70 
NORTH BORNEO. 
ugly, and decorated with a few strings of the same beads. Their arms are tattooed 
from slightly below the shoulder to the knuckles in long, 
straight, blue lines, which give them the appearance of 
wearing long mittens. This completes the costume of a 
Murut woman, with the exception of a curious red jacket 
that is worn on special occasions only. She is often 
very dirty, and at times, like her male companions, covered 
with that horrible skin-disease known as “ kurrup,” to 
which few natives seem to object in the least. 
The house was divided down the centre by a passage 
with a door at each end. On the one side was the public 
apartment, stretching from end to end, on which several 
mud hearths were constructed; on the other the whole 
length was boarded up to the height of about ten feet, 
and divided into a number of small cubicles, each with 
its own doorway, these spaces being the private apartments of the families. Along 
this partition, above the doorways, ran two parallel bamboo poles about a foot apart: 
between these were placed at intervals over fifty human skulls, the pride and glory 
of Si’Lalang. The skulls were for the most part old and black; a few were tied 
up with rattans to prevent them falling to pieces, so they were probably collected 
by Si’Lalang’s forefathers : the newest addition had only occupied its place a few months, 
probably after the house was built, as it is the custom of most head-hunting tribes 
to celebrate the building of a house, or rather, I should say, to offer a peace-offering to their 
MURUT TROPHIES. 
spirit-world to insure freedom from illness and good fortune whilst they dwell there, by the 
acquisition of a fresh head. Many of the heads were ornamented with a boar’s tusk, which 
was stuck in the nose, the curve pointing upwards. At one end of this ghastly row was a 
