704 
own words: “He as founder, and myself 
as builder, of the State have been one in 
our policy throughout, from the begin- 
ning up to the present time; and now 
shortly I have to hand it to my son, and 
I hope that his policy may not be far re- 
moved from that of his predecessors.”’ 
PECULIAR FASHIONS 
The Dyak is of rather greater stature 
than that of the Malay, though he is 
considerably shorter than the average 
European. The men are well propor- 
tioned, but slightly built. Their form 
suggests activity, speed, and endurance 
rather than great strength, and these 
are the qualities most required by dwell- 
ers in the jungle. Their movements are 
easy and graceful and their carriage 
erect. The women are generally smaller 
than the men. ‘They have neat figures, 
and are bright, cheerful, and good-look- 
ing in their youth, but they age very 
soon. 
The women wear their hair tong and 
tied in a knot at the back of the head. 
Some of the women have beautiful raven 
black hair of great length. Wavy or 
curly hair is seldom seen. 
The teeth are often blackened, as 
black teeth are considered a sign of 
beauty. The blackening is done by tak- 
ing a piece of old cocoanut shell or of 
certain woods and holding it over a hot 
fire until a black resinous juice exudes. 
This juice is collected, and while still 
warm the teeth are coated with it. The 
front teeth are also frequently filed to a 
point, and this gives their face a curious 
doglike appearance. Sometimes the 
teeth are filed concavely in front, or else 
the front teeth are filed down till almost 
level with the gums. Another curious 
way of treating the front teeth is to drill 
a hole in the middle of each tooth and fix 
in it a brass stud. I was once present 
when this operation was in progress. 
The man lay down with a piece of soft 
wood between his teeth, and the “den- 
tist’”’ bored a hole in one of his front 
teeth. The agony the patient endured 
must have been very great, judging by 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
the look on his face and his occasional 
bodily contortions. ‘The next thing was 
to insert the end of a pointed brass wire, 
which was then filed off, leaving a short 
piece in the tooth; a small hammer was 
used to fix this in tightly, and, lastly, a 
little more filing was done to smooth the 
surface of the brass stud. I am told the 
process is so painful that it 1s not often 
a man can bear to have more than one or 
two teeth operated on at a time. 
The Dyaks do not like beards, and 
much prefer a smooth face. In the whole 
course of my Dyak experience | have 
only met with one bearded man. ‘The 
universal absence of hair upon the face, 
on the chest, and under the arm-pits 
might lead one to suppose that it was a 
natural deficiency. But this is not the 
case at all, as old men and chronic in- 
valids, who by reason of age or infirmity 
have ceased to care about their personal 
appearance, have often chins covered 
with a bristly growth. The absence of 
hair on the face and elsewhere is due to 
systematic depilation. The looking-glass 
and tweezers are often seen in the hands 
of the young men, and they devote every 
spare moment to the plucking out of 
stray hairs. Kapu, or quicklime, which 
is one of the constituents of betel-nut 
mixture chewed by the Dyaks, is often 
rubbed into the skin to destroy the vi- 
tality of the hair follicles. 
Among some tribes it is the fashion 
for both men and women to shave the 
eyebrows and pull out the eyelashes, and 
this gives their faces a staring, vacant 
expression. I have often tried to con- 
vince them of the foolishness of trying 
to improve upon nature in this way, and 
pointed out that both eyebrows and eye- 
lashes are a protection to the eyes from 
dust and glare. But my remarks have 
made little impression on them. Among 
the Dyaks, as elsewhere, fashions die 
hard. 
The Sea Dyak language is practically 
a dialect of Malay, which is spoken more 
or less over all Polynesiay alt is nes 
nearly so copious as other Malayan lan- 
guages, but the Dyaks do not scruple to 
