472 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE. 



no one to watch for thieves ? You can do this among the Dyaks, 

 and lose not one cent's worth. Even the empty tin cans and 

 boxes I threw out of the house were brought to me and shown be- 

 fore they were appropriated. And yet, had the Dyaks been West 

 Indian negroes, or even hke some white men I have known, they 

 would have stolen half my goods in perfect safety to themselves. 



I have never heard of a single instance of theft from any 

 Eui'opean, Malay, or Chinaman, committed by a Sea or Hill Dyak. 



Their most wonderful trait, however, is their faitlifulness in 

 paying their debts. If the j)eople of the village want goods, a 

 trader will give them his whole cargo, if he can get them to accept 

 it, in exchange for jungle j)roduce to be collected. The day for 

 full settlement is named by the head man, and by that day the 

 debts are all paid. What a glorious country for an honest mer- 

 chant to start business in ! 



Like theu' neighbors of the hills, the Sea Dyaks are without 

 priests and creeds or even the faintest notion of religious observ- 

 ances. Their moral laws are the product of their own evolution, 

 for we see in them no reflection of the religious customs of any of 

 the people who have thus far come in contact with them, either 

 Hindoos, Javanese, Chinese, Malays or Eiu-opeans.* Savage nations 

 usually acquire all the vices, and but very few of the virtues, of 

 the civilization which touches them, but so far the Dyaks of North- 

 ern Borneo have gone through the lire unscathed. They are yet 

 free from the grovelling idolatry and abominable religious fanati- 

 cism of the Hindoos, the sordid avarice of the Chinese, the deceit, 

 treachery, and licentiousness of the Malays, and the brandy-and- 

 sodaism of the Europeans. 



The Sea Dyaks believe there is a Supreme Spirit whom they 

 call Battara, and sometimes Jawata (both of which are Hindoo 

 names), and that the dead go to Sabyan, which is below the earth. 

 They revere the memory of a party named Biadum, who was 

 formerly a great chief among them, and at harvest time they 

 make offerings in his memory, quite after our custom of firing off 



* In asserting that the Dyaks have no religion I attach to that word the 

 meaning which is most generally recognized, viz., a system of faith and wor- 

 ship, and obedience to the laws of a Supreme Being. Although modern an- 

 thropologists have agreed to consider that belief in a Supreme Being of any 

 kind is sufficient to constitute a '♦ religion," it seems tome highly improper to 

 dignify with that name a vague, inconsequent notion which bears no fruit 

 whatever, either in worship, obedience, or even love. 



