In
The Centre Of Each Ring There Are Generally Two Or Three Small Red
And Black Rings Of Coloured Rattan Between The Brass Ones.
Some wore
only four or five, while others possessed twenty or more, and then
they rather resembled a corset.
Even the little girls of four or five
wore two or three of them.
I noticed on my first arrival that the women and some of the men seemed
to have their teeth plentifully filled with gold, but I soon found out
that it was brass that they had ornamented their teeth with, a small
piece being inserted in some way in the centre of each tooth. Their
teeth are generally black from the continual chewing of the betel-nut,
and I noticed small children of four or five years of age going in for
this dirty habit, and still younger children smoking cigarettes, the
covering of which is made out of the dried leaf of the sago-palm. The
Dayaks are almost as dirty as the Negritos in the Philippines, and yet
they are both certainly the merriest people I have ever met with. The
heartiest and most unaffected laughter I have ever heard proceeded
from the throats of Dayaks and Negritos. It almost seems as if dirt
in some cases constitutes true happiness.
The Dayak women seemed to bathe more often than the men, but they
never seemed to take off their brass waist-rings when bathing in the
river. The women also have their wrists covered with brass bangles,
which are all fastened together in one piece.
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