i88 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



ago only (perhaps a century and a half or even less) 

 in imitation of Kayans or other tribes among whom 

 it had been established for a longer period. The 

 rapid growth of the practice among the I bans was 

 no doubt largely due to the influence of the Malays, 

 who had been taught by Arabs and others the arts 

 of piracy, and with whom the I bans were associated 

 in the piratical enterprises that gave the waters 

 around Borneo a sinister notoriety during the 

 eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. 

 Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the 

 settlements of Ibans were practically confined to the 

 rivers of the southern part of Sarawak ; and there 

 the Malays of Bruni and of other coast settlements 

 enlisted them as crews for their pirate ships. In 

 these piratical expeditions the Malays assigned the 

 heads of their victims as the booty of their Iban 

 allies, while they kept for themselves the forms of 

 property of greater cash value. The Malays were 

 thus interested in encouraging in the Ibans the 

 passion for head-hunting which, since the suppres- 

 sion of piracy, has found vent in the irregular 

 warfare and treacherous acts described above. It 

 was through their association with the Malays in 

 these piratical expeditions that the Ibans became 

 known to Europeans as the Sea Dayaks. 



It seems not impossible that the practice of 

 taking the heads of fallen enemies arose by 

 extension of the custom of taking the hair for the 

 ornamentation of the shield and sword-hilt. It 

 seems possible that human hair was first applied to 

 shields in order to complete the representation of 

 a terrible human face, which, as we have seen, is 

 commonly painted on the shield, and which is said 

 to be valued as an aid to confusing and terrifying 

 the foe. It is perhaps a difficulty in the way of 

 this view that the use of human hair to ornament 

 the shield is peculiar to the Kenyahs and some of 



