ved at which we were again to repair to the house
of the rajah.

On our arrival we found the rajah where we left him, and all the chief
men and warriors assembled. Refreshments had been prepared for us, and
we again swallowed various mysterious confections, which, as I before
observed, would have been very good if we had been hungry. As soon as
the eatables had been despatched, we lighted our cheroots, and having,
by a dexterous and unperceived application out of a brandy bottle,
succeeded in changing the rajah's lemonade into excellent punch, we
smoked and drank until the rajah requested to know if we were ready to
witness the promised war dance. Having expressed our wishes in the
affirmative, the music struck up; it consisted of gongs and tom-toms.
The Malay gong, which the Dyaks also make use of, is like the Javanese,
thick with a broad rim, and very different from the gong of the Chinese.
Instead of the clanging noise of the latter, it gives out a muffled
sound of a deep tone. The gong and tom-tom are used by the Dyaks and
Malays in war, and for signals at night, and the Dyaks procure them from
the Malays. I said that the music struck up, for, rude as the
instruments were, they modulate the sound, and keep time so admirably,
that it was any thing but inharmonious.

A space was now cleared in the centre of the house, and two of the
oldest warriors stepped into it. They were dressed in turbans, long
loose jackets, sashes round their waists descending to their feet, and
small bells were attached to their ankles. They commenced by first
shaking hands with the rajah, and then with all the Europeans present,
thereby giving us to understand, as was explained to us, that the dance
was to be considered only as a spectacle, and not to be taken in its
literal sense, as preparatory to an attack upon us, a view of the case
in which we fully coincided with them.

[Illustration: WAR DANCE OF THE DYAKS.

F. M. DELT.

M. N. HANHART LITH. PRINTERS]

This ceremony being over, they rushed into the centre and gave a most
unearthly scream, then poising themselves on one foot they described a
circle with the other, at the same time extending their arms like the
wings of a bird, and then meeting their hands, clapping them and keeping
time with the music. After a little while the music became louder, and
suddenly our ears were pierced with the whole of the natives present
joining in the hideous war cry. Then the motions and the screa