liv 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES &C. 
what I thought of it, as I had been closely observed while question¬ 
ing him as to a few items ; but, before he could make a reply, ano¬ 
ther answered, from general knowledge of our principles, “ dosa, 
ujara.” “It’s sin, he says”; of course, it was said with a made up mirth 
from the speaker, but no other joined him. If a Dyak, in travel¬ 
ling, sees the fall of a dead tree, he may not go forward, evil is before 
him ; and I am told that a case occurred, a few months ago, con¬ 
firming the people in their tenacity of hold. A Dyak, going 
with our Malay washerman to Pontianak in April last, witness¬ 
ed such a fall, when a few miles only from this place, and express¬ 
ed his fears repeatedly ; a few days were spent at Pontianak and 
on a wedding occasion, which the Malay had gone down to attend, 
his father’s house was burned. It is observable that the two races, 
as represented here, are about equally credulous, nor am I sure that 
many of the Malays are not far more obstinately blind in their en¬ 
slavement. A Dyak can shake off his superstition when travelling 
with us (I do not speak of all,) and I have myself determined an 
issue against the “ burukn tulah” without looking up seven strands, 
or in any way canvassing the matter; nor have I any doubt that the 
man felt more force put upon his back (in being required to remount 
the basket he had set down in affright) than upon his conscience. 
iSo, too, with their law imposing a fine for chopping wood as a 
white man would—said law requiring one stroke oblique, the other, 
vertical : hewing out a V. is punishable if an informer will act in 
the case, but I have known two, who could trust each other, to take 
the shorter course. If however, a large trunk, or small one, were 
so cut and left, so that other Dyaks should see the proof, inquiry 
would be made, or, if none would incur the enmity of the guilty 
one by ferreting out the doer,' all passers by would instantly note 
the innovation, and wonder who had done it. Except, however, in 
preparing ladangs, they never cut a log, here, but for wages : if one 
■obstructs the river they tell us of it, and are, in such case, glad to 
clear the stream, for their own use chiefly,—the intervals of rest 
being doubly refreshing, when working by the day. No person can 
have failed, I think, to observe the powers of observation manifested 
bv the hireling to whom the shadow of the sun is a chief interest— 
what topics of conversation spring to mind, if two be werking toge¬ 
ther ; and, if the employer draw nigh, how respectfully they court 
& few words with him, in hope that one subject may attach yet others 
to itself,—how desirous, should a leaping fish or a passing swarm of 
