A DYAK VILLAGE HOUSE
Among the Dyaks a large number of families live together under one roof.
A small village would consist probably of one long house, in which
twenty or thirty or more families live. This village house is built on
posts of hard wood, which raise the floor from six to twelve feet above
the ground. It is wise of them to build their houses in this way,
because the ground, even on the hills, is very damp in the rainy season,
and, besides this, there are snakes and scorpions and centipedes
crawling about, which would trouble the Dyaks if their houses were
built on the ground. Another reason for building their houses in this
way is that if they live together in large numbers, high above the
ground, it is not easy for their enemies to attack and overcome them.
[Illustration: A DYAK VILLAGE HOUSE]
The entrance to this house is made by a notched trunk or log, which
serves as a ladder; one is fixed at each end of the house. The length of
the building varies according to the number of families inhabiting it,
but as the rooms occupied by the different families are built on the
same plan, the whole presents a uniform and regular appearance.
The long Dyak house is built in a straight line, and the walls and roof
are thatched with dried palm leaves. There is a long uncovered verandah
where the paddy[1] is put out to be dried by the sun; afterwards it is
pounded to get rid of its husk, and so converted into rice. Here, also,
the clothes and a variety of other things are hung out to dry. The
flooring of this part of the house is generally made of laths of hard
wood, so as to stand exposure to the weather. The flooring of the rest
of the house is made of split palm or bamboo tied down with rattan or
cane.
[Footnote 1: Paddy--rice in the husk.]
Next to the long uncovered verandah comes the long open hall, or covered
verandah, which stretches without any partition along the whole length
of the house. It is a cool and pleasant place, and is much frequented by
men and women for conversation and indoor pursuits. Here the women do
their work--the weaving of cloth, or the plaiting of mats. Here, too,
the men chop up the firewood used for cooking their food, and even make
boats, if not of too great a size. This long hall is a public place
open to all comers, and used as a road by travellers, who climb up the
ladder at one end, walk through the whole length of the house, and go
down the ladder at the other end. The floor is carpeted with thick and
heavy mats made of cane, interlaced with narrow strips of beaten bark.
Over these are spread other mats of finer texture, when necessary, for
visitors to sit upon, for you must understand the Dyaks do not use
chairs or forms, but always sit on the floor.
On one side of this long public hall is a row of doors. Each of these
leads into a separate room, which is occupied by a family. This room
serves several purposes. It serves as a kitchen, because in one corner
there is a fireplace where the food is cooked. It also serves as a
dining-room, because when the meal is ready, mats are spread here, and
the inmates squat on the floor to eat their meal. It also serves as a
bedroom, and at night the mats for sleeping are spread out, and here the
inmates sleep.
Round three sides of the room--the fourth side being occupied by the
fireplace--are ranged the treasured valuables of the Dyaks--old earthen
jars, some of which are of great value, and brass gongs and guns. Their
cups and plates are hung up in rows flat against the wall. The flooring
of this room is the same as that of the public hall outside, and made of
split palm or bamboo tied down with cane. The floor is swept after a
fashion, the refuse falling through the flooring to the ground
underneath. The room is stuffy and not such a pleasant place as the open
hall outside. The pigs and poultry occupy the waste space under the
house.
Each family has its own portion of the long public hall outside, and the
length of this corresponds to the breadth of the room occupied by the
family, and in each of these portions there is a small fireplace which
consists of a slab of stone, at which the men warm themselves when they
get up, as they usually do, in the chill of the early morning before the
sun has risen.
Over this fireplace in the open hall hangs the most valuable ornament in
the eyes of the Dyak, the bunch of human heads. These are the heads
obtained when on the war-path by various members of the family--dead and
living--and handed down from father to son as the most precious
heirlooms--more precious, indeed, than the ancient jars which the Dyaks
prize so highly.
The posts in this public part of the Dyak village house are often
adorned with the horns of deer and the tusks of wild boar. The empty
sheaths of swords are hung from these horns or from wooden hooks, while
the naked blades are placed in racks overhead.
If you can imagine a long house built several feet above the ground on
posts, with walls and roof of palm leaf thatch, and this house divided
into two parts, one a large public hall common to all the inmates, and
the other divided into separate rooms each occupied by a different
family, then you have some idea of the kind of house in which the Dyaks
live.
The women are earlier risers than the men, and retire to bed earlier.
They generally go to the river as soon as they wake, carrying their
water-gourds with them. They have a bath, fill their gourds with water,
and return to the house to cook the morning meal.
The principal article of food is rice, which is cooked in brass or iron
pots. With their rice they eat either vegetables or fish. Sometimes they
have the flesh of wild pig or deer, but that is not usual. Nearly every
animal is eaten by the Dyaks; fish, venison and pork are eaten by all,
and many tribes eat monkeys, snakes and even crocodiles. A favourite
method of cooking is to put the proper quantity of fish or vegetables or
meat, with sufficient water and a little salt, into a newly-cut bamboo.
The mouth is then stopped up with leaves, and the bamboo is placed over
the fire, resting on a stone at an angle of forty-five degrees or more.
By the time the bamboo is thoroughly charred, the contents are
sufficiently cooked, and it is taken from the fire and emptied out into
a plate. Sometimes rice is cooked in bamboos, and when it is ready to be
eaten, the bamboo is split and torn off in strips, and the rice is found
well cooked inside--a stiff mass moulded in the form of the bamboo.
When the food is ready and put out in plates, the men are asked to come
into the room and eat. Sometimes the women eat with the men; but if
there are too many to eat comfortably at one sitting, the men have their
meal first, and the women eat with the children after the men have done.
The Dyaks all sit on the floor, which also serves as their table. They
have their rice on plates, or sometimes upon clean leaves. They eat with
their fingers, dipping the hand when necessary into the common stock of
salt or common dish of meat or vegetables. They eat with the right hand,
compressing the rice into portions of convenient size.
When the meal is over, they wash the crockery and put it away. The mats
are swept and taken up, and the refuse thrown through the open floor
for the pigs and poultry under the house to eat.
The floor of the Dyak house is clean enough because all the dirt falls
through on to the ground underneath; consequently this is covered with
rubbish, and perpetually wet from the water thrown down from the floor
above, and, being the favourite resort of the pigs and fowls of the long
Dyak house, often smells horribly.