunting custom are well described by
Mr. St. John:--“About thirteen years ago, I heard the Natuna people
give an account of a horrible transaction that took place in one of
their islands. A party of Saribas Dyaks were cruising about among the
little isles near, and had destroyed several women and many fishermen,
when they were observed, toward evening, creeping into a deep and
narrow inlet to remain during the night.
“The islanders quietly assembled and surprised their enemies, killing
all but seven, who were taken prisoners--six men and one lad. The
former they roasted over a slow fire, and they declared that the bold
fellows died without uttering a cry of pain, but defying them to the
last; the lad, who stood trembling by, uncertain of his fate, was sent
back to the coast, with a message to his countrymen that, if ever they
came there again, they would all be treated in the same way. This
fearful warning was sufficient to deter their seeking heads again in
that direction.
“Parties of two and three sometimes went away for months on an inland
incursion, taking nothing with them but salt wrapped up in their
waist-cloths, with which they seasoned the young shoots and leaves, and
palm cabbages found in the forests; and when they returned home, they
were as thin as scare-crows.
“It is this kind of cat-like warfare which causes them to be formidable
enemies both to the Chinese and the Malays, who never felt themselves
safe from a Dyak enemy. They have been known to keep watch in a well
up to their chins in water, with a covering of a few leaves over their
heads, to endeavor to cut off the first person who might come to draw
water. At night they would drift down on a log, and cut the rattan
cable of trading prahus, while others of their party would keep watch
on the bank, knowing well where the stream would take the boat ashore;
and when aground they kill the men and plunder the goods.”
In war Dyaks have often proved themselves to be valiant soldiers. Mr.
Brooke relates that when he was attacking the fort of a hostile chief
having with him a mixed force of Malays and Dyaks, the latter were; by
far the better soldiers. The former advanced to thirty or forty yards
of the house, _i. e._ just beyond the range of the Sumpitan arrows,
which were being blown from the fort, and ensconced themselves behind
trees and stumps, where they could fire without exposing themselves
to the deadly darts. The Dyaks, however, dashed boldly at the house,
clambering up the posts on which it was built, carrying their weapons
with them, hacking at the breaches which had previously been made with
shot, and trying to force their way into the fort.
At last, one Dyak succeeded in getting into the house, and remained
there for about five minutes, when he was obliged to retreat and slide
to the ground down the post. After much fighting, the Dyaks managed to
set fire to the building at both ends, thus forcing the inmates to rush
out among their enemies. Scarcely any of them escaped, some perishing
in the flames, others being badly wounded, and the rest being taken
prisoners.
The victorious Dyaks were mad with excitement, and rushed about with
furious shouts, carrying heads in their hands, and insensible to the
wounds which many of them had received. One lad came yelling by, having
a head in one hand, and with the other holding on one side of his face.
An enemy’s sword had nearly sliced off the whole of that side of his
face, but he was almost unconscious of the fact, and his excitement
prevented him from feeling any pain. In a few minutes, however, he
fainted from loss of blood, and, in spite of the terrible wound which
he had received, eventually recovered.
Sometimes the Dyaks are exceedingly cruel to their captives, not being
content with merely taking their heads, but killing them slowly by
torture. Generally, however, the competition for heads is so keen that
a man who has overcome an enemy has no time for torturing him, and is
obliged to content himself with getting off the head as fast as he can.
Some of these forts are most perilous places to attack. The approaches
are guarded with “ranjows,” _i. e._ slips of bamboo sharpened at the
end and stuck in the ground. Ranjows are troublesome enough on open
ground, but when they are stuck among leaves, grass, and herbage, they
become terrible weapons, and impede very effectually the advance of the
attacking force.
Then the Dyaks set various ingenious traps. They place bent bows near
the path, so constructed that as soon as a man comes opposite them, the
string is liberated, and an arrow is tolerably sure to transfix both
his legs. Sometimes they bend a young tree down, and lay a javelin,
so that when the tree is freed, it strikes the end of the javelin and
urges it onward with terrific violence, just like the mangonel of olden
times. They dig numberless pitfalls of no very great size in depth, but
each having a sharp bamboo stuck upright in the centre, so that any on
who falls into the pit must inevitably be impaled.
The forts themselves have been much modified since the introduction of
fire-arms, the stockades which surround them being made of the hardest
wood, about two feet in thickness, and capable of resisting the fire of
any small arms. In fact, nothing but artillery is of much use against
one of these forts. Many of them are furnished with a sally-port
through which, when the place becomes untenable, the defenders quietly
escape, just as is done with the pahs of New Zealand.
The Sea Dyaks, as their name implies, are a maritime set of tribes,
and fight chiefly in canoes. They have some ideas of tactics, and can
arrange their canoes in regular array when they meet with an enemy. One
of their favorite tactics is to conceal some of their larger boats,
and then to send some small and badly-manned canoes forward to attack
the enemy. They are, of course, soon repulsed, and obliged to retreat.
The enemy, thinking himself victorious, follows them exultingly, and,
as soon as he passes the spot where the larger canoes are hidden,
he is attacked by them in the rear, while the smaller canoes, which
have acted as decoys, turn and join in the onslaught. The rivers are
almost invariably chosen for this kind of attack, the overhanging
branches of trees and the dense foliage of the bank affording excellent
hiding-places for the canoes. An illustration of a “Canoe fight” is
given on page 1139.
When peace is declared, or when people desire to renew friendship to
each other, they declare themselves friends by a ceremony which is
identical in principle with that which is practised in many parts of
Africa, each of the contracting parties partaking of the blood of the
other. Sometimes the blood is actually drunk, but generally it is taken
by mixing it with tobacco and smoking it. Mr. St. John, in his “Forests
of the Far East,” describes this ceremony with much force:--
“Siñganding sent on board to request me to become his brother by
going through the sacred custom of imbibing each other’s blood. I say
imbibing, because it is either mixed with water and drunk, or else it
is placed within a native cigar, and drawn in with the smoke. I agreed
to do so, and the following day was fixed for the ceremony, which is
called Berbiang by the Kayans, Bersabibah by the Borneans.
“I landed with our party of Malays, and after a preliminary talk, to
give time for the population to assemble, the affair commenced. We
sat in the broad veranda of a long house, surrounded by hundreds of
men, women, and children, all looking eagerly at the white stranger who
was about to enter their tribe. Stripping my left arm, Kum-Lia took a
small piece of wood shaped like a knife-blade, and, slightly piercing
the skin, brought the blood to the surface; this he carefully scraped
off. Then one of my Malays drew blood in the same way from Siñganding,
and a small cigarette being produced, the blood on the wooden blade was
spread on the tobacco.
“A chief then arose, and, walking to an open place, looked forth
upon the river, and invoked their god and all the spirits of good
and evil to be witness of this tie of brotherhood. The cigarette was
then lighted, and each of us took several puffs, and the ceremony was
concluded. I was glad to find that they had chosen the form of inhaling
the blood in smoke, as to have swallowed even a drop would have been
unpleasant, though the disgust would only arise from the imagination.
“They sometimes vary the custom, though the variation may be confined
to the Kiniahs, who live further up the river, and are intermarried
with the Kayans. There a pig is brought and placed between the two who
are to be joined in brotherhood. A chief offers an invocation to the
gods, and marks with a lighted brand the pig’s shoulder. The beast is
then killed, and, after an exchange of jackets, a sword is thrust into
the wound, and the two are marked with the blood of the pig.”
The stranger thus admitted into membership with the Kayans is called
Niau, or friend, and in some cases the experiment proves to be
successful. Generally, however, the honor, such as it is, is greater
than the profit, the Kayans assuming that their newly-admitted member
ought to make plenty of rich presents to his tribe, in order to show
his sense of the privileges that have been conferred upon him.