HILL DYAK WOMEN. 241 



the black iju, or horsehair-like substance formerly 

 described, plaited very neatly. This, to the eye of an 

 European, is the most becoming of all their adornments, 

 the dark black of the material contrasting agreeably, 

 but not too decidedly, with the brown colour of their 

 skins. They, also, like the Sakarran Dyaks, wear their 

 sword, or parang, on the left side, and the little basket 

 (tambuck) in which are their sirih leaves, and to which 

 the knife is attached, on the right, and these, together 

 with a single ring in their ears, usually of broad flat- 

 tened wire, but frequently of the very smallest dimen- 

 sions, together with a jacket of Sakarran manufacture* 

 in wet weather, complete their clothing, ornaments and 

 accoutrements for ordinary occasions. 



The women, in appearance, differ but little from those 

 previously noticed. Being, however, used to harder 

 labour, they have not so much time to spend upon their 

 toilette, and their hair is consequently coarser and less 

 luxuriant. Some of them are fond of ornaments of opaque 

 and very small beads, which by the Semproh, Sebongoh, 

 and other tribes on the southern branch of the 

 Sarawak river, are worked into very pretty head-dresses. 

 This ornament is made of the strung beads of various 

 colours, disposed in broad transverse bands : they are 

 about four or five inches in breadth, and open at the 

 top, so that they resemble a broad fillet. 



The young girls of these tribes, also, like the men, wear 

 beads on their necks, and their arms are covered with 

 brass wire, excepting such parts as are reserved for the 

 displaying of the valued shell bracelets already mentioned, 



R 



