Mabch 23, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



189 



■ In examining the positions of the movable 

 contacts shown for coupling machine No. 2 

 for tension or qiiantitj-, it will be seen that the 

 direction of the currents is similar. 



Fig. 12 gives a perspective view of this com- 

 mutator. The contacts are covered with an 

 ebonite plate, through which passes the handle 

 for manipulating the movable plate. This 

 ebonite plate bears four inscriptions, corre- 

 sponding to the different combinations of the 

 commutator ; and an index moving with the 

 handle indicates the combination in use. 



TJiis system has the advantage of changing 

 instantly the grouping of the two circuits of 

 tlie same machine, and of quickly substituting 

 one machine for the other. It has, however, 

 the drawback, common to all turning-contacts, 

 of not being absolutely reliable. 



THE HEAD-HUNTERS OF BORNEO. 



In an octavo volume of three liundred and thirty- 

 seven pages, Carl Bock describes liis journeyings into 

 the interior and across the island of Borneo and in 

 the island of Sumatra. The trip across Borneo, of 

 which the book mainly treats, was undertaken at the 

 instance of the governor of the Dutch Indies, for the 

 purpose of making a report upon tlie native races of 

 the interior, and of gathering collections of the fauna. 



Tlie author desci'ibes well; and those who read for 

 amuseuient and general information will not only 

 find the book entertaining, but will derive an excel- 

 lent idea of the chief feattn-es of Bornean scenery, of 

 its strange animal life, of the character and peculiari- 

 ties of tlie natives, and of many curious phases of 

 human life under the exceptional conditions of this 

 tropical island. Scattered through the first fifteen 

 chapters, or what may be fitly termed the diary of the 

 trip, are very many interesting facts and observations 

 of vahie to the anthropologist. But tlie subsequent 

 chapters more particularly interest liim, being devoted 

 to a consideration of the province of Koetoei, and 

 of the Dyak tribes inhabiting it. The second part 

 treats of a limited sojourn in Sumatra, and is by far 

 the less important, as it is the smaller portion of the 

 volume. 



Borneo is stated to be inhabited by Malays, Boegis, 

 a couple of liundred Chinamen, and a few Klings, 

 and by Dyaks. The Malays are chiefly confined to 

 the coast. The Boegis, emigrants from the south 

 partof the Celebes, are settled in one district (Koetoei), 

 ' where they are getting numerous and powerful.' The 

 Dyaks, who are split up into numerous independent 

 and hostile tribes, occupy the interior of the islaml. 



Perhaps the most important contribution to anthro- 

 pologic knowledge made by Mr. Bock, is his account 

 of tlie Orang Poonans, or forest people, wliom he 

 believes to be tlie aboriginal inliabilants of Borneo, 

 and who are not only distinct from the neighboring 

 Dyaks, but, in their intercourse with them, do not 

 appear to have adopted their habits. Meeting some of 

 the Poonan men at Long Wai, a Dyak village, he suc- 

 ceeded in inducing one of the chiefs to escort him 

 to his forest liome, wliere, however, his observations 

 were limited to a single afternoon. According to the 

 picture presented by the author, the Poonans would 

 seem to be in the lowest stage of savagery. He found 

 them almost destitute of clothing, without pottery, 



with few utensils (and of the simplest khid); and he 

 confirms the belief, current in the island, that they 

 build no dwellings properly so called, but live day 

 and night in the open air, witli no better shelter in 

 sliowery weather than that afforded by an attap mat. 

 It is possible that a longer and more intimate ac- 

 quaintance with this wild people would have led to 

 the discovery of tokens of a higher culture. The 

 skin of the Poonans, particularly of the women, now 

 seen by a European for the first time, is ' somewhat 

 fairer than that of the other Dyaks,' — a result, as the 

 autlior doubtless correctly surmises, of their residing 

 in the dark forest. 



A curious industry of the people is the collection of 

 bezoar stones, wliich are used by the Cliiiiese as a 

 cure-all. The bezoar stones are of two kinds: one is 

 derived from an external wound on a porcupine, and 

 is supposed by the author to be composed of bits of 

 leaves, etc., formed into a ball by tlie congealed blood; 

 the other is said to be a gall-stone, found in different 

 parts of the boehis monkey, Semnopithecus cristatus. 



Head-hunting, as practised by all the Dyak tribes, is 

 asserted to be, on what appears to be sufiicient evi- 

 dence, part and parcel of their religious rites. Birth 

 and namings, marriages and burials, not to mention 

 less important events, cannot be x^roperly celebrated, 

 unless the heads of a few enemies, more or less, have 

 been secured to grace the festivities or solemnities. 

 " Head-hunting," says the author, " is the keystone, 

 so to speak, in the edifice of Dyak religion and char- 

 acter. Its perpetual practice is, no doubt, one great 

 cause of the rapid extinction of the race." 



Naturally enough, a practice so deep-rooted as this, 

 lias proved, and must continue to prove, the one great 

 obstacle to be overcome in attempts to civilize the 

 Dyaks. 



While all the Dyaks are head-hunters, only one of 

 the tribes, the Bahou tribe, practises cannibalism. 

 Human flesh is eaten mainly at the feasts that follow 

 a successful head-hunting expedition. The form of 

 anthropophagy here disclosed seems to be somewhat 

 analogous to that wliich obtained among the North- 

 American Indians, not a few tribes of whom partook 

 of the flesh of enemies, especially when the individ- 

 uals slain were greatly renowned. At the same 

 time, it is stated that these cannibal feasts are also 

 given in celebration of various events, such as on the 

 occasion of the death of a chief. Moreover, not only 

 are the prisoners of war sacrificed, "but the richer 

 members of the community give a number of slave- 

 debtors (i.e., those wlio are sold into slavery to work 

 out debts) to be put to death by slow torture, and 

 eaten." 



' Poniali ' is a practice in vogue among the Dyaks, 

 and also among other natives of the Malay archi- 

 pelago, which seems to be somewhat allied in its na- 

 ture to the tabu of the South-Sea Islander; although 

 it appears to be less complex in its workings, and to 

 cover much less ground, than that curious custom. 

 As a sign that poinali is being resorted to, a bunch 

 of maize is stuck in the ground, or baskets of rice 

 are suspended from a bamboo post, when strangers 

 are prohibited from entering the house or field thus 

 pomalied. 



Tattooing was found to be a common practice among 

 the Dyaks, the women being the more elaborately 

 ornamented. The method adopted by the profes- 

 sional tattooer is to first cut outlines of the intended 

 pattern in wood, and then trace them on the body, 

 when it is pricked in with a sharp-pointed piece of 

 bamboo or a needle, dipped into a pigment prepared, 

 from vegetable dyes. Men are tattooed when they 

 attain manhood, and women when about to be mar- 



