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Under such circumstances, chiefly women and children are left in the kampongs. Of nearly thirty men needed for my overland trip, only three could be mustered here. One Dayak who was perfectly well in the evening came next morning to consult me about the prevalent illness which he had contracted during the night. The only available course was to return to Sampit.
They were a sickening sight, and all the horrors of head-hunting were brought before me with vivid and startling reality far more than could have been done by any writer, and I pictured those same heads full of life only a few days before, and then suddenly a rush from the outside amid the unprepared Punans in their rude huts in the depths of the forest, a woman's scream of terror, followed by the sickening sound of hacking blows from the sharp Dayak "parangs," and the Dayak war-cry, "Hoo-hah! hoo-hah!" ringing through the night air, as every single Punan man, woman and child, who has not had time to escape, is cut down in cold blood.
Moreover, Dayak "head-hunting" takes quite another aspect when we learn that the supposed "headhunter" is not actuated at all by personal passion. He acts under what he considers as a moral obligation towards his tribe, just as the European judge who, in obedience to the same, evidently wrong, principle of "blood for blood," hands over the condemned murderer to the hangman.
Our soldiers, some sixty in number, obtained a meal immediately in every kampong. When a Dayak goes on a journey in a friendly region he may be sure of receiving shelter and food in every house. "They are distrustful of foreigners, but if he has gained their confidence they give assistance freely in every respect. Loving their liberty in a high degree they prefer not to be ordered.
He was afraid of the kihams, not a good shot, and so liable to lose his way in the jungle that I always had to have a Dayak accompany him. It is the drawback with all Javanese that, being unaccustomed to these great jungles, at first they easily get lost. Rajimin joined a few Malays in building a small float, on which they went down the river.
Hose at his Sarawak Home The Fort at Sibu Enormous length of Dayak Canoes A Brush with Head-Hunters Dayak Vengeance on Chinamen First Impressions of the Sea Dayak, "picturesque and interesting" A Head-Hunting raid, Dayaks attack the Punans I accompany the Punitive Expedition Voyage Upstream A Clever "Bird Scare" Houses on the top of Tree-stumps The Kelamantans Kanawit Village The Fort at Kapit Capture of a notorious Head-Hunting Chief I inspect the "Heads" of the Victims Cause of Head-Hunting Savage Revenge of a Dayak Lover and its Sequel Hose's stem Ultimatum Accepted by the Head-Hunters I return to Sibu A Fatal Misconception.
For the next two or three weeks an odd Dayak would from time to time ask to see my skin, so that at length I had absolutely to refuse to exhibit myself any longer. I had luckily brought several illustrated magazines with me to use as papers for my butterflies, and these were a source of endless delight to the crowds around me in the evenings.
Whatever the reason, as a matter of fact the Dayak women are not fertile. The chief of the Kayan kampong, Kaburau, at the time of my visit had a fourth wife on probation for two years, having previously dismissed three because they bore him no children. With the Malays the condition is just the reverse.
Pajamas graced his tall form as an outward sign that he was more than an ordinary Dayak, and he wore the same suit every day for a week without washing it. He spoke very few Malay words, which made intercourse with him difficult.
B. Brouers, of Bandjermasin, whose mother was a Dayak noble from the Lower Kahayan, was instructed by her never to eat turtle. He, being a Dutchman, disregards this and nothing has ever happened, as he said, but he added that an acquaintance who did likewise lost the skin of his finger-tips. Long, long ago a man was catching punai with sticks to which glue had been applied.
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