Through Central Borneo An Account Of Two Years' Travel In The Land Of The Head-Hunters Between The Years 1913 And 1917 By Carl Lumholtz
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Not A Day Passed Without Wails And Violent Cries
Arising In Some Part Of The Town, Especially During The Forenoon, Although
I Did Not Perceive That The Children Here Were More Incorrigible Than
Elsewhere.
The Dayaks never beat their children, and later I did not
observe similar cruelty among Malays.
Wise though King Solomon was, his
precept not to spare the rod should be regarded in the light of his large
family, "700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines." Even in the training
of animals, better results are obtained by omitting the lash.
In the beginning of January, 1914, I was able to start for Kaburau. The
controleur courteously provided for my use the government's steamship
Sophia, which in six hours approached within easy distance of the
kampong. My party consisted of Ah Sewey, a young Chinese photographer from
Singapore whom I had engaged for developing plates and films, also
Chonggat, a Sarawak Dayak who had had his training at the museum of Kuala
Lampur in the Malay Peninsula. Finally, Go Hong Cheng, a Chinese trader,
acted as interpreter and mandur (overseer). He spoke several Dayak
dialects, but not Dutch, still less English, for Malay is the lingua
franca of the Dutch Indies as well as of the Malay Peninsula. As we
anchored for the night I heard for the first time, from the hills that
rose near by, the loud defiant cry of the argus pheasant. How wildly weird
it sounds on a quiet evening!
The next morning the Kayans met us with boats to take us up to their
kampong, Kaburau.
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