The Moral Character Of The Dyaks Is Undoubtedly High - A Statement
Which Will Seem Strange To Those Who Have Heard Of Them Only As
Head-Hunters And Pirates.
The Hill Dyaks of whom I am speaking,
however, have never been pirates, since they never go near the
Sea;
and head-hunting is a custom originating in the petty wars of village
with village, and tribe with tribe, which no more implies a bad moral
character than did the custom of the slave-trade a hundred years ago
imply want of general morality in all who participated in it. Against
this one stain on their character (which in the case of the Sarawak
Dyaks no longer exists) we have to set many good points. They are
truthful and honest to a remarkable degree. From this cause it is
very often impossible to get from them any definite information, or
even an opinion. They say, "If I were to tell yon what I don't know,
I might tell a lie;" and whenever they voluntarily relate any matter
of fact, you may be sure they are speaking the truth. In a Dyak
village the fruit trees have each their owner, and it has often
happened to me, on asking an inhabitant to gather me some fruit, to
be answered, "I can't do that, for the owner of the tree is not
here;" never seeming to contemplate the possibility of acting
otherwise. Neither will they take the smallest thing belonging to an
European. When living at Simunjon, they continually came to my house,
and would pick up scraps of torn newspaper or crooked pins that I had
thrown away, and ask as a great favour whether they might have them.
Crimes of violence (other than head-hunting) are almost unknown; for
in twelve years, under Sir James Brooke's rule, there had been only
one case of murder in a Dyak tribe, and that one was committed by a
stranger who had been adopted into the tribe.
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