THE ISLAND OF NIAS AND ITS PEOPLE. 235 



contain fireplaces — boxes filled witli earth — and secret exits for 

 escape in case of attack. 



The language is difficult, but I have not found it poor in con- 

 ceptions, and have met no formidable difficulties in translating 

 the Gospels into it. It has no literature, and has only recently 

 been written. Myths, parables, proverbs, riddles, the wisdom of 

 ancestors, and the recitations at the dances, are all transmitted 

 orally, and are thereby current in many versions. 



The people are of childlike simplicity, careless, often sportive, 

 dreadfully given to falsehood, and unconquerably averse to sav- 

 ing or making any provision for the future. Not even the desire 

 of getting a wife, who has to be paid for, will induce a young 

 man to save ; he would rather borrow of a chief, and so put 

 himself under obligations which are almost sure to be equivalent 

 to servitude. The chief occupation of the Niha appears to be 

 idling away the time. What little work is done with any regu- 

 larity is chiefly performed by the women, who have to take care 

 of the swine and look after the food. 



While the special time for contracting loans is a month after 

 the harvest, borrowing goes on all the year round. If the debtor 

 can not pay at the maturity of his loan, the creditor acquires the 

 right of making himself at home in his house, and demanding 

 and receiving the best until he is paid. A similar privilege is 

 accorded to guests, who are entertained with great show of hos- 

 pitality, and are very apt to make the most of it, in complete 

 indifference to the comfort and feelings of the family. 



While the island is nominally under the rule of the Dutch, it 

 is in fact under the control of a set of Liliputian chiefs, who are 

 quite independent of one another, but have the most exalted idea 

 of their magnificent importance. Their title, baleozoe, which 

 may also be acquired by any one who gives a grand feast, is often 

 adorned by some supplementary epithet, like " the foundation of 

 the earth," " higher than the comb " (of a cock), " who is nothing 

 else than fire," " who is always above," or " who is higher than 

 the Malays." No real connection exists between the difi^erent 

 clans. Head-hunting is very much in vogue in the interior ; but 

 in the northern part of the island an occasional bleached skull, 

 suspended from a post, is the only reminder that it once existed. 

 Severed heads, where the custom still prevails, must be had on 

 a variety of occasions, as on the burial of a chief or the founda- 

 tion of a house. One of the peaceful tribes whom I visited in 

 company with Controller Mansveld, in January, 1877, complained 

 of the losses they had suffered from a more warlike neighbor- 

 ing tribe. One local chief had lost twelve of his people in six 

 months, another eleven, and another ten, including women and 

 children ; and another exclaimed that the tribe was in danger of 



