WAR i6i 



is used by many of the Kayans in hunting, but is 

 hardly regarded as a weapon for serious use in 

 warfare. 



Beside the principal spear, two or three short 

 spears or javelins, sometimes merely pointed bars 

 of hardwood, are usually carried in the left hand 

 when an attack is being made. 



Beside the sword and the spears the only 

 weapons commonly used are heavy bars of iron- 

 wood, sharpened at both ends and flung so as to 

 twirl rapidly in the air. They are chiefly used in 

 defending houses from attack, a store of them being 

 kept in the house. For the defence of a house 

 against an expected attack, short sharp stakes of 

 split bamboo are thrust slantingly into the ground, 

 so as to present the fire-hardened tip towards the 

 feet of the oncoming foe. 



The interior peoples have long possessed a 

 certain number of European-made muskets (mostly 

 flint-locks) and small Bruni-made brass cannon, 

 obtained from the Malay and Chinese traders. 

 The latter were chiefly valued for the defence of 

 the house, but were sometimes mounted in the 

 bows of the war-boats. The difficulty of obtaining 

 supplies of gunpowder has always restricted greatly 

 the use of firearms, and in recent years the 

 European governments have strictly limited the 

 sale of gunpowder and firearms ; and even at the 

 present day any war-party commissioned by one of 

 the governments to execute any police measure, 

 such as apprehending, or burning the house of, 

 people who have wantonly killed others, has to 

 rely in the main on its native weapons. 



The equipment of the fighting-man consists, in 

 addition to his weapons, of a war-cap and war-coat 

 and shield (PL 93 and Fig. 26). The former is a 

 round closely-fitting cap woven of stout rattans split 

 in halves longitudinally. It affords good protection 



VOL. I M 



