64 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. iv. 



until lie had taken the head of an enemy, and if any ill- 

 luck or death occurred in the tribe these head-hunting 

 raids were indulged in at once to appease the malignant 

 spirits which were believed to have been the cause ; or if 

 a chief's favourite wife or child died, he at once took to 

 head-hunting in a bloodthirsty spirit of revenge. 



The desire to shed blood seems inherent in all savage 

 natures, and is adhered to tenaciously even after civilisa- 

 tion has reached them, and so it happens that human 

 heads or skulls are considered the most valuable property 

 of these wild Borneans, just as the Sioux and other 

 Indians of North America still attach a peculiar value to 

 the scalp locks of their foes. Even although head- 

 hunting is gradually becoming a thing of the past in 

 Borneo, still so highly are the old skulls valued even by 

 the now peaceable tribes who have not taken a head for 

 years, that they can rarely be induced to part with them, 

 no matter how much may be offered in exchange. In 

 several Murut houses I visited near the Lawas large 

 baskets full of human crania were preserved as trophies 

 of the prowess of the tribe. 



It is very rare that anything like general open fighting 

 now takes place between the native tribes, as was for- 

 merly the case, when a party of fighting men would, after 

 marching at night only through the forests for days 

 together, steal up to the house of their foes just before 

 daylight and endeavour to set fire to it, after which the 

 place was surrounded and the men killed as they at- 

 tempted to escape, the women and children being made 

 prisoners and carried off as additions to the wealth of the 

 victors. Sometimes, however, the besieged were too 

 wary for their foes, and either boldly rushed out and 

 drove them off with loss, or formed ambuscades, into 

 which they unwittingly fell and were annihilated, or 



