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. When all are dead, the proud Dayaks, proceed to
hack off the heads of their victims and bind them round with rattan
strings with which to carry them, and then, returning in triumph,
are hailed with shouts of delight by their envious fellow-villagers,
for this means wives, a Dayak maiden thinking as much of heads as a
white girl would of jewellery. The old Dayak who undid the wrappings
pretended to be horrified, but I felt sure that the old hypocrite
wished that he owned them himself.
Only seven of the heads had been brought in, and two of them were
heads of women, and although they had been smoked, I could easily
see that one of them was that of a quite young, good-looking girl,
with masses of long, dark hair.
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