WILD TRIBES. 423 



Spirit of the universe ; and they both have in common, 

 moreover, a belief in omens, and hold certain birds in 

 veneration. With regard to the barbarous custom of 

 cutting off heads, we are told that the aboriginal inha- 

 bitants of New Guinea, the Horraforas, have precisely the 

 same practice. Dr. Coulter, an American gentleman, in 

 an account of his adventures among those people, ob- 

 serves, that they have " a horrible custom I believe pecu- 

 liar to themselves : a young man, before he can possess 

 his bride, must present her with a human head, which 

 must not be mutilated, but on careful examination of it 

 by her family, bear the true marks and ornaments of one 

 of an enemy." 



Dr. Dalton, in his " Essay on the Dyaks," speaks of 

 some wild men that inhabit the north of Borneo, who 

 neither cultivate the ground nor live in huts, but roam 

 about in a perfect state of nature ; who do not associate, 

 save when the sexes meet in the forest. When their 

 children are old enough to shift for themselves, they quit 

 their parents and pursue a similar savage and independent 

 life. They sleep under the overhanging branches of the 

 trees, make a fire to keep off the wild beasts and snakes, 

 cover themselves with a piece of bark, and are hunted by 

 the other Dyaks, who regard them with the utmost 

 contempt. These nobler Savages "shoot the children in 

 the trees with the sumpit, the same as monkeys from 

 which they are not easily to be distinguished." Dr. 

 Leyden also observes that "the lofty mountains ranged 

 on the centre of Borneo are represented as occupied by a 

 people named Punams in the very rudest state of savage 

 life." 



