BRITISH BORNEO. 93 
In British North Borneo, luckily for the Company, there is 
not, as there is in Sarawak, any one large, powerful tribe, 
whose presence might have been a source of trouble, or even 
of danger to the young Government, but the aborigines are 
split up into a number of petty tribes, speaking very distinct 
dialects and, generally, at enmity amongst themselves, so that 
a general coalition of the bad elements amongst them is im- 
possible. | 
The institution and amusement of head-hunting appears 
never to have been taken up and followed with so much energy 
and zeal in North Borneo as among the Dyaks of Sarawak. I do 
not think that it was asa rule deemed absolutely essential with 
any of our tribes that a young man should have taken at least 
a head or two before he could venture to aspire to the hand 
of the maiden who had led captive his heart. The heads of 
slain enemies were originally taken by the conquerors as a 
substantial proof and trophy of their successful prowess, 
which could not be gainsaid, and it came, in time, to be con- 
sidered the proper thing to be able to boast of the possession 
of a large number of these ghastly tokens; and so an am- 
bitious youth, in his desire for applause, would not be parti- 
cularly careful from whom, or in what manner he obtained a 
head, and the victim might be, not only a person with whom 
he had no quarrel, but even a member of a friendly tribe, and 
the mode of acquisition might be, not by a fair stand-up fight, 
atest of skill and courage, but by treachery and ambush. 
Nor did it make very much difference whether the head ob- 
tained was that of a man, a woman ora child, and in their 
petty wars it was even conceived to be an honourable distinc- 
tion to bring in the heads of women and children, the reason- 
ing being that the men of the attacked tribe must have fought 
their best to defend their wives and children. 
The following incident, which occurred some years ago at 
the Colony of Labuan, serves to shew how immaterial it was 
whether a friend, or foe, or utter stranger was the victim. 
A Mutrut chief of the Trusan, a river onthe mainland over 
against Labuan, was desirous of obtaining some fresh heads 
on the occasion of a marriage feast, and put to sea toa dis- 
trict inhabited by a hostile tribe. Meeting with adverse 
