The Dyaks, a “brown” race, are the savage inhabitants of Central Borneo,
and are said to have come originally from the Malay Peninsula, but to
have since been gradually driven into the center of the island by the
influx of the present Malays, who now inhabit the coasts and often far
inland, especially up the rivers.
The Dyaks, though an old, aboriginal Malay stock, differ radically from
the Malays in nearly every particular.
They are a dark-skinned, strong, well-knit, square-shouldered and
beautifully muscled type of men, neither tall nor short, fat nor lean,
but comparable to the typical American cavalryman or football halfback
or trained middle-weight boxer or wrestler.
They have small, dark, heady, snake-like eyes, high cheek bones and
straight black hair, often “bobbed” at the neck and frequently with a
band around it, giving them much the appearance of North American
Indians, were it not that their eyes and noses are smaller. They affect
a breech-cloth only, excepting for the sake of warmth, when they don a
light cloth jacket or a fibre coat, the latter being a simple affair,
hanging straight, with a slit at the top through which the head is
placed, after the manner of a present-day American Army “poncho.”
A chief is distinguished by having pheasant feathers falling down the
back of one of these coats, and in the town or “kampong” of Olong Liko I
was the recipient of the unusual privilege of having a friendly Dyak
chief take off his cloak-like garment that I had been examining, put it
on over my head, and insist on my keeping it--which it is needless to
say I was only too glad to do--and which I still have preserved as the
most valued treasure of all the many that I brought back from my
travels.
The women are of the typical heavy-waisted savage category, frequently
wearing something above the waist, but whose usual costume consists
merely of a long cloth, resembling a skirt, wrapped around their legs.
Truth compels me to ungallantly state the ladies are not prepossessing.
The chief occupations of the Dyaks are hunting, fishing and tending
their little truck-gardens, which mode of life probably accounts for
their average splendid physique.
_Moeroeng_ 13.
The Moeroeng (River) is a long stream in Central Borneo that unites with
the Djoeloi to form the Barito, the latter being one of the great rivers
of Borneo, flowing from its center in a general southerly direction, and
emptying into the Java Sea a short distance to the west of the
southeastern extremity of the island. Pronunciation: Moeroeng=Mooroong:
Djoeloi=Jooloi.
_kampong_ 13.
Kampong is a native Dyak village, and consists of from one to three or
four long houses, and sometimes small detached ones. The long house, the
characteristic building, is anywhere from fifty to two or three hundred
feet in length, elevated, on poles, from eight to twenty feet in the
air. The sides of the houses are of rough boards or of bark and the
roofs usually of bark shingles. The age of the dwellings can be told by
the height they stand above the ground, those on the highest poles being
the oldest ones, because of the former greater savagery of, and more
frequent warfare between, the natives. Here literally we have a case of
the home being the fortress.
Within, the long house is of one of two arrangements; either it consists
of a huge hall, often decorated with the skull and horns of the chase,
running practically the entire length, and with family rooms opening
into it and bake-rooms or kitchens at both ends, or the house consists
merely of one very long room without partitions, the different families,
with their crude cooking hearths, “squatting” around the sides of the
room at intervals of ten or fifteen feet. Occasionally some of the
families will hang up cloth divisions. Here, truly, we have the communal
scheme of living carried to its ultimate extreme.
_headless waist_ 13.
The Dyaks are the famous “head-hunters” of Borneo, and although their
inhuman proclivities of procuring heads for their belts, in order to
give them certain distinctions, among them, the prerogative of marrying,
have, at the present time been largely suppressed by the Dutch
authorities, nevertheless a traveler’s trip through Central Borneo is
dangerous owing to the fact that some actual head-hunting bands are
still roaming the dense jungles through which he is passing.
Due to pure luck my path was not crossed by any of these outlaw nomad
troops, which is possibly why I am writing this to-day, as one white
man, even though armed with a long 38 Army Colt revolver could probably
make little headway against a whole band of these savages. My three
Malay coolies were highly trustworthy and efficient, but I am not
positive as to exactly what extent I could have counted on them in the
eventuality of an actual attack.
_lianes_ 14.
Long, bare, tropical, vine-like growths that sometimes wrap themselves
around the trunk of it tree, and sometimes hang from the branches
straight to the ground.
_leeches_ 15.
Little gray leeches, up to half an inch in length that, as a barefooted
person walks through the jungle, attach themselves to his feet and
ankles and suck the blood, until removed or until, having gotten their
fill and swollen to many times their former size, fall back to the
ground satiated.
In the case of a white man, they will burrow through the seam at the
back of his sock to get the blood they crave.
_proa_ 16.
Pronounced prow, and is any small crude Dyak or Malay Bornese boat,
propelled by paddling.
_blow-spear_ 17.
A spear with a hollow shaft through which the Dyaks blow a light, wooden
dart or arrow. I have seen these in Java and the Philippines also.
_mandauw_ (_or parang_) 17.
Pronounced mandow, and is the typical Dyak sword with a straight blade
broadening gradually until near the end, then abruptly narrowing again
to a point. It is sharpened on one edge only.
_chief poles_ 17.
High wooden flag-like poles, carved near the base, and with long tassels
falling from the top. Erected in front of the long house in memory of
dead kampong (village) chiefs.
_Moeroeng rapids_ 21.
The Moeroeng River has magnificent rapids, which I and my three Malay
coolies shot on my return by river from Olong Liko to Poeroek Tjahoe.
_tom-toms_ 24.
Round, drum-like, metal musical instruments, beaten with a stick having
a large knob.
(_You know how far it comes_) 28.
Refers to the fact that salt is precious to the Dyaks, and must be
gotten from the distant coasts, through traders.
_Sick-man’s Drums_ 28.
The heating of the tom-toms, with the playing of other “musical”
instruments, when a Dyak is sick. The nearer death, the louder the
beating. Supposed to be very efficacious. In this particular case the
“Sick-man’s Drums” were, of course, beaten ironically.
_greasy cakes_ 29.
Thick, round, half-cooked, greasy, Dyak cakes, utterly indigestible and
unprepossessing.