# Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia/Series 1/Volume 1/Some Remarks on the Dyaks of Banjarmassing
## SOME REMARKS ON THE DYAKS OF BANJARMASSIN.SOME REMARKS ON THE DYAKS OF BANJARMASSIN.

The Dyaks are, in many respects, a very interesting people. Very different in character from the cringing, fawning Malays, who here, and more particularly on the west coast of the Island, come in contact with them, they meet us with a free and open coun- tenance, and express their opinions and wishes, although not always off hand, yet without subterfuge or cloak.. They have much natu- ral sense and a sound judgement, so that, in the most difficult and complicated affairs, they often know how to assist with surprising ability and sagacity. The persons of the Dyaks are more graceful than those of the Malays, and their colour is much fairer than that of the Javanese. Tatooing is very general amongst them, and the flowers, circles and other dark figures which they paint with great care, give a good effect to their slender and mostly muscular per- sons, which are wholly divested of all clothing. The only thing which a yet unpolished Dyak wears is a headkerchief and a small piece of cloth,—or from want of it, a small strip of soft beaten bark,—around his loins, with which he conceals his shame. Both ends hang down in the manner of lappets, one in front and one behind; a circumstance which has probably given rise to the sin- gular assertion "that some of them are furnished with tails." Far in the interior the women also are but scantily clothed: à very narrow garment, which scarcely reaches from the waist to the knees, is usually their only dress.
In the middle of the island the people live, as it were, wholly in a state of nature; and neither men nor women appear to have any conception of shame. I myself have seen, in the Kapús river, that the women with their children bathe naked in the presence of many men, and without any one perceiving the least impropriety or evil in it. In proportion to the Dyak's indifference respecting his dress, is his passion for various ornaments, particularly Agate ​stones, of which he wears large and long pieces on his neck,—and Gold, with which he ornaments his teeth and wooden ear pins,—sometimes as large as a piaster, and of which large plates are likewise worn by the wealthy on the breast. They are also fond of copper rings, which are worn in great abundance on the arms, principally by the women.
In these things their whole riches generally consist, save that persons of consideration sometimes also possess one or more of those large far famed pots, of which the finest, called blanga, has not unfrequently a value of 2000 Guilders. But, poor or rich, the Dyak is generally good humoured; and if he can possibly manage it, and though he, with his wife and children, should re- main in debt, he must sometimes in the year kill a hog, which he, along with a numerous gathering of his friends, joyously devours, qualified with a large quantity of túak or arrack.
Although there are no drunkards properly so called amongst the Dyaks, a single person seldom remains sober at such feasts. The tŭak is passed round in large cups, and that till the larger pots are emptied, or their heads are so full and giddy that they hardly know each other, when they become very noisy, declare themselves all rich (tatau) frolicsomely embrace each other, and then, talking or singing, tumble to their huts. The principal feasts are those named tiwa (death-feasts) which last at least seven days. On such occasions ten buffaloes, and about the same num- bers of pigs, are often killed. Nearly a thousand men are ga- thered, and by the time the seven days are ended, all the buffa- loes, pigs, and 20 or 25 piculs of rice, part of which is made into túak, are wholly consumed.
A chief part is played at such feasts by the blians (dancing girls): who, day and night, sing improvising, with all their might: and the olo maga lian (the conductor of the soul) who brings the dead, likewise singing, and, as he declares, in an iron ship, past hell to a good place, for which service he receives, besides his share of the feast, from 20 to 30 bottles. The cost of such a tiwa sometimes runs as high as 400 to 500 bottles, and brings the givers into such debt that they have speedily to become pawns.
Their great superstition also costs them many sacrifices. If the ​Dyak goes on a journey he first interrogates the Antang Ulang, a large bird of prey: that is to say, he goes to some secluded spot on a river's bank, where he cuts away some wood, brings an offering of rice and pork or fowl, and then calls his Nabi until he takes his significant flight over him. If the flight of the bird is in the direction of the contemplated journey, there is no need to have any farther concern, and he begins his jour- neý în earnest. But if the bird flies in a contrary direction, he abandons his undertaking, at least for that day: however much may occasionally depend on the speed of his journey: and conti- nues to go with his meals to the antang, and every time with a more pressing invitation, till it, finally, satisfies the desire of his heart, and starts towards the intended point.
The Dyak also makes offerings on the occurrence of sickness, when the blians must again be present, who, besides the obser- vance of the ceremonies, seek to sustain the patient by singing and beating the tambourine. This, however, is often attended with an opposite effect, for the patient by the continued noise, day and night, is all the speedier sent to his grave.
It often happens too that a dream gives occasion to sacrifices. When, for example, I once went into the house of my neighbour, the mistress of the house related to me, that in the preceeding night a ghost appeared in a dream, which had enjoined her to slaughter and offer her largest hog; and although I took the greatest pains to enlighten her on this subject, and however much the woman was wedded to money and goods, the behest of the ghost had to be complied with. In the same evening a heavy shot was discharged before the house, a signal to all friends and neighbours that they had to expect something on the following morning; and scarcely was the red of dawn visible when they dragged the animal to the ​river side, and the whole campong re-echoed with its screech, the sweetest music to the ear of the Dyak.
There exist many other reasons for sacrificing besides these. The barrenness of women, a bad fall, getting wounded by the felling of trees, seeing ghosts &c. cost many pigs their lives. All these offerings are made to Djata (water god) or Sangiang (a higher good being) or to the Tellopapa (bad spirits.) The greatest number are generally offered to these last, for, said one of the Dyak priests to me lately, we have nothing to fear from the good beings and Hatalla (God), and we do not need to make any offerings to them, but we must feed the bad spirits to keep them away from us.
In the interior, men are still occasionally sacrificed, principally on the death of chiefs and other considerable persons. In Sirat, the furthest inhabited point of the Kapús river, where I, some years ago, made a journey of investigation, they had, a short time before our arrival, sacrificed two women. An acquaintance, who had been present, gave me the following account of the horrible event. One morning at Siral there gathered a great number of people who streamed in from all sides to celebrate a great feast. There was firing of guns; the open plain before the kotta (fort) was prepared for the occasion, and adorned with branches, flowers and cloths; a number of hogs were killed; and when, finally, by mid- day everything had been arranged according to use and wont, the real objects of the festival were brought forward,—two wo- men, still young, who had been purchased for the purpose from another race in the Dúson. They had to seat themselves on the side of the ready-dug graves, and contemplate for some time the noisy rejoicing of the feasters. A lance of about thirty feet in All length was then brought and laid on one of the victims. now hurried to take a part in the impending detestable deed. A hundred hands seized the long lauce, and, the instant the cus- tomary sign was given, they threw themselves, amidst the loud acclamations of the multitude, on the unfortunate wretch, and pierc- ed her through, even transfixing her to the ground. They then cut off the head of the fallen victim, and carried it during the rest of the day, dancing and singing round it. The same fate also befell her unfortunate companion. Those who are thus offered ​become in their belief, the slaves, in the other world, of the de- ceased friend to whose memory they are offered.
Respecting the mode of life of the Dyaks I shall here merely say that they maintain themselves by rice cultivation, trade, and, in the interior, principally by the collection of gold dust, in which the ground in many places is very rich.
The Dyaks do not possess towns, but mostly dwell in small kampongs of about 4 to 10 houses. It is only in the interior, from dread of the barbarous Dyak Pari, the rapid aloat nyawong and the other enemies of whom I shall hereafter give an account and who on their forays usually destroy or carry away all that they have them in greater number on certain points, which they surround with large fences and bring into a certain degree of defence, and therefore name kotta. In such a kotta 1000 to 1500 men often dwell. The whole population of Pùlopetak con- sists of about 10,000 souls and is distributed in nearly 40 kam- pongs, over an extent of ground of some hour's pulling in a fast boat.
* ↑ Translated for this Journal from the Tijdschrift voor Neerlands Indie. Negende Yaargang, tweede aflevering.
* ↑ The Dyaks in the North West of Borneo do not tatoo although the Kayans do.—ED.
* ↑ Mr. Brooke says "Even the Malays speak highly of the chastity of the Dyak women; yet they are by no means shy under the gaze of strangers, and used to bathe before us in a state of nudity."—Keppel's Expedition to Borneo, vol. 1. p. 59,—ED.
* ↑ The Sibnowan Dyaks appear to be devoid of this superstition. (See Expedition to Borneo, vol. 1. p. 60) Dr. Leyden, who writes on the authority of Radermacher, Dalrymple, Forrest and Burn, says, "They hold particular kinds of birds in high veneration, and draw omens from the sounds which they utter, and from their flights. One of the principal of these is a large species of white headed kite, which preys on fish, snakes, and vermin. In all their wars, journeys and in short all matters of importance, they pay the utmost attention to the omens of birds, and sometimes too they endeavour to penetrate the secrets of futurity by consulting the entrails of birds."—ED.