average three children who live to he married at the age
of about twenty-five. Add to these those who die in
infancy, those who. never marry, or those who marry late
in life and have no offspring, the number of children born
to each marriage must average four or five; and we know
that families of seven or eight are very common, and of
ten and twelve by no means rare. But from inquiries
at almost every Dyak tribe I visited, I ascertained that
the women rarely had more than three or four children,
and an old chief assured me that he had never known
a woman have more than seven.5 In a villagO e consisti• ng©
of a hundred and fifty families, only one consisted of six
children living, and Only six of five children, the majority
appearing to be two, three, or four. Comparing this with
the known proportions in European countries, it is evident
that the number of children to each marriage can hardly
average more than three or four; and as even in civilized
countries half the population die before the age of twenty-
five, we should have only two left to replace their parents ;
and so long as this state of things continued, the population
must remain stationary. Of course this is a mere
illustration; but the facts I have stated seem to indicate
that something of the kind really takes place; and if so,
there is no difficulty in understanding the smallness and
almost stationary population of the Dyak tribes.
We have next to inquire what is the cause of the small
number of births and of living children in a family.
Climate and race may have something to do with this, but
a more real and efficient cause seems to me to be the hard
labour of the women, and the heavy weights they constantly
carry. A Dyak woman generally spends the whole day in
the field, and Games home every night a heavy load of
vegetables and firewood, often for several miles, over rough
and hilly paths; and pot upfrequently has to climb up
a rocky inountaip by ladders, and oyer slippery stepping-
stones, to an elevation of a thousand feet. Besides this,
she has an hour’s work every evenipg to pound the rice
with a heavy wooden stamper, which violently strains
every part of the body. She begins this kind of labour
when nine or ten years old, and it never ceases but
with the extreme decrepitude of age. Surely we need
not wonder at the limited number of her progeny, but
rather be | surprised at the successful efforts of nature to
prevent the extermination of the race.
One of the surest and most beneficial effects of advancing
civilization, will be the amelioration of the
condition of these women. The precept and example
of higher races will make the Dyak ashamed of his
comparatively idle life, while his weaker partner labours
like a beast of burthen. As his wants become increased
and his tastes refined, the women will have more household
duties to attend to, and will then cease to labour in the