174 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



bloody battle is the natural outcome ; and it is 

 under these circumstances that the most severe 

 fighting takes place. But here again it is seldom 

 that any large proportion of either party is slain ; 

 for the dense jungle everywhere offers abundant 

 opportunities of concealment to those who con- 

 descend to seek its shelter, and there are few, even 

 among the Kayans and Kenyahs, who will fight to 

 the bitter end, if the alternative of flight is open to 

 them. 



A successful war-party returning home makes 

 no secret of its success. The boats are decorated 

 with palm leaves {daun isang), and a triumphal 

 chorus is raised from time to time, especially on 

 passing villages. As the villagers come out to 

 gaze on them, those who have taken heads stand 

 up in the boats. The heads, slightly roasted, are 

 wrapped up in palm leaves and placed in baskets 

 in the stern of the boat. If the return home involves 

 a journey of several days, the victors will, if possible, 

 pass the nights in the houses of friendly villages, 

 where they are made much of, especially those 

 who have taken heads ; and on these occasions the 

 glamour of victory is apt to turn the heads of some 

 of the women and to break down the reserve that 

 modesty normally imposes upon them. 



On approaching their own village, whither the 

 rumour of their success usually precedes them, 

 the war-party is received with loud acclamations, 

 the people coming down to the riverside to receive 

 them. Before they ascend to the house, the heads 

 have to be safely lodged in a small hut specially 

 built for their reception ; and the young boys are 

 brought down to go through their first initiation 

 in the arts of war. Each child is made to hold 

 a sword and, with the assistance of some aged 

 warrior, to strike a blow at one of the newly captured 

 heads. The older boys, some nine or ten years 



