THE SEA DYAKS. 461 



110 discredit to a Veiins de Medici. As a rule I fear I do not 

 appreciate the beauties of dark-skinned women, and I never yet saw 

 one who woukl justify even a mild form of emotional description, 

 to say nothing of the stereotyped raving in which the English lan- 

 guage is often pumped dry of adjectives with which to convey a 

 faint idea of a beautiful creature. For once, however, I was glad 

 that the Dyak women are partial to "full dress," and I looked at 

 those two forest belles with undisguised but respectful admiration. 

 I remember another young woman, in a foul-smelling village near 

 Padang Lake, whose face was precisely like that of Raj^hael's Sis- 

 tine Madonna, except that it was brownish yellow. Her extremely 

 pensive and half sad expression fastened my attention instantly. 

 She had a pretty oval face of a very different outline from the typi- 

 cal Dyak woman, and her whole expression was strangely peculiar 

 for a native. I imagine it was caused by love-sickness. 



But the Sea Dyak women in general are by no means bad-look 

 ing. Their faces are bright, intelligent, and interesting, and I dare 

 say others would call many of them pretty. As a rule they are 

 handsomer than the men. Some that I saw were so clear-skinned 

 and light as to be really a dai-k yellow, but sufficiently warmed 

 with brown to make it healthy-looking, and far from disagreeable. 

 Their eyes are always jet-black and sparkHng, and their hair, which 

 is abundant, well-kept, and drawn straight back without jDarting, 

 is hkewise glossy and black as a raven's wing. Their teeth, alas ! 

 are also black from chewing betel, which likewise reddens their 

 lips for the time being. Their busts, which are always exposed, are 

 generally plump and well-formed until old age mars all such beauty 

 and leaves the skin hanging from the shrunken sides in hundreds 

 of wrinkles and folds. The girls many at sixteen and are old 

 women at thirty. 



Ordinarily a Dyak woman's sole article of weai-ing apparel is the 

 bedang, or petticoat fastened at the waist by being tucked over and 

 under a belt of rattans dyed black, and falls within about three 

 inches of the knee. This garment is usually of native cotton cloth, 

 and sometimes very prettily figured. The women li\dng around 

 Padang Lake, and a few on the Simujan, have jackets of red or 

 brown cotton cloth with sleeves, which they always wear when at 

 work in the fields ; also wide conical hats, of Malay pattern, made 

 very pretty with fine rattan splints dyed in various colors. Both 

 hat and jacket are always worn when they go visiting, or trading 

 down the river to Simujan. The picture which I remember most 



