Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/626

608 and other ornaments, by the weight of which the lobe is gradually distended down to the shoulder. In several tribes the skulls of the infants are artificially deformed by means of bamboo frames and bandages.

The simple Dayak costume of blue cotton with a three-colored stripe for border is always gracefully draped, and the black hair is usually wrapped in a red cloth trimmed with gold. Most of the Dayaks tattoo the arms, hands, feet, and thighs, occasionally also the breast and temples. The designs, generally of a beautiful blue color on the coppery ground of the body, display great taste, and are nearly always disposed in odd numbers, which, as among so many other peoples, are supposed to be lucky. Amulets of stone, filigree, and the like, are also added to the ornaments to avert misfortune. In some tribes coils of brass wire are wound round the body, as among some African peoples on the shores of Victoria Nyanza.

Many Dayak tribes are still addicted to head-hunting, a practice which has made their name notorious, and which but lately threatened the destruction of the whole race. It is essentially a religious practice—so much so that no important act in their lives seems sanctioned unless accompanied by the offering of one or more heads. The child is born under adverse influences unless the father has presented a head or two to the mother before its birth. The young man can not become a man and arm himself with the mandau, or war-club, until he has beheaded at least one victim. The wooer is rejected by the maiden of his choice unless he can produce one head to adorn their new home. The chief fails to secure recognition until he can exhibit to his subjects a head secured by his own hand. No dying person can enter the kingdom beyond the grave with honor unless he is accompanied by one or more headless companions. Every rajah owes to his rank the tribute of a numerous escort after death.

Among some tribes, notably the Bahu Trings, in the northern part of the Mahakkam basin, and the Ot-Damons of the upper Kahajan, the religious custom is still more exacting. It is not sufficient to kill the victim, but before being dispatched he must also be tortured, the corpse sprinkled with his blood, and his flesh eaten under the eyes of the priest and priestesses, who perform the prescribed rites. All this explains the terror inspired by the Dayaks in their neighbors, and the current belief that they are sprung from swords and daggers that have taken human form. With the gradual spread of Islam the Dayaks of the British and Dutch possessions are slowly abandoning their bloodthirsty usages. At the same time the head-hunters themselves, strange to say, are otherwise the most moral people in the whole of Indonesia. Nearly all are perfectly frank and honest. They