d are, as a rule,
kindly treated by their husbands. Although Mahomedans, they can go about
freely and unveiled, a privilege denied to their sisters of the higher
classes. The greatest misfortune for such a girl is, perhaps, the
possession of a pretty face and figure, which may result in her being
honoured with the attentions of a noble, in whose harem she may be
secluded for the rest of her life, and, as her charms wane her supply of
both food and clothing is reduced to the lowest limit.

By the treaty with Great Britain traffic in slaves is put down, that is,
Borneo is no longer the mart where, as in former days, the pirates can
bring in their captives for sale; but the slaves already in the place
have not been liberated, and a slave's children are slaves, so that
domestic slavery, as it is termed, exists on a very considerable scale
in Brunai. Slaves were acquired in the old days by purchase from pirates
and, on any pretext, from the Pagan tribes of Borneo. For instance, if a
feudal chief of an outlying river was in want of some cash, nothing was
easier than for him to convict a man, who was the father of several
children, of some imaginary offence, or neglect of duty, and his
children, girls and boys, would be seized and carried off to Brunai as
slaves. A favourite method was that of "forced trade." The chief would
send a large quantity of trade goods to a Pagan village and leave them
there to be sold at one hundred per cent, or more above their proper
value, all legitimate trade being prohibited meanwhile, and if the money
or barter goods were not forthcoming when demanded, the deficiency would
be made up in slaves. This kind of oppression was very rife in the
neighbourhood of the capital when I first became acquainted with Borneo
in 1871, but the power of the chiefs has been much curtailed of late,
owing to the extensive cessions of territory to Sarawak and the British
North Borneo Company, and their hold on the rivers left to them has
become very precarious, since the warlike Kyans passed under Raja
BROOKE'S sway. This tribe, once the most powerful in Borneo, was always
ready at the Sultan's call to raid on any tribe who had incurred his
displeasure and revelled in the easy acquisition of fresh heads, over
which to hold the triumphal dance. The Brunai Malays are not a warlike
race, and the Rajas find that, without the Kyans, they are as a tiger
with its teeth drawn and its claws pared, and the Pagan tribes have not