The
Heads Are Handed Down From Father To Son, And The Rank Of A Dayak Is
Generally Determined By The Number Of Heads He Or His Ancestors Have
Collected.
A Dayak goes on the war-path more for the sake of the heads
he may get, than for the honour and glory of the fighting.
Generally,
though, there is precious little fighting, as the Dayak attacks only
when his victims are unprepared.
While I was in Borneo I heard the following story of Dayak barbarity,
which is a good example of the way the women incite their men to go
on these head-hunting expeditions. In a certain district where some
missionaries were doing good work among the Dayaks, a Dayak young
man named Hathnaveng had been persuaded by the missionaries to give
up the barbaric custom of headhunting. One day, however, he fell in
love with a Dayak maiden. The girl, although returning his passion,
disdained his offer of marriage, because he no longer indulged in the
ancient practice of cutting off and bringing home the heads of the
enemies of the tribe. Hathnaveng, goaded by the taunts of the girl,
who told him to dress in women's clothes in the future, as he no
longer had the courage of a man, left the village and remained away
for some time. When he returned, he entered his sweetheart's hut,
carrying a sack on his shoulders. He opened it, and four human heads
rolled upon the bamboo floor. At the sight of the trophies, the girl
at once took him back into her favour, and flinging her arms round
his neck, embraced him passionately.
"You wanted heads," declared her lover. "I have brought them. Do you
not recognize them?"
Then to her horror she saw they were the heads of her father, her
mother, her brother and of a young man who was Hathnaveng's rival
for her affections. Hathnaveng was immediately seized by some of
the tribesmen, and by way of punishment was placed in a small bamboo
structure such as is commonly used by the Dayaks for pigs, and allowed
to starve to death.[12] This is a true story, and occurred while I
was still in Borneo.
The day after we arrived at Kapit a great crowd of Dayaks, belonging to
the tribe of those implicated in the attack on the Punans, assembled
at the fort to talk with Dr. Hose on the matter, and the upshot of
it all was startling in its severity. This was Hose's ultimatum:
They must give up the rest of those that took part in the raid, and
they would all get various terms of imprisonment. They must return
the rest of the heads. They must pay enormous fines, and, lastly,
those villages which had men who took part in the raid, must move
down the river opposite Sibu, and thus be under Hose's eye as well
as under the guns of the fort. I watched the faces of the crowd, and
it was interesting to witness their various emotions. Some looked
stupefied, others looked very angry, and that they could not agree
among themselves was plainly evident from their angry squabbling. They
were a curious crowd with their long black hair and fringes and round
tattoo marks on their bodies. They finally agreed to these terms, as
Hose told them that if they did not do so, he would come and make them,
even if he had to kill them all. The following days I witnessed large
bands of Dayaks bringing to the fort their fines, which consisted of
large jars and brass gongs, which are the Dayak forms of currency. The
total fine amounted to $5,200, and the jars were carefully examined,
the gongs weighed and their values assessed. Some of the jars were
very old, but the older they are the more they are worth. Three of
the poorest looking ones were valued at $1,400 (the dollar in Borneo
is about two of our shillings). Of the total, $1,200 was later paid to
the Punans as compensation ("pati nyawa"). I watched some Dayaks - who
had just brought in their fines - as they went away in one of their
large canoes, and they crossed the river with a quick, short stroke
of their paddles in splendid time, so that one heard the sound of
their paddles, as they beat against the side of the canoe, come in one
short tr-r-up. They seemed to be very angry, all talking at once, and
I still heard the sound of their angry voices above the paddles' beat,
long after they had disappeared up a narrow creek on the other side.
I had intended going with my two servants further up the river and
living for some time among the Dayaks, but Dr. Hose made objections
to my doing so. He said it would be very unsafe for me to live among
these Kapit Dayaks at the present time, as they were naturally in a
very excitable state, and would have thought little of killing one of
the "orang puteh" (white men), whom they no doubt considered the cause
of all their trouble. They would be sure to take me for a government
official. Hose instead advised me to go up a small unexplored branch
river below Sibu, so as the launch was returning to Sibu I determined
to return in her, leaving Hose and Shelford at Kapit.
During my short stay at Kapit I added very few new specimens to
my collections of birds and butterflies; in fact, it was the worst
collecting-ground that I struck during more than a year's wanderings
in Borneo. I, however, made a fine collection of Dayak weapons,
shields and war ornaments from our friendly Dayaks, who seemed very
low-spirited now that there was to be no fighting, and on this
account traded some of their property to me which at other times
nothing would have induced them to part with, at a very low figure.
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