THE SEA DYAKS. 465 



disadvantage. Dyak fighting was usually done at close quarters ; 

 and the courage and dash of the combatants has often excited the 

 admiration of trained European fighting men. In former times 

 the villages were mostly fortified by stockades of thick planks or 

 posts set up high all around them, while some were built on bilian 

 posts from twenty to thii-ty feet high, to be more safe from attack. 



From time immemorial, it has been the custom of Sea Dyaks, 

 HiU Dyaks, and Kyans to cut oft" the heads of slain enemies and 

 keep the cleaned skuUs as trophies. Formerly each warrior kept 

 his own trophies, and, in many clans, a Dyak girl would scorn a 

 suitor who had not taken a head. A warrior's grief at the death of 

 his wife or child could only be assuaged with a fresh head, taken 

 by himself, of course, and the death of a chief often involved a 

 regular head-hunting expedition. When a renowned wamor died 

 it was supposed that he could not rest quietly in his grave until a 

 head had been taken in his name. 



After a time, however, the custom of head-hunting incidental 

 to war degenerated into a murderous craze for making collections 

 of human skulls, regardless of the circumstances attending their 

 acquisition. It is charged that the Malays are mainly responsible 

 for this result, on the ground that they encouraged the powerful 

 tribes to attack the weaker ones, for the sake of getting as many 

 heads as possible, while the Malays, who aided and abetted the 

 pirates, took the plunder and slaves as their share of the spoil. 

 The heads were no longer regarded as trophies of individual valor 

 in the field, but all became the property of the clan as a whole, and 

 the end sought by each was to have its collection of heads surpass 

 those of its neighbors in point of nvmaber. Often all the adults of 

 a village, both women and men were swept into the vortex, the 

 children only being spared to keep as slaves. 



I think Sir James Brooke showed a greater depth of wisdom in 

 his treatment of the Sarawak natives than any one else who has ever 

 occupied a similar position. For example, instead of preaching 

 and making laws from the very first against all head-taking, and 

 thereby incurring the hostility of the Dyaks, he taught them that 

 a head trophy was an emblem of cowardice unless taken in fair 

 fight ; that to cut oflf the head of a defenceless and inoffensive per- 

 son was a wicked murder, such as no true warrior could be guilty 

 of without disgrace. This principle once admitted, it was an easy 

 task to teach them the folly and crime of warring for heads alone, 

 and to put a stop to the petty wars altogether. With due consist- 

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