THE SEA DYAKS. 473 



gunpowder on Washington's birthday. Like most ignorant people, 

 they beUeve in e\'il spirits who haunt and annoy certain ones among 

 the Kving, and are superstitious in regard to various omens of good 

 and bad fortune. 



Their crimes can be counted on the fingers of one hand ; and 

 instances of their commission are few and far between. It must be 

 remembered that the frenzy for head collecting, which led to such 

 wholesale murder before Ihe advent of Rajah Brooke, was mainly 

 due to the instigation and encouragement of the reprobate Malays 

 who so nearly ruined the country. 



As might be expected, the Dj-aks are subject to but few dis- 

 eases, and those of a simple natui-e. The most common ailment is 

 called " corrip" {ichihi/osis), in which the epidermis of the subject 

 cracks all over the body and the edges roll up into little whitish 

 rolls. The body of a Dyak so affected has a gray appearance, and, 

 although the disease is painless, it is disagreeable to look at and 

 very difficult to cure. Fever and dysentery are both common dis- 

 eases, and also ophthalmia, which is most prevalent during the time 

 of weeding the paddy fields in September and October, at which 

 season whole tribes are sometimes attacked. If taken in time, it 

 yields to very simple remedies ; but many lose theii- sight from 

 neglecting treatment. 



Insanity is very rare, and also natural deformity of person. So 

 far as I could learn, the Dyaks are entirely free from the long list 

 of unmentionable male and female diseases which appear to have 

 been developed by the human race only at its liighest stage of 

 civilization and refinement. It is a singular, though melancholy, 

 fact that savages know nothing of venereal diseases, abortion, in- 

 fanticide, and di-unkenness, until they are introduced by the civihzed 

 nations of the earth. 



Dyak women in confinement are attended only by the old women 

 of the ti'ibe, and, as might be expected from the absence of the 

 health-destroymg clothes, food, drink, medicines, and social cus- 

 toms, which make American women weak, they are usually seen 

 going about theii* regular occupations on the third or fourth day 

 after child-birth. 



A favorite Dyak remedy for a cut, bruise, or s2Drain, is to ex- 

 pectorate a quantity of betel juice upon the part afflicted, which 

 quickly imparts to it a disgusting yellow- jaundice appearance. 



Unlike the Hill Dyaks, the people of the Sea tribe always 

 bury their dead. I did not have an opportunity to witness an in- 



