Diwan

“ It is even more. No Dyak woman would marry a man who could not decorate their home with at least one human head. Often bands of Dyaks, numbering from five to seven thousand, would sally forth from their fortifications and cruise along the coast four or five hundred miles, to surprise a village and carry the inhabitants’ heads back in triumph.
To-day head-hunting is practically stamped out, as is running amok among the Malays, although cases of each occur from time to time.
As his subjects in the jungles were head-hunters, so those of the coast were pirates. Every harbor was a pirate haven. ”

“ Diwata made the sun, the moon, the stars, and the rivers. First he made the great eel (kasili) , a fish that is like a snake in the river, and wound [31] it all around the world. Diwata then made the great crab (kayumang) , and put it near the great eel, and let it go wherever it liked. Now, when the great crab bites the great eel, the eel wriggles, and this produces an earthquake.
When the rain falls, it is Diwata throwing out water from the sky. When Diwata spits, the showers fall. The sun makes yellow clouds, and the yellow clouds make the colors of the rainbow. ”

“ A shark had been swimming round the gun-boat during Divine service that day, and an alligator had taken a man only the day before from a boat close by. My dear husband's comment on [85] this narrow escape is, "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with mercy and lovingkindness."
The fleet waited for some days in the Linga River, while the Balow Dyaks fetched the jars which they were to exchange with the Sakarrans as a pledge of peace. These jars, of which every Dyak tribe possessed some, are of unknown antiquity. ”

“ The women I meet simply draw their sarongs more closely about their heads as the sun ascends higher and higher into the heavens, and go clattering off down the road in their wooden pattens, unconscious of my envy or wonderment.
The sarong is more to the Malay than is [73] the kilt to the Scotchman. It is his dress by day and his covering at night. He uses it as a sail when far out from land in his cockle-shell boat, or as a bag in which to carry his provisions when following an elephant path through the dense jungle. ”

“ Scarcely has one left the Java Sea—which is, as it were, an inland sea between Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and the archipelago of small islands between both of the last named—than, in the blue waters of the easterly part of the East Indian Archipelago, nature assumes a bolder aspect, more in harmony with the great depth of the ocean. The beauty of the Java Sea, and the delightful phenomena which air and ocean display, have here ceased. ”

“ Long was the island, and wide, and in the midst an immense open green. Upon this green were to be seen many hoof-prints of horses, and these were very large, every hoof-print as big as a ship's sail. Moreover, lying on the ground were nuts as big as headpieces, and remains of all kinds, vast and monstrous in size, as though giants had gone a-plundering and left their scattered spoil. So German and Diuran were much afraid, and, calling to their comrades in the boat to behold these things, they hastily returned, and sail was set that they might flee swiftly if need be. ”

“ From Tanjong Datu, as far as the river Rejang, the interior populations are called Dyaks—Land or Sea Dyaks—the former, a quiet, agricultural people, living in the far interior, plundered and oppressed by the Malays; they are to be found in Sarawak, Samarahan and Sadong. The Sea Dyaks were much more numerous, and though under the influence of the Malays and Arab adventurers, were too powerful ever to be ill-treated. ”

“ The sea Dyaks are so called from their inhabiting the sea-coast east of the Sadong district, as far as the Rejang river, though some are to be occasionally met with far inland. These, who are the most numerous of any Dyaks, are at the same time the bravest and most warlike, and in former days were greatly addicted to piracy and head hunting. They are of a dark copper colour, and although not tall men are wonderfully strong and well-built, and will endure a great amount of fatigue. ”

“ This reverential love of the natives is the one thing which does not admit of a doubt. The proofs are constant and irresistible. Some years since a lady with a few attendants was pushing her boat up a Bornean river, many leagues away from Sarawak, when she encountered a wild Dyak tribe on a warlike expedition. The sight of more than a hundred half-naked savages, crowning a little knoll which jutted into the river a half-dozen rods in advance of her boat, dancing frantically like maniacs, brandishing their long knives, and yelling all the while like demons, was not cheering. ”

“ Thus in the Bible story only the 'stump' or fish's tail of Dagon was left to him. In some of the Ninevite sculptures of this deity, the head of the fish forms a kind of mitre on the head of the man, while the body of the fish appears as a cloak or cape over his shoulders and back. This is a sure sign to the mythological student that a god so adorned is in process of quitting the animal for the human form. ”

“ There is often something effeminate and timid about the look of a man of Java, but you would never forget to treat a Dyak with the courtesy due from one gentleman to another gentleman who happened to be well armed and to have a look of cool independence about him. Once I saw a European strike a Javanese, calmly, accurately, and with contumely, and then stride on slowly as though nothing had happened. If he had so behaved to a Dyak he would have become an unsightly object on the instant. There is certainly a Malay type, to be recognized throughout the islands. ”

“ Having done this, he retired fiercely, and entering again into the aperture, it closed, and the wall appeared just as it did before.
“After what I have seen,” said the sultan to the vizier, “‘it will not be possible for me to be easy; these fish, without doubt, signify something extraordinary.” He sent for the fisherman, and when he came, said to him: ‘‘Fisherman, the fish you have brought us make me very uneasy; where did you catch them?” “Sir,” answered he, “I fished for them in a lake situated betwixt four hills, beyond the mountain that we see from hence.” “know’st thou not that lake?” ”

“ Java, Sumatra, and Borneo are separated from each other, and from the continent of Asia, by a shallow sea less than six hundred feet in depth, and must at one time have been connected by continuous land to allow of the elephant and tapir of Sumatra and Borneo, the rhinoceros of Sumatra and Java, and the wild cattle of Borneo and Java, to spread from the continent to these now sea-surrounded lands, as none of these large animals could have passed over the arms of the sea that now separate them. ”

“ The dinghis—little boats which ply backwards and forwards all day carrying passengers to and from Calcutta—had all been made fast for the night. Some of the boatmen were cooking their evening meal, while others sat about on the decks smoking and singing. Many of the boats were wedged close together and drawn up on to the bank.
But one lay well in the water and some distance from its fellow-craft. Its manjhi (headman) stood on the stern deck, binding together the mat roof of his boat. His seemingly careless gaze took in the Brahman, about to descend the bank. ”

“ LAST YEARS AT SARAWAK.
Mr. Chalmers' Merdang Dyaks once said to him, "See how many races of people there are: Dyaks, Malays, Klings, Chinese, English. They have all different religions: this is proper, for God has given to each the religion suited to them."
I remembered this ingenious remark when I was reading Mr. Helms's interesting book, just published, "Pioneering in the Far East." He says: "Like most barbarous and savage nations, the Dyak identifies his gods and spirits with the great phenomena of nature, and assigns them abodes on the lofty mountains. ”

“ We instantly let go our anchor, being in a rapid current or tide-way, in seventeen fathoms upon oozy ground. When morning broke on the 31st we had sight of the high land of Sumatra, having an island a-stern, the ledge of rocks we had passed on our starboard, and three small islands forming a triangle on our larboard bow. We were about eight leagues off the high land of Java, but could not then get into the straits of Sunda, as the wind was quite fallen. ”

“ The morning sun brought us to our feet long before it was light in the vast spaces beneath our eyes. The jungle held its reddening rays for a moment; they flamed along the course of a half-hidden river; we stood out clear and distinct in their glorious effulgence, and then the broken, denuded crags and ragged ravines of the padang-batu absorbed them in its black fastnesses.
The gold of Mount Ophir was all about us. [180] The air, the stones, the very trees, seemed to have been transformed into the glorious metal that the little fleets of Solomon and Huram sailed so far to seek. ”

“ The Tribes of the goddess Danu can take all shapes, and those that are in the waters take often the shape of fish. A woman of Burren, in Galway, says, 'There are more of them in the sea than on the land, and they sometimes try to come over the side of the boat in the form of fishes, for they can take their choice shape.' At other times they are beautiful women ”

“ It is only when we proceed to analyse the species of the Javan fauna, and trace their distribution and affinities, that we discover its interesting nature.
Difference Between the Fauna of Java and that of the other great Malay Islands.—Comparing the fauna of Java with that which may be called the typical Malayan fauna as exhibited in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, we find the following differences. No less than thirteen genera of mammalia, each of which is known to inhabit at least two, and generally all three, of the above-named Malayan countries, are totally absent from Java ”

“ In the evening it is often the case at this time of year that constant lightnings play round the horizon, illumining the picturesque shores of Java and Sumatra. Impenetrable darkness shrouds both earth and sea, and only by the light of the electric flash is the mariner shown how to keep off land, and with shortened sail holds on his way. ”

“ Where five residencies—Samarang, Pekalongan, Banyumas, the Bagelen and the Kadu—meet between two seas, the wonderland of the Diëng links the eastern and western chain of volcanoes which are the vertebrae of Java’s spine. The Diëng plateau, the first part created, as tradition goes, and destined to remain longest above water in the island’s final destruction and submersion, is nothing but a huge crater. Nature, in her most mysterious mood, exercises here a charm of a peculiar character, well expressed by the name, according to the Javanese derivation from adi aëng, i.e. ”

“ At Singapore, Sumatra, or Batavia, a Malay will for a consideration dive into the waters of the Malacca Straits, armed with a long, sharp knife, boldly attack a shark, and rip open his bowels at the moment when he turns on his side to give the deadly bite. ”

“ If we are cautious and organize the movement well we shall be able to embark all the woman and children and each member of the tribe without making a sound and without alarming the pirates. Then we will cut the cables, as you suggested, and drift down upon the stream till we are in the open sea. After that Sarawak shall be our destination, where these poor Dyaks shall find a home. I shall have more to do then, for at the first opportunity I shall offer to be [Pg 201] the guide for an expedition to Paddi, with the object of hunting out these pests and of capturing their leader. ”

“ After a mile or two the narrows opened and the cliffs grew lower, and the fleet sped past the red reefs of Uaimnaz and the lofty stacks of Pashnemarthra white with sea-gulls on to the blue solitude of the Didornian Sea. All day they sailed south-east with a failing wind. ”

“ As we had given a good price for the first nests, the Chinese willingly sold us another dozen, with which, wishing them a successful bird’s-nesting expedition, we returned on board the Dugong. The Malays assert that the bird feeds upon insects and other minute creatures floating on the surface of the sea ”

“ The saints who reach the Indian Paradise of Uttara Kuru, situated at the sources of the River Indus, among the Himalayan mountains, and originally the homeland of the Kuru tribe of Aryans, are supposed to have their lives prolonged for centuries. When they die their bodies are carried away by gigantic birds and dropped into mountain recesses. The belief enshrined in stories of this kind may be traced to the wide-spread legend of the Diamond Valley. ”

“ En revanche, the study of the little world within was most valuable to the "young Anglo-Indian," and the slow devious course allowed landing at places rarely visited by Europeans. During my repeated trips I saw Diu, once so famous in Portuguese story, Holy Dwarká, guarded outside by sharks and filled with fierce and fanatic mercenaries, and a dozen less interesting spots.
The end of this trip was Tankária-Bunder, a small landing in the Bay of Cambay, a most primitive locale to be called a port, where a mud-bank, adapted for a mooring-stake, was about the only convenience. ”

“ In all the wide area between Java and the line of islands east to Timur on the south, and the tenth degree of north latitude, none of those frightful gales known in the Bay of Bengal as cyclones, and in the China Sea as “typhoons,” have ever been experienced. The chief sources of solicitude to the navigator of the Java and the Banda Seas are the strong currents and many reefs of coral.
Our large steamer is little else than a great floating menagerie. We have, as usual, many native soldiers on board, and each has with him two or three pet parrots or cockatoos. ”