he
surface voluntarily, at the first sign either of the two gives of being
asphyxiated, the seconds, who are watching their principals closely,
drag the rivals from the water. They are then held up by the heels,
head downward, in order to drain off the water they have swallowed, the
one who first recovers consciousness being declared the victor and
awarded the hand of the lady fair. It is a quaint custom.

As I have no desire to strain your credulity to the breaking-point, I
will touch on only one more Dyak custom--the disposal of the dead. It
seems a fitting subject with which to bring this account of the wild
men to a close. Certain of the Dyak tribes expose their dead in trees,
some burn them, while still others bury them until the flesh has
disappeared, when they exhume the skeletons, disarticulate them, and
seal the bones in the huge jars of Chinese porcelain which are a Dyak's
most prized possession. Sometimes these burial-jars are kept in the
family dwelling--a rather gruesome article of furniture to the European
mind--but more often they are deposited in a grave-house, a small,
fantastically decorated hut or shed which serves as a family vault. But
I doubt if any people on the face of the globe have so weird a custom
of disposing of their dead as the Kapuas of Central Borneo, who hollow
out the trunk of a growing tree and in the space thus prepared insert
the corpse of the departed. The bark is carefully replaced over the
opening and the tree continues to grow and flourish--literally a living
tomb.

[Illustration: Major Powell talking to the Regent of Koetei on the
steps of the palace at Tenggaroeng

From left to right: the regent, Major Powell, the prime minister, the
Sultan of Koetei (who has since ascended the throne), and the Dutch
resident, M. de Haan]

[Illustration: State procession in the Kraton of the Sultan of
Djokjakarta]

Noticing that I was interested in the equipment of the Dyaks, the
Regent of Koetei called up their chief and, without so much as a
by-your-leave, presented me with his sumpitan and the quiver of
poisoned darts, his wooden shield--a long, narrow buckler of some
light wood, tastily trimmed with seventy-two tufts of human hair,
mementoes of that number of enemies slain on head-hunting
expeditions--a peculiar coat of mail, composed of overlapping pieces of
bark, capable of turning an arrow, and his imposing head-dress, which
consisted of a cap formed from a leopard's head, with a