pipe or “ sumpitan,” in the use of which some of the
Muruts and Kadyans are especially expert. Even large
game was formerly obtained in this way, poisoned arrows
being used, in which case the harmless-looking blowpipe
becomes one of the most subtle and deadly of
weapons. The slightest puncture with one of these
poisoned darts is as certain to terminate fatally as is the
bite of the cobra; and this, added to the possibility of
the arrow being propelled on its journey with lightning-
like speed, without the least sound being heard, will give
an idea of its deadly power in the skilful hands of savages,
to whose ambition the death of an enemy and the possession
of his bleached skull for the decoration of. their
dwellings on feast days, was the all-important feature of
their social existence.
I have seen a Murut strike fish after fish with unerring
*• certainty with arrows from a sumpitan, even at more than
a foot below the surface of the stream; a much more difficult
thing to do than one might suppose, since allowance
has to he made for the deviation from a right fine which
the arrow takes on touching the water. The springes in
which pheasants are caught are set in artificial fences
half a mile 01* more in length, and are simply nooses of
rattan, although rarely thin brass wire is used. A bent
sapling is attached to the noose in such a manner that
when the bird runs against a twig in passing through the
opening in the fence it becomes disengaged, and flying
upwards, draws the noose tightly around the creature’s
neck.
A device similar in principle, but much more dangerous,
is used by the Muruts for capturing the wild pigs. In
tViis case a stout spear of bamboo is made to pass through
guiding loops of rattan attached to trees or stakes, so
that by the aid of a stout sapling drawn back to its fullest
tension it can be hurled right through the body of any
passing animal, which unconsciously disengages the apparatus
by pressing against or treading on a branch
across its track. These pig-sticking contrivances are very
dangerous to strangers, and even the Muruts themselves
are sometimes injured by them.
One of the Lawas Muruts showed me where the
bamboo spear belonging to one of these pig or deer-traps
had been driven right through his leg near the knee.
His bronzed features underwent the most extraordinary
and suggestive of contortions as he explained how it had
taken the strength of five or six men to hold him against
a tree while others tugged at the bamboo shaft until they
succeeded in withdrawing it from the injured limb. In
some districts these pig-traps are very numerous, and
one has to be continually on the look-out for them. I
visited the Lawas district several times, and had good
opportunities of seeing the Muruts, and noting many of
their peculiarities. Their houses are similar to those of
the Dusun, but instead of living in separate houses, one
enormous house is built sufficiently large to accommodate
from twenty to fifty families. These houses vary from
thirty to one hundred yards in length, and, like those of
the Kadyans, are built on piles. As the different tribes
are continually at variance with each other, and knowing
each other’s affection for crania, they congregate in one
large dwelling so as to be better prepared for resistance
in case of a sudden attack. These people, and the
Kayans who live in the vicinity of the Baram river, and
one or two other tribes of the aboriginal Borneans, still
continue, the practice of head-hunting, although the
custom is now fast dying out here, as it has in the case
of the Dyaks of Sarawak, and other places further south.
Only a few years back a youth was not allowed to marry