282 THE DURIAN. 



forms similar to those used by the women in the other 

 dwellings of the village. 



The Pangah, being generally the best house in the 

 place, is set apart for the use of strangers visiting 

 the tribe ; and in it all the councils of the old men 

 are held, and all business connected with the welfare 

 of the people is transacted. A large drum, formed 

 of the skin of some animal, stretched upon the end 

 of a hollow tree, is placed above the heads of the 

 persons on the floor, for the purpose of apprising the 

 village of any approaching danger. From the timbers 

 which cross the house and support the slight flooring of 

 the loft, where the young men keep their sleeping-mats 

 and other things by day, usually depend the skulls 

 collected during ages, by the tribe. But on account of 

 the bloodless nature of their wars, these are seldom 

 numerous ; and frequently would not equal in number 

 the heads in the possession of a single family of the Sea 

 Dyaks. 



The villages of the Hill tribes are always, where the 

 situation has been long the residence of a tribe, 

 surrounded, to a great extent of country, by orchards 

 of the delicious fruits of these climes ; and on approach- 

 ing their houses during the season when these are in 

 blossom, or loaded with their delicate fruits, the 

 perfume exhaled by them is most grateful to the 

 traveller, who is generally not long in seating himself 

 under the dense foliage of the beautiful mangusteen, 

 or the lofty and more spreading branches of the 

 durian ; in which position the Dyaks attending, soon 



