The Dayak Dogs Are Fearful
Cowards, And I Was Told That They Run Away At The Sight Of A Wild Pig.
Animal life here was not plentiful, and quite the reverse of what I
had seen in the forests of North Borneo, where it was very plentiful.
I noticed the prevalence of that horrible scurvy-like skin-disease
among several of the Dayaks. It was common in New Guinea among
the Papuans, where it was termed "supuma." I cured two little Dayak
children of intermittent fever by giving them quinine and Eno's fruit
salts. The result was that I was greatly troubled by demands on my
limited stock of medicines. One old man had been growing blind for
the last two years, and another was troubled with aches all over him,
and they would hardly believe me when I said that I could not cure
them. They told Dubi that they thought that the white people who
could make such things as I possessed could do anything. So much of
my property seemed to amuse and astonish them, that it was a treat to
show them such things as my looking-glass, hair-brush, socks, guns,
umbrella, watch, etc. I showed them that child's trick of making the
lid of my watch fly open, and they were delighted.
The Dayak women can hardly be considered good-looking. I saw one or two
that were rather pretty, but they were very young and unmarried. Dubi
fell madly in love with one of them and she with him, and when I left
there were two broken hearts. Many of the little girls of about five
and six years old would have been regular pictures if they had only
been cleaner. I made the discovery that some of my Dayak friends were
addicted to the horrible habit of eating clay, and actually found
a regular little digging in the side of a hill where they worked
to get these lumps of reddish grey clay, and soon caught some of
the old men eating it. They declared that they enjoyed it. All my
empty tins (from tinned meats, etc.) were in great demand, and so
to save jealousy I actually demoralized the Dayaks to the extent of
introducing the raffling system among them. Great was the excitement
every evening when I raffled old tins and bottles. Dubi would hand
the bits of paper and they would be a long time making up their minds
which to take. One night Dubi overheard my Chinese cook telling some
of the Dayaks that "the white tuan had no use for these tins himself,
that is why he gives them to you."
This cook, whom I used to call Cookie, was a great nuisance to me,
but he was the most amusing character I ever came across, and he
was the source of endless delight to the Dayaks, who enjoyed teasing
him and jokingly threatened to cut off his head, until he was almost
paralyzed with fright and came and begged me to leave, as we should
all have our heads cut off. After a week or two his courage returned
and I learned that when I was out of the house he would stand on his
head for the amusement of the women and children, though he was by
no means a young man. He soon became quite popular with the women,
who found him highly amusing, and who were always in fits of laughter
whenever he talked. In the evenings he sometimes joined a group of
Dayak youths and would start to air his opinions. Then it was not long
before they were all jeering and mimicking him, and poor old Cookie
would look very foolish and a sickly smile would spread over his yellow
features. Finally he would go off and sulk, and when I asked him what
the matter was, he would reply, "Damn Dayak no wantee." Whenever I
called out for Cookie, the whole house would resound with jeering
Dayak cries of "Cookie, Cookie." He and Dubi were always quarrelling,
and Cookie would work himself up into such a state of excitement that
the place would be full of Dayak laughter, though the Dayak understood
not a word of what they were talking about. In my later wanderings
in Borneo the quarrel between my two servants, Dayak and Chinaman,
grew to such an extent that I feared it would end in murder.
The foregoing account, short as it is, will, I trust, give some idea of
what my long stay among head-hunting Dayaks was like. All things must
have an ending, however, and having finished my collecting in this
neighbourhood I said good-bye to my Dayak friends, with deep regret,
and I think the sorrow was mutual. I know well that Dubi and his little
Dayak sweetheart were almost heartbroken. The Dayaks begged me to stay
longer, but I had already stayed longer than I had at first intended.
Old Usit, the chief, and his crew of Dayaks paddled me all the way
to Sibu. There is little to relate about the journey there, except
that the canoe leaked very badly and the Dayaks had to keep bailing
her out. At night we tied the canoe up to a small wooden platform
outside a Malay house on the Rejang River, to await the change of
the tide, and one of the Dayaks knocked at the door of the house so
that we could cook some food, but the Malays thought that we were
head-hunters, and there was great lamentation, and for some time they
refused to open. While eating my food, with my legs dangling over the
side of the wooden platform, I noticed a dark object that glistened
in the moonlight noiselessly swimming toward me, and I pulled up my
legs pretty quickly. It was a large crocodile, attracted, no doubt,
by the smell of my dinner. The only objection I had was that it might
have taken me for the dinner.
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