Checks to Population. 101 



of accounting for the state of the population among the Sara- 

 wak Dyaks. The jDopulation of Great Britain increases so as 

 to double itself in about fifty years. To do this, it is evident 

 that each married couple must average three children who 

 live to be married at the age of about twenty-five. Add to 

 these those who die in infancy, those who never marry, or 

 those who marry late in life and have no ofispring, the num- 

 ber of children born to each marriage must average four or 

 five ; and we know that families of seven or eight are very 

 common, and of ten and twelve by no means rare. But from 

 inquiries at almost every Dyak tribe I visited, I ascertained 

 that the women rarely had more than three or four children, 

 and an old chief assured me that he had never known a wom- 

 an have more than seven. In a village consisting of a hun- 

 dred and fifty families, only one consisted of six children liv- 

 ing, and only six of five children, the majority appearing to 

 be two, three, or four. Comparing this with the known pro- 

 portions in European countries, it is evident that the number 

 of children to each marriage can hardly average more than 

 three or four ; and as even in civilized countries half the 

 population die before the age of twenty-five, we should have 

 only two left to replace their parents ; and so long as this 

 state of things continued, the population must remain sta- 

 tionary. Of course this is a mere illustration ; but the facts 

 I have stated seem to indicate that something of the kind 

 really takes place ; and if so, thei-e is no difficulty in under- 

 standing the smallness and almost stationary population of 

 the Dyak tribes. 



We have next to inquire what is the cause of the small 

 number of births and of living children in a family. Climate 

 and race may have something to do with this, but a more 

 real and efficient cause seems to me to be the hard labor of 

 the women, and the heavy weights they constantly carry. 

 A Dyak woman generally spends the whole day in the field, 

 -and carries home every night a heavy load of vegetables 

 and firewood, often for several miles, over rough and hilly 

 paths ; and not unfrequently has to climb up a rocky mount- 

 ain by ladders, and over slippery stepping-stones, to an ele- 

 vation of a thousand feet. Besides this, she has an hour's 

 work every evening to pound the rice with a heavy wooden 



