up an incessant din on five gongs which were suspended
in the centre of the public apartment. I asked to see his
collection of heads, and after a good deal of talking, a
few dry old examples were brought; but after we left I
was told that they had many more, including the one so-
recently taken, but that they were afraid to let the fact
be known. This tribe had good reasons for secrecy in
the matter, since one man had been hung at Labuan for
a head-hunting murder a year or two previous to my
visit, and another would have suffered the same fate had
he not died in jail. They had actually crossed over to
the English colony to look out for heads, and ascending
a little river on the western side, had shot a man who
was coming down in a canoe. The shot, an old nail,
struck the shaft of the paddle, and passing through,
entered the man’s body, after which they made off, but
were captured by the Government and tried for the
murder. This identical paddle was one of the first things
I saw when I paid my respects to His Excellency the
Governor of Labuan, and when the story was narrated tome
it did not sound very cheering, seeing that I expected
to live among these tribes for some months at least.
However, I could never hear of a white man being killed,
except by the pirates from Tawi Tawi and Sulu, with one
exception, which was of a man who is supposed to have
been poisoned by his native mistress. St. John mentions
one tribe, however, who are peculiarly addicted to poisoning
anyone who may he disliked by them. The nature
of the poison used is not exactly known, hut it is very
generally supposed to be a peculiarly irritating fibre or
spiculse derived from some species of bamboo, the effect
of which is to cause a chronic state of sickness and
depression, followed by death. Whatever it may he, it
is a mechanical rather than a chemical irritant. When
one travels in such a lovely island, however, as Borneo
undoubtedly is, it is extremely difficult to believe half
the tales told of the native tribes, and altogether the
proportionate number of robberies and murders is not
more than takes place in the most enlightened centre of
civilisation in the world. The total population of the
island is supposed to he from 8,000,000 to 4,000,000,
and when we consider that all these un christianised
natives (excepting those in Sarawak and the Dutch territory)
live together with no law—nothing in fact hut
their own sense of right and wrong, and public opinion
to keep them in order—the wonder is that, even according
to our own standard, crime is so seldom heard of.
The Kadyans are a tribe of peaceable and well-disposed
aboriginals, who, living along the coast near to the
capital, have mixed a good deal with the Malays and
speak their language. It is not uncommon, however, to
find the older and more intelligent men of this tribe well
acquainted with several dialects of the interior, such as
Murut, Dusun, and the Brunei dialect, used by the
common natives of the capital. They are mostly Mah'o-
medans, and so are more respected by their Malay rulers
than are other of the aboriginals. They form thrifty
little colonies on most of the rivers near Brunei, and
many have settled in Labuan, where they cultivate their
rice fields, and occasionally bring fruit or fish to the
markets. They are for the most part a clean and healthy
race, and form a great contrast with their neighbours who
live in a more irregular manner, and are often troubled
with skin diseases, this being in a measure owing to
the want of cleanliness and of a regular diet. There
cannot be any doubt but that Islam is a great blessing to
many Eastern races, especially so far as cleanliness and
temperance are concerned.