102 Borneo — The Dyaks. 



stamper, which violently strains every part of the body. She 

 begins this kind of labor when nine or ten years old, and it 

 never ceases but with the extreme decrepitude of age. Surely 

 we need not wonder at the limited number of her progeny, 

 but rather be surprised at the successful efforts of nature to 

 prevent the extermination of the race. 



One of the surest and most beneficial effects of advancing 

 civilization will be the amelioration of the condition of these 

 women. The precept and example of higher races will make 

 the Dyak ashamed of his comparatively idle life, while his 

 weaker partner labors like a beast of burden. As his wants 

 become increased and his tastes refined, the women will have 

 more household duties to attend to, and Avill then cease to 

 labor in the field — a change which has already to a great ex- 

 tent taken place in the allied Malay, Javanese, and Bugis 

 tribes. Population will then certainly increase more rapidly, 

 improved systems of agi'iculture and some division of labor 

 will become necessary in order to provide the means of ex- 

 istence, and a more complicated social state will take the 

 place of the simple conditions of society which now obtain 

 among them. But, with the sharper struggle for existence 

 that will then occur, will the happiness of the people as a 

 whole be increased or diminished? Will not evil passions 

 be aroused by the spirit of competition, and crimes, and vices, 

 now unknown or dormant, be called into activ.e existence ? 

 These are problems that time alone can solve ; but it is to be 

 hoped that education and a high-class European example 

 may obviate much of the evil that too often arises in analo- 

 gous cases, and that we may at length be able to point to one 

 instance of an uncivilized people who have not become de- 

 moralized and finally exterminated by contact with Euro- 

 pean civilization. 



A few words, in conclusion, about the government of 

 Sarawak. Sir James Brooke found the Dyaks oppressed and 

 ground down by the most cruel tyranny. They were cheated 

 by the Malay traders, and robbed by the Malay chiefs. Their 

 wives and children were often cajDtured and sold into slavery, 

 and hostile tribes purchased permission from their cruel 

 rulers to plunder, enslave, and murder them. Any thing 

 like justice or redress for these injuries was utterly unattain- 



