eir principal warriors. This
news reaching me, I hurried up to the hill, and arrived just after
part of the war-party had brought the heads.

"I may here remark, that I have positively forbidden the Dyak tribes
within my territory to war one upon the other; and this, therefore,
was a serious offence against me on the part of Parembam. At once to
aim at more than this restriction would be fruitless, and even risk
my ability to effect this first step on the road to improvement. I
likewise came up here to go through the ceremony of installing the
Orang Kaya Steer Rajah in his office; and thus I have had an excellent
opportunity of seeing their customs and manners. What follows will
be a personal narration, or nearly so, of what I have seen; and it
applies, with slight difference, to almost all the interior tribes.

"On our ascending the mountain, we found the five heads carefully
watched, about half a mile from the town, in consequence of the
non-arrival of some of the war-party. They had erected a temporary
shed close to the place where these miserable remnants of noisome
mortality were deposited; and they were guarded by about thirty young
men in their finest dresses, composed principally of scarlet jackets
ornamented with shells, turbans of the native bark-cloth dyed bright
yellow, and spread on the head, and decked with an occasional feather,
flower, or twig of leaves. Nothing can exceed their partiality for
these trophies; and in retiring from the 'war-path,' the man who has
been so fortunate as to obtain a head hangs it about his neck, and
instantly commences his return to his tribe. If he sleep on the way,
the precious burden, though decaying and offensive, is not loosened,
but rests on his lap, while his head (and nose!) reclines on his
knees. The retreat is always silently made until close to home,
when they set up a wild yell, which announces their victory and the
possession of its proofs. It must, therefore, be considered, that
these bloody trophies are the evidences of victory--the banner of the
European, the flesh-pot of the Turk, the scalp of the North American
Indian--and that they are torn from enemies, for taking heads is the
effect and not the cause of war. On our reaching the Balei, or public
hall, of the Orang Kaya Steer Rajah, I immediately called a number of
their chiefs together, and opened a conference with them on the subject
of Parembam having attacked and killed the Dyaks of Sigo. They _all_
di