SOOLOO. 361 



particularly applied to those who live in the southern section of 

 Borneo. To the north they are called Idaan or Tirun, and those so 

 termed are best known to the Sooloos, or the inhabitants of that part 

 of the coast of Borneo over which the Sooloos rule. In personal 

 appearance, the Dyacks are slender, have higher foreheads than the 

 Malays, and are a finer and much better-looking people. Their hair 

 is long, straight, and coarse, though it is generally cropped short round 

 the head. The females are spoken of as being fair and handsome, and 

 many of those who have been made slaves are to be seen among the 

 Malays. 



In manners the Dyacks are described as simple and mild, yet they 

 are characterized by some of the most uncommon and revolting cus- 

 toms of barbarians. Their government is very simple; the elders in 

 each village for the most part rule ; but they are said to have chiefs 

 that do not differ from the Malay rajahs. They wear no clothing 

 except the maro, and many of them are tattooed, with a variety of 

 figures, over their body. They live in houses built of wood, that are 

 generally of large size, and frequently contain as many as one hundred 

 persons. These houses are usually built on piles, divided into compart- 

 ments, and have a kind of veranda in front, which serves as a commu- 

 nication between the several families. The patriarch, or elder, resides 

 in the middle. The houses are entered by ladders, and have doors, 

 but no windows. The villages are protected by a sort of breastwork. 



Although this people are to be found throughout all Borneo, and 

 even within a few miles of the coast, yet they do not occupy any part 

 of its shores, which are held by Malays, or Chinese settlers. There 

 is no country more likely to interest the world than Borneo. All 

 accounts speak of vast ruins of temples and palaces, throughout the 

 whole extent of its interior, which the ancestors of the present inha- 

 bitants could not have constructed. The great resemblance these 

 bear to those of China and Cambojia has led to the belief that Borneo 

 was formerly peopled by those nations ; but all traditions of the origin 

 of these edifices have been lost; and so little is now known of the 

 northern side of Borneo, that it would be presumption to indulge in 

 any surmises of what may have been its state during these dark ages. 

 Even the Bugis priests, who are the best-informed persons in the 

 country, have no writings or traditions that bear upon the subject ; and 

 the few scattered legends of Eastern origin, can afford no proof of the 

 occurrence of the events they commemorate in any particular locality. 



The accounts of the habits of the Dyacks are discrepant. Some 

 give them credit for being very industrious, while others again speak 

 of them as indolent. They are certainly cultivators of the soil, and 



vol. v. 2F 46 



