CONCLUSION 423 



The different tribes of Dayaks known to me are also 

 quick of perception, intelligent, and, though varying in 

 mental ability, some of them, as the Kahayans and the 

 Duhoi, undoubtedly are capable of considerable attain- 

 ment if given the opportunity. The Dutch missionary 

 in Kasungan told me of a sixteen-year-old youth, a Du- 

 hoi, who was very ambitious to learn to read. Although 

 he did not know the letters to start with, the missionary 

 assured me that in two hours he was able to read short 

 sentences. 



It was always a pleasure to meet the unsophisticated 

 Dayaks, and on leaving them I invariably felt a desire 

 to return some day. What the future has in store for 

 them is not difficult to predict, as the type is less persis- 

 tent than the other with which it has to compete in this 

 great island domain. Ultimately these natives, who on 

 the whole are attractive, will be absorbed by the Malays; 

 the latter, being naturally of roving disposition, travel 

 much among the Dayaks, marry their women, and ac- 

 quire their lands. The Malay trader takes his prahus 

 incredibly far up the rivers. No place is so remote that 

 beads, mirrors, cotton cloth, bright bandannas, sarongs 

 for women, "made in Germany," etc., do not reach the 

 aborigines, often giving them a Malay exterior, however 

 primitive they may be in reality. The trader often re- 

 mains away a year, marries a woman whom he brings 

 back, and the children become Malays. In its assumed 

 superiority the encroaching race is not unlike the com- 

 mon run of Mexicans who insidiously use the confiding 

 Indians to advance their own interests. As Moham- 



