294 DYAK VILLAGES ON THE BANKS 



in the low lands, at the base of the hill. Some years 

 since, Mr. Brooke had occasion to demand, for the 

 purposes of justice, two of their chiefs, who had been 

 convicted of frequent murders for the purpose of 

 obtaining heads, against his repeated warnings and 

 authority. After some demur, they were given up, and 

 since that time they have been a peaceable and con- 

 tented tribe. 



On the several occasions when I visited them, they 

 were uniformly hospitable, but great beggars ; they ask 

 for every thing they see, but are as scrupulously honest 

 as the other Land tribes, never thinking of helping them- 

 selves to any thing. The penkallan, or landing-place, of 

 this tribe is about twenty- eight miles, by the river, above 

 the Malay town of Sarawak, the residence of the Rajah, 

 and capital of the province. 



About eight miles lower down the stream, and half a 

 mile inland from the right-hand bank, is situated the 

 pretty mountain of Serambo, on which three friendly 

 tribes have been long settled, and are probably but 

 divisions of one. The porphyry sides of this hill are 

 steep and rugged, and the path to the top is very 

 fatiguing. The hill is covered with fruit trees, the pro- 

 perty of the Dyaks ; and the three villages are situated 

 in beautiful groves of the cocoa-nut and betel-nut trees, 

 which, by their graceful foliage, mark the situation of 

 the houses from the river. 



Bombuck and Serambo, containing respectively fifty 

 and sixty houses, are placed about two-thirds of the 

 way up the mountain ; on the shoulder of which, near 

 the top, is the village of "Peninjow," a collection of 



