After seeing the sleeping accommodations of the Dyaks, consisting of a mat on a rather uneven floor, the Americans concluded to pass the night on board of the yacht. They invited Mr. Eng to supper on board, and he passed the evening with them in the cabin.
"You have seen the Dyaks at home now, young gentlemen; how do you like the looks of them?" asked the guest, after the meal had been disposed of.
"I think they are the pleasantest savages I have ever met," replied Louis.
"I am afraid you did not appreciate the young women who were so attentive to you, Mr. Belgrave," continued the agent.
"Regarding them as uncivilized maidens, they are about the best specimens. The expression on their faces was pleasant, a few of them were pretty, though as a whole they were not handsome, and they seemed to be kind-hearted. I could not admire them, though their eyes were as brilliant as they were black. Their long hair would be the envy of many an English or American belle."
"The women are very vain of their hair. They[88] bestow a great deal of attention upon it," added Mr. Eng. "The fever of the island sometimes deprives them of their hair, as it may in your country, and that is the greatest calamity that can overtake the younger women."
"I suppose it all right here; but they disfigure and spoil one of the principal attractions of ladies in enlightened nations, the teeth, which they blacken by chewing betel."
"It also makes their lips look as though they had daubed them with blood or red paint; but they do it here, as in India, to make themselves more beautiful. Tastes differ, and the practice makes them ugly to you. The betel-vine grows here, and the leaves are used for chewing. The nut of a certain palm produces the same effect on the teeth."
"I don't admire the brass rings they wear on their waists and around their necks. If I were old enough to get married, I should not look for a wife among the Dyak girls," said Louis, laughing and shaking his head.
"The Dyak women are generally well treated; but they have to work very hard, and much that you would think the men ought to do is done by them. The lords of creation here are inclined to be lazy, while their wives and daughters are engaged in the rice-fields, though their husbands and brothers are driven to labor.
"But the women are not the abject slaves you sometimes find them in the savage state. They have[89] their influence, and exercise a degree of control in household matters. The females are fond of fish, and insist that their husbands shall supply them with this diet. On account of the bores which sweep up the rivers, this is often a dangerous occupation, and the men are unable to procure any fish. Instances are known in which the women bar the door of the house against them if they are unsuccessful."
"I believe the Malays are generally Mohammedans. What is the religion of the Dyaks?" inquired Louis.
"It has been said by some travellers that they have no religion of any kind; but I don't think this is quite true, though it is not far from it," replied Mr. Eng. "Religion is a very indefinite idea among the Dyaks, and they are chary in speaking of what there is of it. Some who have been among them maintain that they believe in a Supreme Being, who has a great many different names among the various tribes. They have almost as many inferior deities as the Hindus.
"They are very superstitious; and there are all sorts of omens, among which there is a particular bird which has obtained the name of the omen bird. His cry on the right of, or behind, a person engaged in any enterprise is an unlucky sign, and he abandons his object; while the cry heard on the left is a favorable omen, and the individual is duly encouraged to go forward.
"I had a story from a Kyan head man which had come down to him as a tradition. A great head-hunting[90] expedition, consisting of a thousand warriors, had set out many years ago. It had not gone far when a little muntjac, which you know is a kind of deer, ran across the path of the warriors. This was a bad omen; and they gave up the enterprise, and returned to their villages.
"I know of a couple just married who separated because they heard a deer-cry within three days after their union, which was a sign that one of them would die within a year. Even little insects intimidate doughty warriors, or assure them that they are far from danger, by their appearance or their cry."
"There is not a little of similar superstition in enlightened nations, though there is vastly less of it than formerly," added Louis.
"I have heard my grandfather say that the ticking of a death-watch used to scare him so that he could not sleep when he was a boy," said Morris.
"What is a death-watch?" asked Scott.
"It is a kind of beetle that conceals itself in the walls of old houses," replied Louis. "The noise it makes is really the call of the bug for his mate, and is the cry of love instead of death, as many ignorant people believe. The breaking of a looking-glass is also a sign of death in the family."
"Mrs. Blossom wouldn't break a looking-glass for a fortune," added Felix. "She says she broke one nine years before her husband died, and therefore it was a sure sign."
"But the death must come within a year to make[91] the sign hold good," replied Louis. "But if enlightened people have faith in such stuff, it is no wonder that Dyaks believe in omens. I want to ask, Mr. Eng, if these Dyaks are regularly married?"
"They are, though with very little ceremony, and no vows, oaths, nor promises. In fact, the marriage consists of such rites as the parties please, and often with no rites at all. Sometimes the betrothed are married by exchanging bracelets in public, or by eating a meal of rice together. In some communities the affianced are seated on a couple of bars of iron, and the head man shakes a couple of live chickens over their heads, invoking many blessings upon them, and the birds are afterwards killed and eaten."
"Do these people drink liquor, or have they anything in the shape of intoxicating fluids?" asked Scott.
"The national drink of Borneo is tua............