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. The noise in the house
was deafening at times, especially in the evening, when all come home
from working in their "padi" fields, where the women are supposed to
do most of the work, the men generally going hunting. The continual
hum of conversation and loud laughter, with the noise made by the
pigs and chickens under the house, the dogs and chickens in the house,
and the beating of deep-toned gongs at times nearly drove me frantic,
especially when I was writing.
They resembled a lot of small children and would beat their gongs
simply to amuse themselves. Very often a Dayak, on returning from
his work or a hunt in the jungle, would walk straight up to a large
gong that was hanging up and hammer on it for a few minutes in a most
businesslike way, looking all the time as if it bored him. Then he
would walk away in much the same way as a man would leave the telephone
(as if he had just got through some business). I suppose it soothed
them after their day's work, but it irritated me.
The Dayak dogs are fearful and wonderful animals, both as regards
shape and colour, and I could get very little sleep on account of
the noise they made; yet the Dayaks seemed to sleep through it all.
