DYAKS. 421 



bamboo peculiar to some tribes, as the hill Dyaks of 

 Serambo and others, but have simply a sarong, which 

 extends from below the breasts to about half way dow u 

 the thigh. Like the men, they disfigure themselves by 

 wearing enormous weighty ornaments of wood, ivory, or 

 tin in the lobes of their ears. In their persons they are 

 usually engaging and well made, stately and voluptuous 

 in their gait and manner, though somewhat too en bon 

 point to please the fastidious eye of an Englishman. They 

 are reported by the Malays to be very modest, chaste, and 

 constant to their husbands. Their chief employment 

 here, as elsewhere in Borneo, is pounding and preparing 

 the padi for the sustenance of their lords and families. 

 In all the Dyak tribes, the members are usually divided 

 into those who make war, privileged men, the flower of the 

 tribe ; those who manufacture arms ; and those who cul- 

 tivate the ground and make ornaments for the women. 

 By means of the Saghai a profitable trade is carried on 

 with certain Bugis Makassars, who come in large well- 

 armed prahus from Celebes. Their traffic consists chiefly 

 of bees-wax and camphor, honey, vegetable-tallow, and 

 areca-nuts ; trepang, damma or darner, (the concrete juice 

 of Shorea robusta,} sharks'-fins, tortoise-shell, edible 

 birds' -nests, and pearls : the specimens of the latter 

 which I saw, although in some instances of large size, 

 were very indifferent in form and colour. 



Though differing in some respects from the rude and 

 savage Scythians who had their flocks and herds, the 

 Dyaks yet exhibit a pastoral wandering life, mingled 

 with warlike habits and sanguinary customs, resembling 

 those of that ancient people. Like the North American 



