The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

WAR i6i
is used by many of the Kayans in hunting, but is
hardly regarded as a weapon for serious use in
warfare.
Beside the principal spear, two or three short
spears or javelins, sometimes merely pointed bars
of hardwood, are usually carried in the left hand
when an attack is being made.
Beside the sword and the spears the only
weapons commonly used are heavy bars of ironwood,
sharpened at both ends and flung so as to
twirl rapidly in the air. They are chiefly used in
defending houses from attack, a store of them being
kept in the house. For the defence of a house
against an expected attack, short sharp stakes of
split bamboo are thrust slantingly into the ground,
so as to present the fire-hardened tip towards the
feet of the oncoming foe.
The interior peoples have long possessed a
certain number of European-made muskets (mostly
flint-locks) and small Bruni-made brass cannon,
obtained from the Malay and Chinese traders.
The latter were chiefly valued for the defence of
the house, but were sometimes mounted in the
bows of the war-boats. The difficulty of obtaining
supplies of gunpowder has always restricted greatly
the use of firearms, and in recent years the
European governments have strictly limited the
sale of gunpowder and firearms ; and even at the
present day any war-party commissioned by one of
the governments to execute any police measure,
such as apprehending, or burning the house of,
people who have wantonly killed others, has to
rely in the main on its native weapons.
The equipment of the fighting-man consists, in
addition to his weapons, of a war-cap and war-coat
and shield (PL 93 and Fig. 26). The former is a
round closely-fitting cap woven of stout rattans split
in halves longitudinally. It affords good protection
VOL. I M