i8o PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



When a hostile war-party enters a section of a 

 river in which there is a number of villages of one 

 tribe or of friendly tribes, its approach may be 

 signalled throughout the district by the beating 

 of the tawak. The same peculiar rhythm is used 

 for this purpose by all the tribes, though it probably 

 has been copied from the Kayans by all the others. 

 It consists in a rapid series of strokes of increasing 

 rate upon the boss, followed by one long deep note, 

 and two shorter ones struck upon the body and 

 once repeated. Whenever this war-alarm is heard 

 in a village, it is repeated, and so passed on from 

 village to village. The people working in the 

 farms or in the jungle, or travelling on the river, 

 return at once to their villages on hearing the alarm, 

 and the houses are prepared for defence.^ When 

 the news of the approach of a hostile party has 

 been spread in this way throughout the river, it 

 has little chance of successfully attacking a house 

 or village, and it will, unless very numerous, content 

 itself with attempting to cut off some of the people 

 returning home from the farms. If the invading 

 party is very strong, it may surround a house whose 

 defenders have been warned of their coming, and 

 attempt to starve them into submission. In the 

 old days it was not uncommon for a strong party 

 of Kayans to descend upon a settlement of the 

 more peaceable coastwise people, and to extort from 

 them a large payment of brass-ware as the price 

 of their safety. If the unfortunate household 

 submitted to this extortion, the Kayans would keep 

 faith with them, and would ratify a treaty of peace 

 by making the headman of the village blood-brother 

 of their chief. 



Some features of the tactics adopted by the 

 Kayans are worthy of more detailed description. 

 If a strong party determines to attack a house in 

 face of an alert defence, they may attempt to storm 



