MALAYS 



75 



labour, and consider themselves degraded by it; but under favourable conditions, especially if 

 well paid, they can get through no small amount of work. Gambling is one of their worst 

 vices, and they bet heavily over cock-fighting, which is their chief form of amusement. They 

 are also very much addicted to opium-smoking. Among their virtues must be reckoned 

 frugality and contentment. 



The barbarous practice of head-banting is a time-honoured custom of all the Malays. 

 Martin de Kada speaks of its existence as early as the year 1577; and even at the present 

 day, in spite of vigorous opposition on the part of the colonial authorities, the custom of 

 taking the heads of enemies as trophies has by no means died out. All Malays appear to 

 worship skulls, or to regard them as sacred. Hence they naturally regard a human skull as 

 the most suitable sacrifice that they can offer to appease the spirits of their ancestors. Chris- 

 tianity and Islamism have both done something to check the practice. In Xorth Borneo skulls 

 now lie about like old lumber, instead of being carefully kept as of old. Among the Igorottes, 

 according to Hans Meyer, the only surviving reminiscence of the practice is the dance, 

 accompanied by derisive songs, round a bare pole, on which formerly the skull was stuck. 

 Among the Ilongotes, on the other hand, a young man cannot marry until he has brought 

 his bride-elect a certain number of heads those of Christians being preferred. The Dya 

 head-hunter keeps his skulls in a beautifully carved box. When a chief wishes to ornament 

 his house, he demands human skulls. Heads must be placed under the posts of a house at 

 its foundation. None but the successful head-hunter can claim to be tattooed. By a kind of 

 unwritten law tribal quarrels are usually settled by the cutting off of heads. The practice 



SAKEHAS DYA WOMEN. 



SIK Huun Low COLLECTION. 



