chap, vi.] CONDITION OF WOMEN. 143 



number of births and of living children in a family. 

 Climate and race may have something to do with this, but 

 a more real and efficient cause seems to me to be the hard 

 labour of the women, and the heavy weights they constantly 

 carry. A Dyak woman generally spends the whole day in 

 the field, and carries home every night a heavy load of 

 vegetables and firewood, often for several miles, over rough 

 and hilly paths ; and not unfrequently has to climb up 

 a rocky mountain by ladders, and over slippery stepping- 

 stones, to an elevation of a thousand feet. Besides this, 

 she has an hour's work every evening to pound the rice 

 with a heavy wooden stamper, which violently strains 

 every part of the body. She begins this kind of labour 

 when nine or ten years old, and it never ceases but 

 with the extreme decrepitude of age. Surely we need 

 not wonder at the limited number of her progeny, but 

 rather be surprised at the successful efforts of nature to 

 prevent the extermination of the race. 



One of the surest and most beneficial effects of ad- 

 vancing civilization, will be the amelioration of the 

 condition of these women. The precept and example 

 of higher races will make the Dyak ashamed of his 

 comparatively idle life, while his weaker partner labours 

 like a beast of burthen. As his wants become increased 

 and his tastes refined, the women will have more household 

 duties to attend to, and will then cease to labour in the 



