CELEBES iJ'.ll 



Dyaks of Borneo. They are, some of them, head-hunters, 

 and even cannibals. Human skulls ornament the chiefs 

 houses, and, when he dies, it is necessary to ol)tain two 

 fresh human skulls with which to adorn his grave. 

 Some curious burying - places exist in the northern 

 peninsula, near the village of Sawangan, which have been 

 described by the American traveller Bickmore. These 

 are what may be termed vertical coffins, consisting of 

 solid rectangular upright stones, deeply hollowed out at 

 the top, so as to receive the body, and covered with a 

 roof- shaped capstone, adorned with rude carvings of 

 liuman figures in a sitting attitude, the knees clasped by 

 the hands. This elaborate mode of burial, if correctly 

 described, is, it is believed, unique among savage tribes. 

 These northern people, however, are different from the 

 Dyak-like tribes farther south, and may have affinities 

 with some of the indigenes of the Philippines, or of the 

 islands of Northern Polynesia. In this peninsula the 

 number of different languages is extraordinary. At its 

 extremity, a small tract of country some 60 miles by 

 20, more than a dozen are spoken. Some of these may 

 perhaps be more or less dialectic, but the majority are 

 said to be quite distinct, and the people of the different 

 tribes cannot make themselves understood except througli 

 the medium of Malay, although, perhaps, their villages 

 may be within three miles of one another. The ]\Ima- 

 hasans have been almost all converted to Christianity, 

 and have become an orderly, industrious, and intelligent 

 people. At Tomore, on the eastern side of the central 

 portion of the island (and probably elsewhere), the 

 natives make bark cloth, closely resembling the " tapa " 

 of the Polynesians. It is beaten out by wooden mallets 

 till it becomes as thin and tough as parchment; it is 

 then washed with an extract from some bark, which 



