miscellaneous notices, &c. 
sxiv 
would willingly accept at even a nominal cost. Of tins latter class 
a case occurred in 1846, wherein a non-compliance, in part, with the 
exaction, entailed upon the head man of a miserable hamlet a fine of 
120 rupees. Let this suffice, for the present, as to general condi¬ 
tion. Amid all this social degradation, however, there is spirit, there 
is pride: we may, in the progress of our notices, find the Dayak 
evincing hospitality, intelligence and kindly affections. 
HABITS, CEREMONIES, SUPERSTITIONS, &C. 
A marriage-ceremony I have never attended, but am informed 
that it differs in no essential of form from that of the Malay : the 
obligations of that alliance are often contracted before the age of 
puberty. In a case of divorce of the character which our scriptures 
warrant, the injured party receives a sum of money adjudged by a 
committee of “ di ama” (old folk ,—in such a case, males) : where 
separation is the result of lesser causes, the repudiating party pays 
a small amount, at the discretion of the judges. Where the inves¬ 
tigation of a charge of adultery establishes the criminal act of a wife, 
her husband recovers damages from the destroyer of his peace, and 
straightway feasts the court: and here I am sorry to add that one 
husband whom the notoriety of a trial has, on two several occasions, 
pronounced an injured man, is tolerated by public opinion in retain¬ 
ing as a wife the frail decoy that has thus put money in his purse. 
The voice of this fact is loud and clear. The “ damages” awarded 
may be one to two dollars, and as the offender can only secure that 
sum, in most cases, by unusual industry or by employment from us, 
and as interest and sympathy prompt his fellows to conceal from us 
such a fact, which would close the easier resource against him, it is 
highly possible that the frequency of such cases is not fully known* 
In one case, where both the guilty parties were married persons, it 
was decided that should the man elect (as at first seemed probable) 
to leave his own wife and children and take the paramour as liis part¬ 
ner, the option was open to him for a sum equivalent to about eigh¬ 
teen dollars, to the be paid to the worse than bereaved husband and his 
