Early Letters 



To His Mother 



Sarawak. Christmas Day, 1855. 



My dear Mother, — You will see I am spending a second 

 Christmas Day with the Kajah. ... I have lived a month 

 with the Dyaks and have been a journey about sixty miles 

 into the interior. I have been very much pleased with the 

 Dyaks. They are a very kind, simple and hospitable people, 

 and I do not wonder at the great interest Sir J. Brooke takes 

 in them. They are more communicative and lively than the 

 American Indians, and it is therefore more agreeable to live 

 with them. In moral character they are far superior to 

 either Malays or Chinese, for though head-taking has been 

 a custom among them it is only as a trophy of war. In 

 their own villages crimes are very rare. Ever since Sir J. 

 has been here, more than twelve years, in a large population 

 there has been but one case of murder in a Dyak tribe, and 

 that one was committed by a stranger who had been adopted 

 into the tribe. One wet day I got a piece of string to show 

 them how to play '^ scratch cradle,'* and was quite astonished 

 to find that they knew it better than I did and could make 

 all sorts of new figures I had never seen. They were also 

 very clever with tricks with string on their fingers, which 

 seemed to be a favourite amusement. Many of the distant 

 tribes think the Eajah cannot be a man. They ask all sorts 

 of curious questions about him, whether he is not as old as 

 the mountains, whether he cannot bring the dead to life, 

 and I have no doubt for many years after his death he will 

 be looked upon as a deity and expected to come back again. 

 I have now seen a good deal of Sir James, and the more I 

 see of him the more I admire him. With the highest talents 

 for government he combines the greatest goodness of heart 

 and gentleness of manner. At the same time he has such 

 confidence and determination, that he has put down with the 



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