XXII 



GOVERNMENT 293 



The peace-making that I am going to describe was 

 organised in order to bring together on neutral ground, 

 and in presence of an overwhelming force of the tribes 

 loyal to the government, all those tribes whose allegiance 

 was still doubtful, and all those that were still actively- 

 hostile to one another, and to induce them to swear to 

 support the government in keeping the peace, and to go 

 through the formalities necessary to put an end to old 

 blood-feuds. At the same time the Resident had suggested 

 to the tribes that they should all compete in a grand race 

 of war canoes, as well as in other races on land and water. 

 For he wisely held that in order to suppress fighting and 

 head-hunting, hitherto the natural avenues to fame for 

 restless tribes and ambitious young men, it is necessary to 

 replace them by some other form of violent competition 

 that may in some degree serve as a vent for high spirits 

 and superfluous energy ; and he hoped to establish an 

 annual gathering for boat racing and other sports, in which 

 all the tribes should take part, a gathering on the lines of 

 the Olympic games in fact. The idea was taken up eagerly 

 by the people, and months before the appointed day they 

 were felling the giants of the forest and carving out from 

 them the great war canoes that were to be put to this novel 

 use, and reports were passing from village to village of the 

 many fathoms length of this or that canoe, and the fineness 

 of the timber and workmanship of another. 



In order to make clear the course of events, I must 

 explain that two large rivers, the Baram and the Tinjar, 

 meet about one hundred miles from the sea to form the 

 main Baram river. Between the peoples living on the 

 banks of these two rivers and their tributaries there is a 

 traditional hostility which just at this time had been raised 

 to a high pitch by the occurrence of a blood-feud between 

 the Kenyahs, a leading tribe of the Baram, and the Lirongs, 

 an equally powerful tribe of the Tinjar. In addition to 

 these two groups we expected a large party of Madangs, a 

 famous tribe of fighting men of the central highlands whose 

 hand had hitherto been against every other tribe, and a 

 large number of Sea Dayaks, who, more than all the rest, 

 are always spoiling for a fight, and who are so passionately 

 devoted to head-hunting that often they do not scruple 

 to pursue it in an unsportsmanlike fashion. So it will be 

 understood that the bringing together in one place of large 

 parties of fully armed warriors of all these different groups 



