MIGRATIONS BY LAND. 297 



When the children are old enough to shift for themselves, they 

 usually separate, neither one afterwards thinking of the other. At 

 night they sleep under some large tree, the branches of which hang 

 low : on these they fasten the children in a kind of swing. Around 

 the tree they make a fire, to keep off the wild beasts and snakes. 

 They cover themselves with a piece of bark, and in this also they 

 wrap their children. It is soft and warm, but will not keep out the 

 rain. These poor creatures are looked on and treated by the Dayaks 

 as wild beasts. Hunting parties of twenty-five and thirty go out, and 

 amuse themselves with shooting at the children in the trees with the 

 sumpit, the same as monkeys, from which they are not easily distin- 

 guished. The men taken in these excursions are invariably killed, 

 the women commonly spared, if they are young. It is somewhat re- 

 markable, that the children of these wild people, cannot be sufl[iciently 

 tamed to be entrusted with their liberty. Selgie told me, he never 

 recollected an instance when they did not escape to the jungle the 

 very first opportunity, notwithstanding many of them had been treated 

 kindly for years. The consequence is, all the chiefs who call them- 

 selves civilized, no sooner take them, but they cut off a foot, sticking 

 the stump in a bamboo of molten damar; their escape is thus pre- 

 vented, and their services in paddling canoes retained. An old 

 Dayak loves to dwell upon his success on these hunting excursions; 

 and the terror of the women and children when taken, affords a 

 fruitful theme of amusement, at all their meetings." The following 

 additional information, is, however, somewhat unexpected. After 

 speaking of the excellence of the iron and steel of the interior of 

 Borneo, and of the extent of its manufacture among the Dayak 

 tribes, Dalton continues: "Those men whom I have noticed, living 

 in a state of nature, building no habitations of any kind, and eating 

 nothing but fruits, snakes, and monkeys, yet procure this excellent 

 iron, and make blades, sought after by every Dayak ; who in their 

 hunting excursions, have in view the possession of the poor creature's 

 spear or mandow, as much as his head, improbable as it may appear." 



Above, will be found, something like evidence: That mankind, 

 have tlie ability to diffuse themselves widely over the globe, without 

 associating, and in the absence of the invention of language. 



Beginning now at the extreme West: let us consider some of the 

 barriers to such a diffusion, the means of overcoming them, and the 

 geographical position of adjoining countries. 



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