CHAPTER XXXYn. 



TEE ABORIGINES OF BORISrEO. 



Civilization an Exterminator of Savage Races. — Stability of the Dvaks. — Tlie 

 Survival of the Fittest. — The Typical Dyak.— Four Great Tribes. — JA*! 

 Kyans. — Their Strength and Distribution. — Tribe Misnamed Milanau. — 

 General Characteristics. — Mechanical Skill. — Modes of Warfare. — Aggres- 

 siveness. — Cannibalism of certain Sub-tribes. — Tattooing. — Ideas of a 

 Future State. — Human Sacrifices. — Houses. — Tite Ilill Dyaks. —Y)\&ir\- 

 bution.— Takers of Head Trophies. — Fighting Qualities. — Physique. — 

 Dress and Ornaments. — A Curious Corset. — Weapons — Houses. — The 

 Pangah. — Social Life. — Strict Morality without Religion. — Prohibition of 

 Consanguineous Marriages. — Marriage Ceremony. — Honesty. — Disposal of 

 the Dead. — A Relic of Hindooism.^ — Ideas of a Supreme Being and Future 

 State. — The Mo7xgol Dyaks. — Remains of Former Chinese Influence. — An 

 Advanced Tribe. — Position. — Physique. — Dress. — Houses. — Skill in Agri- 

 culture. — Implements of Husbandry. — Independent but Peaceful. — The 

 Muruts. — Dress and Ornaments. — Houses. — The Kadyans. — Comparative 

 Estimate of the Four Great Dyak Tribes. 



Savage tribes deteriorate morally, physically, and numerically, 

 according to the degi*ee in which they are influenced by ci\'iliza- 

 tion. Those which yield most readily to the mUd blandishments 

 of the missionary, the school-teacher, and the merchant are the 

 first to disappear from the face of the earth. Behind the philan- 

 thropical pioneer of Christian ci^'ilization, even though he bears in 

 his hands only the Bible and spelling-book, there lurks a host of 

 modem vices and diseases more deadly than the spears and poi- 

 soned arrows of the savage. To improve a savage race is to weaken 

 it ; to wholly civilize and convert it is to exterminate it altogether. 

 Like the wild beasts of the forest, the children of nature disappear 

 before the grinding progress of civilization.* 



* This has proven true in perhaps more than ninety per cent, of all cases 

 in point. Occasionally, however, a savage tribe is found possessed of suffi- 

 cient moral strength and tenacity of purpose to withstand the first great 

 shock of contact with the powerful forces of civilization, and to survive in- 

 definitely thereafter. Such tribes as are thus fitted by nature to absorb the 



