BALANCE OF HEADS. 213 



not travel into another country, which he wished to 

 visit, as their people were the enemies of his tribe ; 

 when I asked him in surprise, having supposed that 

 he was at peace with every one except the people of 

 Sakarran, he told me that in the time of his grand- 

 father the people of the other tribe had killed four of 

 his, and that in retaliation his tribe had killed three of 

 the other, so that there was a balance of one in his 

 favour, which had never been settled, nor had any 

 hostilities been carried on for many years, yet all 

 intercourse between the tribes had ceased, and they 

 could only meet in a hostile character. It is by these, 

 and similar causes, that the hill Dyaks, unable to 

 unite to form any combined plan of defence, so easily 

 fall, one by one, before the league of Sakarran and 

 Sarebas. Should peace be brought about, it may be 

 done by the tribe, which, in balancing accounts, is found 

 to have taken most heads, paying for the difference to 

 the other tribe in goods ; in this computation the value 

 of males is estimated at about twenty-five dollars, 

 5/. 4s. Zd., and females from fifteen to twenty dollars 

 each ; when the difference is thus adjusted the two 

 contracting tribes feast and dance together, and are 

 friends until some new occasion of quarrel happens, 

 and disturbs their amity. The sea-Dyaks, however, 

 rarely adjust their differences with the other tribes, 

 they having gone on so long, and their debt being so 

 large to so many tribes, that were they to attempt the 

 payment, they would find themselves bankrupts im- 



