John Dalton 'The way of cutting off their heads varies with the different tribes. The Sea Dyaks, for instance, sever the head at the neck, and so preserve both jaws. Among the Hill Dyaks, on the other hand, heads are very carelessly taken, being split open or slashed across with parangs . Often it may be seen that quite large portions have been hacked out of the heads.
Many tribesmen habitually carry about their person a little basket destined to receive a head.
It is always very neatly plaited, ornamented with a variety of shells, and hung about with human hair. The Sea Dyaks scoop out the brains by way of the nostrils, and then hang up the head to dry in the smoke of a wood fire - usually the fire which is maintained anyway for the cooking of all the food for the members of the tribe. Every now and then they will leave their preoccupations, saunter across to the fire, and tear or slash off a piece of the skin and burnt flesh of the cheek or chin, and eat it. The brains are not always extracted by way of the nostrils, however. They do not, like some other Dyak tribes, eat indiscriminately all parts of the body.