DAYAK DOGS 235 



pig or other animal at bay until the men can come up 

 and kill it with spear. Some of them are afraid of bear, 

 others attack them. They are very eager to board the 

 prahus when their owners depart to the ladangs, think- 

 ing that it means a chase of the wild pig. Equally eager 

 are they to get into the room at night, or at any time 

 when the owner has left them outside. Doors are cleverly 

 opened by them, but when securely locked the dogs some- 

 times, in their impatience, gnaw holes in the lower part of 

 the door which look like the work of rodents, though none 

 that I saw was large enough to admit a canine of their 

 size. One day a big live pig was brought in from the utan 

 over the shoulder of a strong man, its legs tied together, 

 and as a compliment to me the brute was tethered to a 

 pole by one leg, while the dogs, about fifty, barked at 

 and harassed it. This, I was told, is the way they for- 

 merly were trained. As in a bull-fight, so here my sym- 

 pathy was naturally with the animal, which managed to 

 bite a dog severely in the side and shook another vigor- 

 ously by the tail. Finally some young boys gave it a 

 merciful death with spears. 



A woman blian died after an illness of five days, and 

 the next forenoon a cofiin was made from an old prahu. 

 She had not been ill long, so the preparations for the 

 funeral were brief. Early in the afternoon wailing was 

 heard from the gallery, and a few minutes later the cor- 

 tege emerged on its way to the river bank, taking a short 

 cut over the slope between the trees, walking fast be- 

 cause they feared that if they lingered other people 

 might become ill. There were only seven or eight mem- 



