is not surprising that there should be many words in Dyak not known to the Malays. Though derived from the same parent tongue, the Dyak language has developed independently by contact with other races.
There are many tribes that talk the Sea Dyak language. The Sabuyaus living on the coast and at Lundu, the Balaus of the Batang Lupar and elsewhere, the dwellers on the Skrang and Saribas Rivers, as well as the Kanowit and Katibas branches of the Rejang River, all speak it, with slight modifications. There can be no doubt that all these tribes are descended from the same parent stock.
The difference of dialect between the different tribes is often a source of great amusement, and I remember well taking some Saribas boys, who had been some time in my school at Banting, on a visit to their people. We sat in the long veranda of the Dyak house, and I noticed that as they spoke to their relatives and friends there were shrieks of laughter and great merriment. The reason of this was that the boys had unconsciously picked up the Balau dialect during their stay at Banting, and their manner of speaking amused their Saribas friends exceedingly.
CHAPTER III
MANNER OF LIFE
Dyak village house—Tanju—Ruai—Bilik—Sadau—Human heads—Valuable jars—Paddy-planting—Men’s work—Women’s work—House-building—Boat-building—Kadjangs—Dyak tools—Bliong—Duku—Weaving—Plaiting mats and basket-making—Hunting—Traps—Fishing—Spoon-bait—Casting-net—Tuba-fishing—Crocodile-catching.
Among the Dyaks a whole village, consisting of some twenty or thirty families, or even more, live together under one roof. This village house is built on piles made of hard wood, which raise the floor from six to twelve feet above the ground. The ascent is made by a notched trunk or log, which serves as a ladder; one is fixed at each end of the house. The length of this house varies according to the number of families inhabiting it; but as the rooms occupied by the different families are built on the same plan and by a combination of labour, the whole presents a uniform and regular appearance.
The roof and outside walls are thatched with the leaves of the nipa palm, which are first made into attap. These are made by doubling the leaves over a stick about six feet long, each leaf overlapping the other, and sewn down with split cane or reeds. These attap are arranged in rows, each attap overlapping the one beneath it, and thus forming a roof which keeps off the rain and sun, and lasts for three or four years.
The long Dyak village house is built in a straight line, and consists of a long uncovered veranda, which is called the tanju. The paddy is put on the tanju to be dried by the sun before it is pounded to get rid of its husk and convert it into rice. Here also the clothes and a variety of other things are hung out to dry. The family whetstone and dye vat are kept under the eaves of the roof, and the men sharpen their tools and the women do their dyeing on the tanju. The flooring of this part of the house is generally made of bilian, or iron-wood, so as to stand exposure to the weather.
Next to the tanju comes the covered veranda, or ruai. This also stretches the whole length of the house, and the floor is made of bamboo, or nibong (a kind of palm), split into laths and tied down with rattan or cane.
This ruai, or public hall, is generally about twenty feet wide, and as it stretches the whole length of the house without any partition, it is a cool and pleasant place, and is much frequented by men and women for conversation and indoor pursuits. Here the women often do their work—the weaving of cloth or the plaiting of mats. Here, too, the men chop up the firewood, or even make boats, if not of too great a size. This long ruai is a public place open to all comers, and used as a road by travellers, who climb up the ladder at one end, walk through the whole length of the house, and go down the ladder at the other end. The floor is carpeted with thick and heavy mats, made of cane interlaced with narrow strips of beaten bark. Over these are spread other mats of finer texture for visitors to sit upon.
The length of this covered veranda depends upon the number of families living in the house, and these range from three or four to forty or fifty.
Each family has its own portion of this ruai, and in each there is a small fireplace, which consists of a slab of stone, at which the men warm themselves, when they get up, as they usually do, in the chill of the early morning before the sun has risen.
Over this fireplace hangs the most valuable ornament in the eyes of the Dyak, the bunch of human heads. These are the heads obtained when on the warpath by various members of the family—dead and living—and are handed down from father to son as the most precious heirlooms—more precious, indeed, than the ancient jars which the Dyaks prize so highly.
The posts in this public covered veranda are often adorned with the horns of deer and the tusks of wild boars—trophies of the chase. The empty sheaths of swords are suspended on these horns or from wooden hooks, while the naked blades are placed in racks overhead.
On one side of this long public hall is a row of doors. Each of these leads into a separate room, or bilik, which is occupied by a family. The doors open outwards, and each is closed by means of a heavy weight secured to a thong fastened to the inside. If the room be unusually large, it may have two doors for the sake of convenience.
Dyak Making a Blow-pipe
He is seen here shaping the outside of the blow-pipe. The hole is bored while the wood is about six inches in diameter, and it is then pared down to about two inches.
Dyak Village House in course of Construction
This picture shows the arrangement of pillars and rafters of a Dyak house. The floor nearest the earth is divided into the long open veranda and the rooms in which the different families live. Above this is the loft, where the paddy is stored away. Part of the roof in the picture has been covered with palm-leaf thatch.
This room serves several purposes. It serves as a kitchen, and in one corner there is a fireplace where the food is cooked. This fireplace is set against the wall of the veranda, and resembles an open cupboard. The lowest shelf rests on the floor, and is boarded all round and filled with clay. This forms the fireplace, and is furnished with a few stones upon which the pots are set for cooking. The shelf immediately above the fireplace is set apart for smoking fish. The shelves above are filled with firewood, which is thoroughly dried by the smoke and ready for use. As the smoke from the wood fire is not conducted through the roof by any kind of chimney, it spreads itself through the loft, and blackens the beams and rafters of the roof.
This room also serves as a dining-room. When the food is cooked, mats are spread here, and the inmates squat on the floor to eat their meal. There is no furniture, the floor serving the double purpose of table and chairs.
This bilik also serves as a bedroom. At night the mats for sleeping on are spread out here, and the mosquito-curtains hung up.
There is no window to let in the air and light, but a portion of the roof is so constructed that it can be raised a foot or two, and kept open by means of a stick.
Round the three sides of this room are ranged the treasured valuables of the Dyaks—old jars, some of which are of great value, and brass gongs, and guns. Their cups and plates are hung up in rows flat against the walls. The flooring is the same as that of the veranda, and is made of split palm or bamboo tied down with cane. The floor is swept after a fashion, the refuse falling through the flooring to the ground underneath. But the room is stuffy, and not such a pleasant place as the open veranda. The pigs and poultry occupy the waste space under the house.
From the bilik there is a ladder which leads to an upper room, or loft (sadau),