The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-26 00:00:00

Life in the _Forests of the Par Past. By Spencer
St. John, 2 vols. Smith, Elder, and Co.
There is a material difference between this
work and many of those on foreign travel and
adventure, which have of :ate years come before
the public, inasmuch as the writer is not a mere
destroyer of game,
whose ambition, unsatisfied
with the death of the hares and partridges of his
native land, can only be satiated by that of the
elephant, the tiger, or the boar; but one who,
thinking that "the proper study of mankind is
man," penetrated the pathless forests of Borneo,
and made the acquaintance of some of the inland
tribes, who never before had seen a white man's
face. For this exploration, Mr. St. John's posi
tion at the time, as Consul-General for Borneo,
gave him unusual facilities. Still there was con-
siderable risk. The hobby of the " noble savage"
of Borneo is not the collecting of books, snuff
boxes, or pictures, but heads; and of the very
unceremonious manner in which he helps himself
to those trifles, without asking leave of the owners,
there are some curious anecdotes scattered through
the volumes. Read hunting and piracy were (and
still are in some districts), as is well known, the
amiable weaknesses of the natives, till Rajah
Brooke settled among them, and roused them from
this blissful state of existence, much to the in-
dignation of certain English philanthropists.
Nevertheless, of their natural capacity the author
speaks in favourable terms. What they want is
security for life and property, and their progress
then would be rapid. Indeed nothing, in its way,
can be much more wonderful than the change
wrought in esorno of the tribes by the influence
of RaJah 13rooke—a char'ge ',emelt the very prompt
succour they afforded him, on the occasion of the
Chinese insurrection, proved to be perfectly genuine.
A considerable part of Mr. St. John's work
is taken, almost literally, from journals kept
by him -on his expeditions, thus ensuring
the utmost fidelity; and we will proceed
to touch on some of the peculiarities of the tribes
and country seen by him. The part of Borneo he ex-
plored was on the north-western coast, and the first
tribes he visited were the Sea Dayaks. These, it
seems, are the most numerous and warlike, as well
as most intelligent of the Dayaks ; and the author
considers there is a great prospect of their advance-
ment in civilisation. Boa constrictors infest this
part of the country, though the size they attain
does not seem to be excessive. The largest the
author himself killed measured 14 feet, and the
largest skin he measured was 26 feet in length.
Pork is the dainty these reptiles love, and some-
times " not wisely but too well." Thus, " a boa one
night got into a closely-latticed place under a
Dayak house, and finding it could not drag away
a pig which it had killed there, on account of the
wooden bars, swallowed the beast on the
spot. In the morning the owner was astonished
to find the new occupant of the sty ; but, as the
reptile was gorged, he had no difficulty in destroy-
ing it. Its body was brought to Sarawak and
measured by Mr. Ruppell, when it was found to
be 19 feet in length." The wild pig does not
always gracefully submit to the embraces of its
constrictor friend. " I one day," says the author,
" came upon a spot where ground was torn up for
a circle of eight or nine feet, and the branches
around were broken. The boar, however, had evi-
dently succumbed, as we could trace with ease the
course it had been dragged through the jungle.
We followed a little distance, but evidently no one
was very anxious in pursuit. I knew the animal
killed on this occasion to be a boar, from finding
his broken tusk half buried in the ground." Alli-
gators also invest the rivers with interest, the
forests swarm with leeches, and food seems often
very difficult to be procured. Thus travelling in Bor-
neo is not all pleasure. Among the Sea Dyaks the
Sakarang tribe appears to advantage. Their wo-
men are "the handsomest among the Dayaks of
Borneo; they have good figures, light and elastic;
with well formed busts and very interesting, even
pretty faces ; with skin of so light a brown as to
be almost yellow, yet a very healthy looking yel-
low, with bright dark eyes and long glistening
black hair." Whilst the men " are clean built, up-
right in their gait, and of a very independent bear-
ing," as well as remarkable for their strength and
activity. Their stature, however, is short, five feet
three being the average. The Kanowit Dayaks,
however, aro by no means so ineposessing. Cri-
noline is as yet unknown, but the women extract
their eyelashes, and "draw down the lobes of their
ears to their shoulders by means of heavy lead ear-
rings."
The following is a sample of
Tim AMENITIES OF SAVAGE LIFE.
" One afternoon, it being a very warm day, we were re-
clining on our mats, when a burst of wailing and howling
around us told that bad news had been received. One of
the chief's brothers had returned from the interior and
brought the following intelligence :—lt appeared that about
two years and a half ago a younger brother, longing to see
the world,had started off to the sources of the Kapuasriver,
which ultimately falls into the sea at Pontianah, a Dutch
settlement, taking with him 13 young men. He travelled
on till ho reached a Mayan tribe with whom his people
were friends, and stayed with them for a few months. One
day their hosts started on a head hunting expedition, and
invited some of their guests to accompany them. The lat-
ter never returned, having all been killed by the Kayans
themselves, why or wherefore it is impossible to tell, but it
is supposed that having failed in their head hunt, and being
ashamed to return to their women without these trophies,
they had fallen upon their guests • their remaining com-
panions being in a neighbouring village escaped."
It seems that a custom formerly prevailed in this
tribe, when a death occurred in a family, for the
head of it to sally out and unburden his "o'er
fraught heart," by killing the first person he met,
" even if it were a brother ;" but this practice is now
abolished. Their chief offensive weapon is the
blow-pipe, some seven or eight feet long; the
wounds inflicted by which,with poisoned arrows, are
deadly, Thus, Mr. Johnson, who was forced to
attack the Kanowit tribe from their having mur-
dered two Englishmen, " lost thirty men by wounds
from the poisoned arrows. He found the bodies of
Dayaks, who had gone out as skirmishers, without
a mark, beyond the simple puncture, where a drop
of blood rested on the wound." The social life of
the sea Dayaks presents some curious features.
Thus they "spare the rod and spoil the child" upon
principle. They "prefer male children, and the more
mischievous and boisterous they are when young,
the greater delight they afford tleeir parents. The
observation "He is very wicked," is the greatest
praise. They indulge them in everything, and at
home give way to their caprices in an extraordinary
manner." They are also very hospitable, and they
show it by presenting their guests with " fish that
emits a very high scent, or eggs of a very ancient
date." At the marriage ceremony, " after the heads
of the affianced have been knocked against each
other three or four times, the bridegroom puts the
prepared siri leaf and the cigar into the mouth of
the bride, while she does the same to him, whom
she thus acknowledges as her husbeno." "Light
come, light go," says the proverb, and divorce is
easy. " Many men and women have been married
seven or eight times before they find the partner
with whom they desire to spend the rest of their
lives." Still, even here, jealousy is not unknown.
If a married man "be found flirting with another
woman, the wife may inflict a severe thrashing
on her, but only with sticks, while, if the
offending woman have a husband, he may
do the same to the man. To escape these
domestic broils, he generally starts off into the
jungle, and pretends to, or really does, go head
hunting." They believe in one supreme God, also
in good and evil spirits, and in omens, of which
latter the principal is the "killing a pig and exa-
mining its heart, which is supposed to foretell
events with the utmost certainty ;" but the follow-
ing seems to be their great ceremony :
" A head feast consists in a general meeting of the tribe
in the man's house who gives the entertainment. He pre-
pares for it two ei three months before it takes place, col-
lecting fish, fowls, eggs, plaintains, and other fruits, and
in manufacturing an intoxicating drink from rice. When
all these things are ready, poles are cut of various lengths,
one for each of the heads that may be there to be rejoiced
over ; there are also fantastically-shaped wooden birds,
which undergo various evolutions in the house,and after the
feast is over are placed on the top of the before-mentioned
poles,with their heads turned in the direction of the enemies'
country. The people, dressed in their best clothes, collect
in the house and commence the feast by all the youthful
portion of the community engaging in cock-fighting—real
cock-fights, too often with very formidable steel spurs. They
are very partial to this amusement, and will go far and pay
much for a good bird, and will bet heavily on a well-known
cock.
" After some hours engaged in this amusement, they
commence drinking and eating, a pert of the ceremony
and thue
which does not entice the European stranger, nor can the
peculiar smell increase his appetite. It is an extraordinary
cayed fruit, rice of an colours and
of rottenness,
strong smelling
fish, almost lnattioornna
approaching orfio.onaotedh—fi
rnfogomwa
joint
sotian tte. roastedoeg
g_s. with_ blackt he their feathersfrom
age,
doe. n.
rottenness and their
drink having the a
which they mix pepper
rarance and thickness
tot
,cntrotast,tsma
sickening effect
duty thanbecausueptohnepytlree
them
andsh to. hßtelifeoytin.
esgwtrhe4yitoeNnv
t. more as a
extraneous matter it is not have addedi any
unpleasant, having something of
the taste of spruce-beer."
Head hunting appears to be a kind of passion
with them. They say, "The white men read books,
we hunt for heads instead." Still it is not all pro-
fit. A party on an excursion of this kind to one of