266 FURTHER INSTANCES OF IT. 



prohibition against the flesh of deer is much less 

 strictly practised, and in many tribes totally disregarded. 

 As usual with the relics of the religion of the Brah- 

 mins, it is less prevalent on the southern than on 

 the western branch of the river of Sarawak, many of 

 the tribes of the former having totally set aside the 

 custom. In the large tribe of Singhie, it is observed 

 in its fullest extent, and is even carried so far, that 

 they will not allow strangers to bring a deer into their 

 houses, or to be cooked by their fires. The men of 

 the tribe will not touch the animal, and none but the 

 women or boys, who have not been on a war expedi- 

 tion, which admits them to the privileges of man- 

 hood, are allowed to assist the European sportsman 

 in bringing home his bag. 



It is amongst this, the Sow, and other tribes on the 

 same branch of the river, that goats, fowls, and the fine 

 kind of fern (paku), which forms an excellent vege- 

 table, are also forbidden food to the men, though the 

 women and boys are allowed to partake of them, as 

 they are also of the deer's flesh amongst the Singhie 

 Dyaks. The tribe of Sow, whose villages are not far 

 from the houses of Singhie, does not so rigorously 

 observe the practice. Old men, women, and boys may 

 eat of its flesh ; the middle-aged and unmarried young 

 men only being prohibited from partaking of it. I 

 think, however, that the practice of using the flesh of 

 the animal in question is one of recent introduction, and 

 probably first used by them in the scarcity of food, 

 in the time of the native Rajahs of Sarawak, by whom, 



