CIIJIP. VI.] 



CONBITION OF WOMEN, 



91 



is that wWch he seems to think least important, and of 

 doubtful efficacy ; and yet it ia the only one that seems 

 to me capable of accounting for the state of the popula- 

 tion among the Sarawak Dyaks. The popnhition of Great 

 Britain increases so as to double itself in about fifty years. 

 To do this it is evident that eacli nmrried couple must 

 average three children who live to be luarried at the age 

 of about twenty-five. Add to tliese those who die in 

 infancy, those who never marry, or those who marry late 

 in life and have no offspring, the number of children bom 

 to each marriage must average four or five ; and we know 

 tliat famihes of seven or eight are very common, and of 

 ten and twelve by no means rare. But from inriuiries 

 at almost every I) yak tribe I %asited, I ascertained that 

 the women rarely had more than three or four childi^n, 

 and an old chief assured me that he had never known 

 a woman have more than seven. In a village consif5ting 

 of a hundred and fifty families, only one consisted of six 

 children living, and only six of five children, the majority 

 appearing to be two, three, or four. Compuring this with 

 the known proportions in European countries, it is evident 

 that the number of children to each marriage can hardly 

 average more than three or four ; and as even in civilized 

 countries half the population die before the age of twenty- 

 five, we sliould have only two left to replace their parents ; 

 and so long as this state of tilings continued, the popu- 

 lation must remain stationary. Of course this is a mere 

 iUustmlion ; but the facts I have stated seem to indicate 

 that something of the kind reaUy takes place ; and if so, 

 there is no difficulty in understanding the smallness and 

 almost stationary population of the Dyak tribes. 



We have next to inquire wJiat is the cause of the small 

 number of births and of living children in a family. 

 tJlimate and race may have something to do with tliis, 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 %vonian generally spends the whole day in 

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

 vegetables and firewood, oft«n for several miles, over rough 

 and hilly paths; and not imrtequently has to climb up 

 a rocky mountain by ladders, and i>vcr slippery stepi>ing- 



