90 



BORNEO— THE DTAKS. 



[chap, vl 



owner of the tree is not here never aeeming to cou- 

 ternplate the possibility of actin^r otherwise. Neither will 

 they take the smallest thing belonging to an European. 

 Wien living at Siindnjon, they continually came to my 

 house, and would pick up scraps of torn newspaper or 

 crooked pins that I had thrown away, and ask as a great 

 favour wiiether they might have them. Crimes of violence 

 (other than head-hunting) are almost unknoi-m ; for in 

 twelve years, under Sir James Brooke's ride, there had 

 been only one case of murder in a Dyak tribe, and that 

 one was committed by a stranger who had been adopted 

 into the tribe. In several other matters of morality 

 they rank above most uncivilizetl, and cveu above many 

 civilized nations. They are tempenite in food and drink, 

 and the gross sensuaUty of the Chinese and Malays 

 unknown among them. They have the usual fault of all 

 people in a half-savage state — apathy and dilatorincss ; 

 but, however annojing this may be to Europeans who 

 come in contact with them, it cannot be considered a very 

 grave offence, or be held to outweigh their many excellent 

 (juaUties. 



During my residence among the Hill Dyaks, I was 

 mucli struck by the apparent absence of those causes 

 which are generally supposed to check the increase of 

 population, atthongfi there were plain indications of sta- 

 tionary or but slowly increasing numbers. The conditions 

 most favourable to a rapid increase of population are, an 

 abundance of food, a healthy climate, and early marriages. 

 Here these conditions all exist. The people produce far 

 more food than they consume, and exchange the surplus 

 for gongs and brass cannon, ancient jars, and gold and 

 silver ornaments, which constitute their wealth. On the 

 whole, they appear very free from di'sease, marriages take 

 place early (tjut not too early), and old bachelors and old 

 maids are alike unknown. Why, then, we must inquire, 

 has not a greater population been produced ? "Why are 

 the Byak viUagea so small and so widely scattered, while 

 nine-tenths of the country is still covered with forest ? 



Of all the checks to population among savage nations 

 mentioned by !Maltlms — starvation, disease, war, infanti- 

 cide, immorality', and hifertility of the women — the last 



