THEIR EA.SY CONVERSION TO ISLAMISM. 119 



300 girls and boys have frequently been brought 

 down at one time ; such of these as the chief selected 

 as likely to be suitable to his purposes were reserved, 

 the remainder were sold to whoever would buy them, 

 the chief taking a considerable share, though his ser- 

 vants who had kidnapped the poor children generally 

 contrived to cheat him of a considerable portion of the 

 produce, to which they had perhaps as good a right 

 as he. 



With regard to slavery, the Malays strangely dis- 

 regard the instructions of the Koran, which tells them 

 that no true believer can be retained in slavery, so that 

 the nations of the west are always obliged to find some 

 method of proving that their prisoners are not of the 

 orthodox faith before they keep them in slavery. The 

 Malays, on the contrary, rarely allow infidels who have 

 by any means come into their hands long to remain 

 in ignorance of the true faith. The first act of their 

 masters is to cause them all, both men and women, to 

 be circumcised ; nor do the Dyaks in general exhibit 

 the least reluctance to embrace Islamism, considering it 

 more as consisting in the use of the better clothes of the 

 Malays than as a ceremony affecting their future state, 

 of which, during their adoption of their new faith, they 

 hear very little ; but they look upon the Malays always 

 with respect, and consider that an appeal to the book 

 as the Koran is called is unanswerable, though it is 

 believed that no person residing in the town of Sarawak, 

 priest or layman, could translate a single chapter of it. 



It follows from the listlessness they display in em- 



