United States or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Eighty prahus of Sarebus and Sakarran are reported to be ready, and waiting for further reinforcements before putting to sea. "19th. Information of three more of my Dyaks being cut off in the interior by the predatory tribes. "20th.
Only by visiting distant villages, and living with the Dyaks as their guest, can the missionary learn to understand the people. Let me tell you a missionary story. A missionary in Borneo visited a Dyak village house to teach the people there about God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here he stayed the night; and, next day, accompanied by a small number of officers who had escaped and joined him, set out on foot through the jungle for the Siol stream, leading into the Santubong branch of the Sarawak river, intending to procure boats at the mouth and make his way to the Batang Lupar river, where a sufficiently powerful force of Dyaks and Malays could be organised to attack the rebels and retake Kuching.
In North Borneo we seem to see the evolution of a god in the three stages of the cult of the hawk among the Kenyahs, the Kayans and the sea Dyaks. The Kenyahs will not kill it, address to it thanks for assistance, and formally consult it before leaving home on an expedition; it seems, however, to be regarded as the messenger of the supreme god Balli Penyalong.
The country is peaceable; trade flourishes; the Dyaks are content; the Malays greatly increased in number in short, all goes well. I received a visit from Lingire, a Dyak chief of Sarebus. At first he was shy and somewhat suspicions; but a little attention soon put him at his ease.
Still the Dyaks showed no sign of satisfaction, and both Fairburn and I began to suspect that we had entered the wrong river; we continued, however, our course. As yet we had seen no signs of human beings; but just as we rounded a point, we came suddenly on a canoe, with three men fishing in her.
The women of the north-east coast are by no means bad-looking, but very inferior to the mountain Dyaks before described. I have seen one or two faces which might be considered as pretty. With the exception of a cloth, which is secured above the hips with a hoop of rattan, and descends down to the knees, they expose every other portion of their bodies.
Since the Dyaks' last escapade there was no sign of them in the valley or on either beach. Not for trivial cause would they come again within range of the Lee-Metfords. They waited and listened silently.
These Malay chiefs were members of the Council, and represented Home Department, War Office, and Treasury in the State. For some time all seemed to go well, but the Rajah soon found that the Datu Patinghi could not be restrained from oppressing the Dyaks under his charge, levying more than the proper tax, or obliging them to buy whatever he wished to sell, at exorbitant prices.
When Dyaks fell the jungle of the larger hills, they always leave a clump of trees at the summit as a refuge for the spirits. To leave them quite homeless would be to court certain disaster from them. From what has been said it will be seen that the spirits are much the same as their gods, and have power either to bestow favours, or cause sickness and death.
Word Of The Day