KENYAHS AND KAYANS 75 



she does the cooking. No man has ever been known 

 to beat or kill his wife. If dissatisfied, either may leave 

 the other. The daughter of the chief at Long Mahan had 

 had three husbands. Abortive plants are used, but the 

 men do not know what they are. 



Every day I went to the kampong, and it was a 

 pleasure to visit these still primitive natives. Women, 

 as usual, were timid about being photographed, for it is a 

 universal belief that such an operation prevents women 

 from bearing children. However, by giving money, 

 cloth, sugar, or the like, which would enable them to 

 offer some little sacrifice to protecting spirits, I usually 

 succeeded. But if a woman is pregnant or has care of a 

 small child, no inducements are of any avail, as an ex- 

 posure to the camera would give the child bad luck or a 

 disease that might kill it. 



The women here had the teeth of the upper jaw in 

 front filed off, but not the men, who make plugs from 

 yellow metal wire, procured in Tandjong Selor, with which 

 they adorn their front teeth, drilling holes in them for the 

 purpose. The plug is made with a round flat head, 

 which is the ornamental part of it, and without apparent 

 rule appears in one, two, or three incisors, usually in the 

 upper jaw, sometimes in both. One of my men took his 

 out to show to me. 



The women are cleanly, combing their hair frequently 

 and bathing three times daily. The men bathe even 

 oftener; still all of them have more or less parasites in 

 their hair and frequently apply lime juice in order to kill 

 them. A young woman, whom I remembered as one of 



