The Land Dyaks inhabit the country lying between the Sadong River and the headwaters of the Sambas, extending southward to the Kapurce, and an unknown distance beyond. They live inland, and differ in certain customs from their neighbors, the Sea Dyaks. The Land Dyaks are the only people in Borneo who burn their dead. The warriors, though brave, are not fond of war for its own sake, nor are they possessed with an insatiable desire for plunder, as are the Kyans, and formerly the Sea Dyaks also. Their social customs closely resemble those of the Sea Dyaks.
The Sea Dyaks consist of seven clans, and occupy all the territory between the Rejang and Sadong rivers, from the sea-coast southward to the Kapurce. The Sarawak government estimates their number at 90,000, and the Land Dyaks at 35,000. The color of a typical Sea Dyak is dark brown, with a strong tinge of yellow. His hair is long and of a glossy black, and falls on his shoulders in graceful locks.
The Dyaks are happy and contented. Their wants are few, their diseases fewer, and their crimes fewer still. In hospitality, human sympathy and charity, they are not outranked by any people living, as far as I know, and their morals are as much superior to ours as our intelligence is beyond theirs. If happiness is the goal of human existence, the Dyak is much nearer to it than we. In this instance, at least, the highest civilization has not evolved the most perfect state of society. Is it possible that man reaches his highest moral development in a state of savagery? Is it then really true that as we increase in civilized intelligence, our capacities and propensities for wickedness increase likewise, and if so, will this always be the case with mankind?
[K] For elaborate discussions of these tribes the reader must consult Mr. Hornaday’s book, “Ten Years in the Jungle, with Rifle and Knife,” which has been announced by its publishers, Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons, as nearly ready for circulation.
I am here because God has sent me to do a work that no other being could do but myself. Had there not been room for me, God had not made me. Had I not been needed in America, God had not placed me in America. Had I not work in the nineteenth century, I had not been born.… I have a place—am sent of God on a mission, and if I perform it God shall acknowledge that I have done His will.—From Sermons by Bishop Simpson.