Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1905-12-24

THE YOUNG BRAVE SWAGGERED HUME
 WITH HIS TROPHY.
 companies. For the rest let us accept that distinct tropical island as the man in the street. is willing to accept it, merely as "Borneo, where the head hunters come from
 Moreover. it is not to be supposed that head hunters are the sole inhabit- ants of the country. A new arrival who landed q few years ago at tbe principal port, armed to the teeth with two loaded revolvers and a large bowie knife and ready to fight for his head at any moment, was disarmed by cour~ teouS customs official and directed to a comfortable hotel. from the ve"anda of which he wIs able to see English la dies amusing themselves at lawn, tennis and European children taking their afternoon airing under the charge of their Chinese nurses.
 It probably would not have conduced to the greenhorn's peace of mind had he known that the dapper little Dyak policeman doing street duty in the road below with nc more deadly weapon than truncheon cherished lovingly in his box at the barracks a long, keeI knife whose handle bore little row of notches. It was merely valued relic of the policeman's younger days before he left his faraway jungle village to enlist in the white mans service, but each notch could have told its tale of Q the swift and deadly blow that added yet one more to the number of jungle tragedies and one more to the grim line of trophies hanging in the village long house.
 Head hunting as tribal custom is rapidly dying out as the sphere of in- ] fuence' of the government slowly but steadily extends farther and farther into the interior.
 The principal reasons for which heads are taken may be summed up into a few words-frstly, as q sign of Nalor and token of manhood, and, secondly as ready method of keeping the score in a blood feud. It is common belief that the wild Dyak of Borneo is in the habit of prowling around with a large knife like the Hon of Scripture, seek ing whom he may devour," and also that he collects heads in much the same way as his white brother collects post age stamps or butterflies. This, how ever, is far from being the case, and the native of the far interior is in real ity avery mild savage. whose principal vice is the habit of becoming extremely intoxicated on fermented drink which he makes from a far too large portion of his rice crop.
 We will briefly analyze the first of the two reasons given above for which the young "buck" sallies forth lon a head hunt. Undoubtedly in days gone by the possession of head implied that the owner, or. rather, the new own CT, had successfully met and conquered an enemy. The young brave swaggered home with his newly acquired trophy, feeling that he had at last donned the toga virilis and was entitled to marry a wife and join in the councils of the men. Festivities were held. large Quan- titles of tapai (rice wine) were con sumed, and the hero of the hour, having taken possession of room in the mar ried" portion of the long house that shelters the whole of Dyak village and found damsel to share it, would proceed to hang up his head as proudly as his English brother hangs up his first sporting trophy. -
 Times have deteriorated since these good old days The young matron whose