HEAD-TAKING. 189 



accounted for it, in their usual method, by saying, that 

 it was the adat ninik, or custom of their ancestors. 



The Malays themselves, who now frequently feel its 

 bad effects upon their persons and nation, have been in 

 a great measure instrumental in encouraging this bar- 

 barous practice. During the prevalence of the Arab 

 power in Sadong under the Sereibs Sahib, Muller, and 

 their relations, and the misrule of the chiefs of Sarawak 

 during the ten or twelve years previous to Mr. Brooke's 

 arrival, these unprincipled chieftains found the practice 

 of head-taking amongst the Sakarrans might be made 

 serviceable to their interests. The poor hill Dyaks, 

 who had been previously protected from the ravages 

 of the fierce Sakarrans only by the Malays residing 

 between them and their foes, and having been robbed 

 of every thing calculated to excite the rapacity of their 

 rulers, made an effort to save their wives and daugh- 

 ters from the slavery which threatened them, by con- 

 cealing themselves in the jungle. The Sakarran Dyaks 

 were then called in by the extortionate and foolish 

 rulers, and, assisted by a party of Malays with fire- 

 arms, generally found the hill Dyaks an easy prey. 

 Thus an opportunity was presented to them of ac- 

 quiring abundance of victims, whose heads the Malayan 

 chieftains allowed them to retain, while they took all 

 the plunder, and shared the slaves. In these expe- 

 ditions, several of which occurred annually, the greater 

 part of the Dyaks of Sarawak and Sadong were at- 

 tacked, their men and women slain and decapitated 



