DYAKS. 195 



people, they have not introduced polygamy, or, with 

 the exception of slavery, any other of their reprehen- 

 sible practices. The ceremony of marriage, as far as 

 I have learnt, is very simple, and consists merely in 

 the persons, who have previously agreed upon the 

 point, living together, and a feast being made on the 

 occasion to which all who choose may repair. Their 

 marriage feasts, like all the others, usually end in the 

 whole of the persons assembled becoming intoxicated 

 with a fermented beverage which they make from rice, 

 and which they affirm they were taught by the Chinese. 

 The state of morality amongst the Sakarran and Sam- 

 bas Dyaks is strangely more lax than in any of the 

 other tribes. It is affirmed, and they themselves have 

 frequently told me, that it is the common custom for 

 the unmarried women to have amongst the similarly 

 situated of the other sex, lovers to whom they are 

 liberal of their favours : this proceeds with the know- 

 ledge and consent of the parents for some time, but 

 if the girl should prove pregnant, the father of the 

 child must take the mother for his wife ; but if the 

 connexion should long continue without the attain- 

 ment of this desired result, the acquaintance is dis- 

 continued, and they each seek new sharers of their 

 loves. Should they not be constant to each other 

 during this stage of their intimacy, the offence, though 

 public, never becomes an occasion of scandal to 

 either person concerned, and nothing is said of it 

 except, perhaps, by the one who has been deceived. 



