e came to
rob them. The rice and the fowls we required, although we paid for
them at double their value, were reluctantly produced; while at the
same time they showed themselves anxious enough to obtain the salt
we had brought to exchange, without giving the equivalent.

"The village is built on the shoulder of a mountain, not half way up,
and only accessible by a ladder-like path on either side. It consists
of about 200 miserable huts, and is as dirty and filthy as any place
I ever was in, with numerous half-starved pigs and dogs running about
it. The houses are small and mean, and detached from each other,
contrary to the usage of the other Dyaks, who inhabit one large house
containing numerous partitions for families; here, however, they have
one or two public halls or council-houses, which are built and thatched
in a circular form, and in which their young men and bachelors sleep;
here likewise are deposited the heads, of which they have more than
enow, as above one hundred ghastly remnants of mortality ornamented
the abode in which we slept. I could not on this occasion find
out that they professed to take the heads of friends or strangers,
though the latter may fall victims if on enemies' ground. They seem
to have no idea of cannibalism or human sacrifice, nor did they accuse
their enemies of these practices. They have a custom, that in case of
sickness in a house, or child-bearing, the house is forbidden to the
males and strangers, which is something similar to the tabboo of the
South-Sea Islands. This plea was urged as a reason why the head man or
Orang Kaya Parembam could not receive us in his dwelling. The Dyaks
are always decorous in their behavior, rarely give way to mirth, and
never annoy by their curiosity. Toward the Malays they are extremely
sulky and mulish; but they have good reasons, as the Malays are ever
extorting from them, and threatening them with the anger of the rajah
or the incursion of the Sakarrans. The women wear black bamboo stays,
which are sewn on when they arrive at the age of puberty, and never
removed save when _enceinte_. These Singe Dyaks, like the others,
attend to the warning of birds of various sorts, some birds being
in more repute than others. On starting for a hunting excursion we
met one of them on the hill-side, who said, 'You will be fortunate:
I heard the bird behind you.' Here, if a bird is before you, it is
a sign that enemies are there too, and they turn back: if behind