232 CUSTOMS COMMON TO THE IIIIjJj TRIBES BORDERING ON 
our intention to avoid reviewing the results of these and other re* 
cent contributions to the ethnography of Eastern Asia and the 
Archipelago until a considerable mass of new facts shall have 
been accumulated iu the pages of the Journal. In the meantime 
we think we shall perform an acceptable service to many of our rea¬ 
ders whose isolated position deprives them of the means of keeping 
themselves informed of the accessions that are being made to tins 
subject through other channels, if we from time to time notice the 
most interesting of these. 
Our prefatory remarks will have prepared our readers for the 
importance which we attach to the first work we proceed to notice 
A sketch of Assam with some account of the hill tribes.” The 
very, brief details respecting the latter are so rich in the promise of 
results for the ethnography of the Indian Archipelago that we ar¬ 
dently hope the author will ere long furnish that more full and 
minute description which is essential for purposes of comparison, 
and which he is evidently well qualified to write. Brief as his pre¬ 
sent contribution is, it enables us to trace some of the most striking 
customs of the aborigines of the Archipelago from New Guinea 
through Borneo up to a more northerly point than we could pre¬ 
viously do. 
Amongst these tribes we find some of the most remarkable habits 
of the Dayak repeated. Amongst the Nagas as amongst the Dayak 
and Batta the death of an enemy is not the satisfaction of revenge 
but merely the means towards it. The end is the possession of the 
dead body. The Dayak carefully preserves and makes a display and 
boast of the heads, but the triumph of having them in his possession 
appears to satisfy him, or rather vanity supplants revenge and he 
cherishes and values them as trophies. The Battd eats the body 
and preserves the brain. In the Nagas also the gratification of re¬ 
venge predominates. When they resolve to attack a village they 
surround it stealthily at night and lie in wait till the first cock crow, 
when they rush into it with great shouting and cut up every living 
thing even to the cattle and fowls. They carry back to their home 
the heads, hands and feet of their enemies, parade them from 
i 
