192 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap, x 



that it is not regularly practised by any Klemantan 

 tribe, but rather only on occasions which in some 

 way evoke an exceptional degree of emotional 

 excitement. Thus, in one instance known to us, 

 the Orang Bukit of the Bruni territory, having 

 lost the most highly respected of their chiefs, 

 purchased a slave in Bruni to serve as the funereal 

 victim, and, having shut him in a wicker cage, 

 killed him with a multitude of stabs, some eight 

 hundred persons taking part in the act. But even 

 this act was, it must be observed, of the nature of 

 a pious and religious rite rather than an act of 

 wanton cruelty. 



We cannot leave this subject without this last 

 word. If we are quite frank, we shall have to 

 admit that, even though the worst accounts of 

 Kayan cruelty were substantially true, such be- 

 haviour would not in the least justify the belief 

 that the Kayans are innately more cruel than 

 ourselves. If we are tempted to take this view, 

 let us remember that, after our own race had 

 professed Christianity for many generations, the 

 authority of Church and State publicly decreed 

 and systematically inflicted in cold blood tortures 

 far more hideous and atrocious than any the Kayan 

 imagination has ever conceived. 



