HEAD-HUNTING. 215 



saved the trophies of the prowess of his fathers. It is 

 said that the practice of head-hunting, for which pur- 

 pose alone their piratical expeditions are now under- 

 taken, has been carried so far, that a Dyak cannot 

 marry until he has at least once obtained a head. 

 The chief of the Lundu village told me that such was 

 the custom, but that in his tribe it had been dispensed 

 with, as the difficulty of getting heads was so great 

 under Mr. Brooke's government, the wars being un- 

 frequent, and cruising parties not being allowed to go 

 out. The old gentleman seemed to think it a pity that 

 a custom so calculated to inspire the men with 

 courage should be set aside from motives of humanity, 

 and is decidedly of opinion that " none but the brave 

 deserve the fair." 



On one occasion Lingir, a chief of one of the 

 Sarebas tribes, appeared at Sarawak with his head 

 shaved, and in his most desolate and ragged attire, 

 but attended by thirty-three boats, to request per- 

 mission of the rajah to attack the Dyaks of Lundu or 

 Samarhand; he gave as a reason for the strange request, 

 that his brother had died, and that he could not 

 celebrate his funeral until he had somewhere obtained 

 a head. This resembles the custom of those nations 

 who sacrificed their slaves on the funeral pile of their 

 deceased masters ; and it is said that in the countries 

 of the Kyans, which bounds that of the Sarebas 

 Dyaks on the south and east, this custom of sacrificing 

 slaves is still prevalent on the death of a chief. From 



