142 BORNEO— THE DYAKS. [chap, vi 



average three children who live to be married at the age 

 of about twenty-five. Add to these those who die in 

 infancy, those who never marry, or those who marry late 

 in life and have no offspring, the number of children born 

 to each marriage must average four or five ; and we know 

 that families of seven or eight are very common, and of 

 ten and twelve by no means rare. But from inquiries 

 at almost every Dyak tribe I visited, I ascertained that 

 the women rarely had more than three or four children, 

 and an old chief assured me that he had never known 

 a woman have more than seven. In a village consisting 

 of a hundred and fifty families, only one consisted of six 

 children living, and only six of five children, the majority 

 appearing to be two, three, or four. Comparing this with 

 the known proportions in European countries, it is evident 

 that the number of children to each marriage can hardly 

 average more than three or four ; and as even in civilized 

 countries half the population die before the age of twenty- 

 five, we should have only two left to replace their parents ; 

 and so long as this state of things continued, the popu- 

 lation must remain stationary. Of course this is a mere 

 illustration ; but the facts I have stated seem to indicate 

 that something of the kind really takes place ; and if so, 

 there is no difficulty in understanding the smallness and 

 almost stationary population of the Dyak tribes. 



We have next to inquire what is the cause of the small 



