The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

70 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.certained that the women rai-ely had more tlian three or fourchildren, and an old chief assured me that he had never knowna woman have more than seven. In a village consistingof a hundred and fifty families, only one consisted of sixchildren living, and only six of five children, the majorityappearing to be two, three, or four. Compai'ing this with theknown proportions in European countries, it is evident that thenumber of children to each marriage can hardly average morethan three or four ; and as even in civilized countries half thepopulation die before the age of twenty-five, we should have onlytwo left to replace their parents ; and so long as this state ofthings continued, the population must remain stationary. Ofcourse tliis is a mere illustration ; but the facts I have statedVseem to indicate that something of the kind really takes place ;and if so, there is no difficulty in understanding the smallnessand almost stationary population of the Dyak tribes.We hsixe next to inquire what is the cause of the small numberof births and of living children in a family. Climate and racemay have something to do with this, but a more real andefficient cause seems to me to be the hard labour of the women,A Dyak womanand the heavy weights they constantly carry.generally spends the whole day in the field, and carries homeevery night a heavy load of vegetables and firewood, often forseveral miles, over rough and hilly paths ; and not unfrequentlyhas to climb up a rocky mountain by ladders, and over slipperystepping-stones, to an elevation of a thousand feet. Besidestliis, she has an hour's work every evening to pound the ricewith a heavy wooden stamper, wliich violently strains everypart of the body. She begins this kind of labour when nine orten years old, and it never ceases but with the extreme decrepitudeof age. Surely we need not wonder at the limitednumber of her progeny, but rather be surprised at the successfuleftbrts of nature to prevent the extermination of the race.One of the surest and most beneficial effects of advancingcivilization, will be the amelioration of the condition of thesewomen. The precept and example of higher races will makethe Dyak ashamed of his comparatively idle life, while hisweaker partner labovirs like a beast of burthen. As his wantsbecome increased and his taste I'efined, the women will havemore household duties to attend to, and will then cease to labourin the field—a change which has already to a great extent takenplace in the allied Malay, Javanese, and Bugis tribes. Populationwill then certainly increase more rapidly, improved systems ofagriculture and some division of labour will become necessaryin order to provide the means of existence, and a more complicatedsocial state will take the place of the simple conditionsof society which now obtain among them. But, with the sharperstruggle for existence that will then occur, will the happiness ofthe people as a whole be increased or diminished ? Will not evilpassions be aroused by the spirit of competition, and crimes and