HEAD-HUNTING 253 



Head-hunting raids may include assaults on kampongs, 

 but very often they are cowardly attacks on small groups 

 of unsuspecting people, men, women, and children. The 

 heads thus secured appear to be as highly valued as those 

 acquired under more heroic conditions. The fact is also 

 noteworthy that the heads of Malays are appreciated, 

 but, with few exceptions, not those of white people. Sev- 

 eral times I heard of Malay rattan or rubber gatherers who 

 had been disposed of in that way. The head is severed 

 by one stroke. 



As a typical case of head-hunting I give the following 

 description of a raid which, twelve years previous to my 

 visit, was made by ten Bukats upon a small party of 

 Saputans who were on a babi hunt. Among the Penyah- 

 bongs, Saputans, Punans, and Penihings a woman may ac- 

 company her husband or another man on the chase, carry 

 a spear, and assist in killing pig or deer. Bear she does 

 not tackle, but, as my informant said, "even all men do 

 not like to do that." She also carries her own parang, 

 with which she may kill small pigs and cut down obstacles 

 in her path. The hunting-party, one man and three 

 women, had been successful. The babi had been killed 

 with spears and, in accordance with custom, the head had 

 been cut off with a parang. The carcass had been cut up 

 and the three women carried the meat in the coarse- 

 meshed rattan bags on their backs, while the man bore 

 the head on his shoulder, all homeward bound, when the 

 Bukats attacked them. Only one woman escaped. 



The slayers hurried off with the three heads, being 

 afraid of the people of the kampong which was not far 



