Dayak

“ If a Dayak lose his wife, he gives a feast, which is really an offering to the departed spirit. After the death of relatives, they seek for the heads of enemies, and until one is brought in they consider themselves to be in mourning, wearing no fine clothes, striking no gongs, nor is laughing or merry-making in the house allowed ”

“ They delight in war and bloodshed, and always come down to be present at the Dayak “head-feast.” They are described as of a fierce and wild appearance, and covered with hair like an ourang-outang. The Umot spirits are divided into classes. There is the “Umot Sisi,” a harmless [240] kind of spirit which follows the Dayak to look for the fragments of food which have fallen through the open flooring of their houses, and who is heard at night munching away below; “Umot Perubak,” who causes scarcity among the Dayaks by coming invisibly and eating the rice from the pot at meal time ”

“ They resembled a lot of small children and would beat their gongs simply to amuse themselves. Very often a Dayak, on returning from his work or a hunt in the jungle, would walk straight up to a large gong that was hanging up and hammer on it for a few minutes in a most businesslike way, looking all the time as if it bored him. ”

“ The Dayak is so active, and so [147] accustomed to the work, that he seldom thinks of doing more than felling a small tree, clearing it of its branches, and throwing it across the smaller streams as a bridge, except after harvest, when carrying home the rice, a slight railing is added to give steadiness to his movements.
The village of Grung is prettily situated near a small and clear stream, and is surrounded by dense groves of fruit-trees, particularly of durians, while occasionally the graceful areca palm rises near the houses. ”

“ When any one dreams of a distant land, as we exiles often do, the Dayaks think that our souls have annihilated space, and paid a flying visit to Europe during the night. Elders and priestesses often assert that in their dreams they have visited the mansion of Tapa, and seen the Creator dwelling in a house like that of a Malay, the interior [190] of which was adorned with guns and gongs and jars innumerable, Himself being clothed like a Dayak.
A dream of sickness to any member of a family always ensures a ceremony ”

“ Before being placed on the gables a sacrifice had been offered and the carvings had been smeared with blood—in other words, to express the thought of the Dayak, as this antoh is very fierce when aroused to ire, it had first been given blood to eat, in order that it should not be angry with the owner of the house, but disposed to protect him from his enemies. While malevolent spirits do not associate with good ones, some which usually are beneficent at times may do harm, and among these is one, the nagah, that dominates the imagination of many Dayak tribes. ”

“ My first real acquaintance with the Sea Dayak was in the long bazaar at Sibu, and I was by no means disappointed in my first impressions, as I found him a most picturesque and interesting individual. The men usually have long black hair hanging down their backs, often with a long fringe on their foreheads. Their skin is brown, they have snub noses but resolute eyes, and they are of fine proportions, though they rarely exceed five feet five inches in height. ”

“ Applied to the Sea Dayaks alone has the statement an element of truth. Among them to have taken a head does commonly enhance a wooer's chances of success, and many Sea Dayak girls and their mothers will taunt a suitor with having taken no head, but few of them will make the taking of a head an essential condition of the bestowal of their favour or of marriage. ”

“ The women busied themselves in preparing dinner, stimulated by the appetites of their lords and masters. But when they came to wash and boil their rice, the staple constituent of a Dayak meal, water was wanted. No one had thought of this. From the moment they had left soengei Mantarat not a single brook or rivulet or spring had been met with. They were in a sad strait, when a few Dayaks and Poenans, acting on their instinct, penetrated the wilderness whence they soon brought some pitcher-plant cups containing the purest water. ”

“ The Sea-Dayak inhabits the Batang Lupar, Saribas, Kalaka, and Rejang rivers. They are gradually spreading into the rivers of the north-east, and there are now a good many in the Oya, Muka, Tatau, and Baram districts.
SEA-DAYAK CHIEF.
(The Pengulu Dalam, Munan)
A Sea-Dayak is a clean built man, upright in gait, not tall, the average height being 5 ft. 3 inches. The nose is somewhat flat, the hair straight with no curl in it. The face is generally pleasing from the frankness and good nature that show in it. The women have good figures, light and elastic ”

“ Of Dayaks there are, as already stated, two sorts, the Land-Dayak and the Sea-Dayak, the first of Indonesian, the second of proto-Malay stock. The former are a quiet, timid, industrious people, honest, and by no means lacking in intelligence, living on hill-tops to which they have fled from their oppressors; the latter throve on piracy, having been brought to this by the Muhammadan Malays and the half-bred Arabs. But even among the Sea-Dayaks a few tribes had not been thus vitiated, and upon these the late Rajah could always rely for support. ”

“ The segregation of the Sea Dayak villages seems to be due to the truculent treacherous nature of the Sea Dayak, which renders him obnoxious as a neighbour to the other peoples, and leads him to feel the need of the support of his own people in large numbers. ”

“ They are an active little people.
In Sarawak these people are spoken of consistently as “Sea Dayaks,” or more generally “Dayak.” It is customary for the Dutch and other Europeans to term all the interior tribes of Borneo “Dayak,” with or without a qualifying designation. As there is such confusion of the terminology in the text-books, I consider it better to boldly face the situation and to introduce a new term to science to which a perfectly definite meaning can be applied.
Most of the Iban inhabit low-lying land ”

“ Again, among some Dayak tribes, they will make rude figures of a naked man and woman, and place these opposite to one another on the path to the farms. On their heads are head-dresses of bark, by their sides is the betel-nut basket, and in their hands a short wooden spear. These figures are said to be inhabited each by a spirit who prevents inimical influences from passing on to the farms, and likewise from the farms to the village, and evil betide the profane wretch who lifts his hand against them—violent fever and sickness would be sure to follow. ”

“ This too was effected by means of Dalim’s bottle, which soon converted their ivory into polished ebony.
“You really are too handsome for Dayaks,” said Dalim; nor was he wrong to think so, for though the Europeans exposed the broad chests and finely-developed arms and shoulders proper to their assumed caste, they lacked the crooked legs to which the inhabitants of Borneo owe their name. Dayak is really an [52] abbreviation of dadajak—to totter. With very few exceptions all the natives have bandy legs, which circumstance causes their peculiar tottering gait. ”

“ Our soldiers, some sixty in number, obtained a meal immediately in every kampong. When a Dayak goes on a journey in a friendly region he may be sure of receiving shelter and food in every house.
"They are distrustful of foreigners, but if he has gained their confidence they give assistance freely in every respect. Loving their liberty in a high degree they prefer not to be ordered. ”

“ The Sea-Dayaks are the collectors of jungle produce, in search of which they go on expeditions far into the interior—to Sumatra, the Malayan States, and North Borneo—and are away for months at a time.
The Dayak custom of head-hunting is founded on the same principle as that of scalp-hunting among the North-American Indians. A young man formerly found it difficult to obtain a wife till he had got at least one head to present 26to the object of his heart as token of his prowess ”

“ Johannes continued, “that the Dayaks of the lower country are just as great experts in the handling of their mandauws. I have witnessed at Kwala Kapoeas how, in the presence of the Colonel, any Dayak, however weak in appearance, could without visible effort divide in halves at a single blow a ripe green cocoanut, while none of the Europeans could manage to penetrate beyond the fibre.”
“It seems a curious custom to offer one’s lady-love these human heads,” Schlickeisen continued. ”

“ The Dayaks acknowledge four chief spirits: “Tapa,” who created men and women, and preserves them in life; “Tenahi,” who made the earth and, except the human race, all things therein, and still causes it to flourish; “Iang,” or “Iing,” who first instructed the Dayaks in the mysteries of their religion, and who superintends its performance; “Jirong,” who looks after the propagation of the human species, and causes them to die of sickness or accident. ”

“ The tradition of the manufacture of man out of wood instead of clay is thoroughly in keeping with an origin purely Dayak. The Dayaks never have been proficient in pottery, and to this day they carve their bowls and dishes out of hard wood, otherwise it seems to me that clay would have suggested itself to them as the most suitable substance whereof to have made man. Another item looks as if part of the story were an interpolation, namely, where it is related that the two birds were so pleased with their work after making man, that they rested ”

“ However, a few months after the birth of the infant, the Sakarang Dayaks give a feast in its honour, which generally takes place before they commence preparing their land for the rice crop, and another after the harvest to “launch the child” on the world. During these feasts the manang, or priest, waves the odoriferous areca-blossom [48] over the babe, and moves about the house chanting monotonous tunes. The festival lasts a day and a night. The Dayak women suffer very little at their confinements, and seldom remain quiet beyond a few days. ”

“ As they came up throwing spears he told his men to fire, with the result that eighteen Dayaks were killed. The river at Sibu was of great width, over a mile across, in fact, and close to the bank is a Malay village, and a bazaar where the wily Chinaman does a thriving trade in the wild produce of the country, and makes huge profits out of the Dayaks and other natives on this river. But the Dayaks often have their revenge and attack the Chinamen with great slaughter, the result being that they take home with them plenty of yellow-skinned heads with nice long pig-tails to hang them up by. ”

“ Among the Land Dayaks of Borneo, the commonalty of spirits consists of the souls of the departed, and of such beings as dwell in the noble old forests on the tops of lofty hills, or such as hover about villages and devour the stores of rice; above these are Tapa, creator and preserver of man, 250and Iang, who taught the Dayaks their religion, Jirong, whose function is the birth and death of men, and Tenabi, who made, and still causes to flourish, the earth and all things therein save the human race. ”

“ They are equally industrious with the Sea Dayaks, and though somewhat slow and heavy in both mind and body, they are more skilled in the handicrafts than any of the other peoples. They also speak one language, which presents even less local diversity than the Sea Dayak language. ”

“ A Malay could always, and at any time, enter the house of a Dayak, and live there in free quarters as long as he pleased, insult or maltreat the wife and children of his unwilling host with impunity, and on leaving carry away with him any of the Dayak's property to which he had taken a fancy ”

“ None such devils are found in the whole of Dayak country. First, that crocodile hunt; then the fight with a boa; afterwards the heavy fire into the boats of the approaching inhabitants of the kampong. Nobody here carries such weapons. I will lay you any wager that the repeating rifles of the Colonel have played their part in all these scenes.”
“Did you tell the Colonel?”
“Not yet; he is too much taken up with the notion that the palefaces are on board that schooner. ”

“ SHAKEN collectively, the Dayak populations differ from the civilized Malays by their slim figure, lighter complexion, more prominent nose, and higher forehead. In many communities the men carefully eradicate the hair of the face, while both sexes file, dye, and sometimes even pierce the teeth, in which are fixed gold buttons. ”

“ As usual among the Malays, from whom the Dayaks originally acquired these domestic birds, interest centres in the males on account of the prevalent cock-fights, and the hens are in a very decided minority. For the night the feathered tribe settles on top of the houses or in the surrounding trees. Hens with small chickens are gathered together in the evening by the clever hands of the Dayak women, hen and brood being put into an incredibly small wicker bag, which is hung up on the gallery for the night. Otherwise carnivorous animals, prowling about, would make short work of them. ”

“ For this the young men have been mostly to blame, who, when away in the remote interior collecting jungle produce, and beyond even the weak control of their own chiefs, meeting with detached parties of their old foes take such opportunities of gaining renown as warriors, which awaits the return of a Dayak with a head trophy, however meanly obtained. Indiscriminate retaliation follows in the train of these acts, the victims being the first Dayaks met with, nearly always men guiltless of any hostile act, and often peaceable produce collectors from other parts of the country. ”