Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
al new figures which quite puzzled me. They then showed me a number of other tricks with
pieces of string, which seemed a favourite amusement with them.
Even these apparently trifling matters may assist us to form a truer estimate of the Dyaks'
character and social condition. We learn thereby, that these people have passed beyond that
first stage of savage life in which the struggle for existence absorbs the whole faculties, and
in which every thought and idea is connected with war or hunting, or the provision for their
immediate necessities. These amusements indicate a capability of civilization, an aptitude to
enjoy other than mere sensual pleasures, which might be taken advantage of to elevate their
whole intellectual and social life.
The moral character of the Dyaks is undoubtedly high—a statement which will seem
strange to those who have heard of them only as head-hunters and pirates. The Hill Dyaks of
whom I am speaking, however, have never been pirates, since they never go near the sea;
and head-hunting is a custom originating in the petty wars of village with village, and tribe
with tribe, which no more implies a bad moral character than did the custom of the slave-
trade a hundred years ago imply want of general morality in all who participated in it.
Against this one stain on their character (which in the case of the Saráwak Dyaks no longer
exists) we have to set many good points. They are truthful and honest to a remarkable de-
gree. From this cause it is very often impossible to get from them any definite information,
or even an opinion. They say, 'If I were to tell you what I don't know, I might tell a lie;' and
whenever they voluntarily relate any matter of fact, you may be sure they are speaking the
truth. In a Dyak village the fruit trees have each their owner, and it has often happened to
me, on asking an inhabitant to gather me some fruit, to be answered, 'I can't do that, for the
owner of the tree is not here;' never seeming to contemplate the possibility of acting other-
wise. Neither will they take the smallest thing belonging to an European. When living at
Sim¯unjon, they continually came to my house, and would pick up scraps of torn newspaper
or crooked pins that I had thrown away, and ask as a great favour whether they might have
them. Crimes of violence (other than head-hunting) are almost unknown; for in twelve
years, under Sir James Brooke's rule, there had been only one case of murder in a Dyak
tribe, and that one was committed by a stranger who had been adopted into the tribe. In sev-
eral other matters of morality they rank above most uncivilized, and even above many civil-
ized nations. They are temperate in food and drink, and the gross sensuality of the Chinese
and Malays is unknown among them. They have the usual fault of all people in a half-sav-
age state—apathy and dilatoriness; but, however annoying this may be to Europeans who
come in contact with them, it cannot be considered a very grave offence, or be held to out-
weigh their many excellent qualities.
