The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

i88 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
ago only (perhaps a century and a half or even less)
in imitation of Kayans or other tribes among whom
it had been established for a longer period. The
rapid growth of the practice among the I bans was
no doubt largely due to the influence of the Malays,
who had been taught by Arabs and others the arts
of piracy, and with whom the I bans were associated
in the piratical enterprises that gave the waters
around Borneo a sinister notoriety during the
eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the
settlements of Ibans were practically confined to the
rivers of the southern part of Sarawak ; and there
the Malays of Bruni and of other coast settlements
enlisted them as crews for their pirate ships. In
these piratical expeditions the Malays assigned the
heads of their victims as the booty of their Iban
allies, while they kept for themselves the forms of
property of greater cash value. The Malays were
thus interested in encouraging in the Ibans the
passion for head-hunting which, since the suppres-
sion of piracy, has found vent in the irregular
warfare and treacherous acts described above. It
was through their association with the Malays in
these piratical expeditions that the Ibans became
known to Europeans as the Sea Dayaks.
It seems not impossible that the practice of
taking the heads of fallen enemies arose by
extension of the custom of taking the hair for the
ornamentation of the shield and sword-hilt. It
seems possible that human hair was first applied to
shields in order to complete the representation of
a terrible human face, which, as we have seen, is
commonly painted on the shield, and which is said
to be valued as an aid to confusing and terrifying
the foe. It is perhaps a difficulty in the way of
this view that the use of human hair to ornament
the shield is peculiar to the Kenyahs and some of