XXII GOVERNMENT 295 



of rising and falling cadences. The mass of men on the 

 bank and on the hill took up the cry, answering shout for 

 shout ; and the forest across the river echoed it, until the 

 whole place was filled with a hoarse roar. The Kenyahs ran 

 hastily to their huts for their weapons, and by the time they 

 had grouped themselves on the crest of the hill, armed with 

 sword and shield and spear and deadly blowpipe, the 

 Lirongs had landed on the bank below and were rushing up 

 the hill to the attack. A few seconds more and they met 

 with clash of sword and shield and a great shouting, and 

 in the semi-darkness a noisy battle raged. After some 

 minutes the Lirongs drew off and rushed back to their 

 boats as wildly as they had come ; and, strange to say, no 

 blood was flowing, no heads were rolling on the ground, no 

 ghastly wounds were gaping, in fact no one seemed any the 

 worse. For it seems that this attack was merely a well 

 understood formality, a put-up job, so to say. When two 

 tribes, between whom there is a blood-feud not formally 

 settled, meet together to make peace, it is the custom for 

 the injured party, that is the tribe which has last suffered a 

 loss of heads, to make an attack on the other party but 

 using only the butt ends of their spears and the blunt 

 edges of their swords. This achieves two useful ends — it 

 lets off superabundant high spirits, which, if too much 

 bottled up, would be dangerous ; and it ** saves the face " of 

 the injured party by showing how properly wrathful and 

 bellicose its feelings are. So when this formality had been 

 duly observed everybody seemed to feel that matters were 

 going on well ; they all settled down quietly enough 

 for the night, the Resident taking the precaution to 

 send the Lirongs to camp below the fort ; and the great 

 peace-conference was announced to be held the following 

 morning. 



Soon after daybreak the people began to assemble 

 beneath the great roof of palm-leaf mats that we had built 

 for a conference hall. The Baram chiefs sat on a low 

 platform along one side of the hall, and in their midst was 

 Tama Bulan, the most famous of them all, a really great 

 man who has made his name and influence felt throughout 

 a very large part of Borneo. When all except the Tinjar 

 men were assembled, of course without arms, the latter, also 

 unarmed, came up the hill in a compact mass, to take their 

 places in the hall. As they entered, the sight of their old 

 enemies, the chiefs of the Baram, all sitting quietly 

 VOL. II U 



