DYAK WOMEN. ] 81 



ment of their persons it attains equal length and 

 luxuriance. 



They are, like the men, fond of ornaments of brass 

 or silver, and display them liberally on their persons ; 

 their principal article of dress is the bedang, a very 

 short petticoat of their own cotton fabric of a coarse 

 texture, and dyed of various patterns, but always of a 

 brown or black colour. This scanty garment reaches 

 from the hips to the knees, and is sustained in its 

 position by being tucked in and fastened by a belt of 

 fine brass chain-work, with a clasp, which encircles it ; 

 amongst those tribes that are richer than others, 

 silver chain is often substituted for brass, and amongst 

 the poorer ones, split rattans, coloured, or black, are 

 frequently used : above and round this belt, and the 

 upper part of the bedaug, are innumerable folds of 

 chain of brass, silver, and rattans, and when the 

 wealth of the individuals will admit of it, strings of 

 small silver coins are employed. 



Their necks and breasts usually support numbers of 

 folds of the same materials, with the occasional addition 

 of beads ; but these they do not so much esteem as the 

 Dyaks of the hills : their arms are adorned with brace- 

 lets of silver very neatly made, being formed of thin 

 plates of a broad and convex shape, so that they 

 stand out from the arm ; they have the patterns 

 stamped upon them from the inside, and wear them 

 from the wrist up the arm to the elbow, eight or 

 nine in number; they do not, like the women of 



