“The clothes of the deceased are then divided among the relatives and friends; the garland is burned; another púja is repeated; while the remains of the sacred water are sprinkled over the feast. The parties now sit down to the enjoyment of it, invoking a blessing from the Almighty on themselves, their houses, and their lands. No more solemnities are observed till the expiration of a thousand days; when, if the memory of the deceased is beloved and cherished, the ceremony and feast are repeated; if otherwise, no further notice is taken of him: and having thus obtained what the Romans call his justa, he is allowed to be forgotten.
“Being questioned regarding the tenets of their religion, they replied that they believed in a Déwa, who was all-powerful; that the name by which the Déwa was designated was Búmi Trúka Sáng’yáng Dewáta Bátur, and that the particulars of their worship were contained in a book called Pángláwu, which they presented to me.
“On being questioned regarding the ádat against adultery, theft, and other crimes, their reply was unanimous and ready—that crimes of this kind were unknown to them, and that consequently no punishment was fixed, either by law or custom; that if a man did wrong, the head of the village chid him for it, the reproach of which was always sufficient punishment for a man of Teng’ger. This account of their moral character is fully confirmed by the Regents of the districts, under whose authority they are placed, and also by the residents. They, in fact, seem to be almost without crime, and are universally peaceable, orderly, honest, industrious, and happy. They are unacquainted with the vice of gambling and the use of opium.
“The aggregate population is about twelve hundred souls; and they occupy, without exception, the most beautifully rich and romantic spots on Java; a region in which the thermometer is frequently as low as forty-two. The summits and slopes of the hills are covered with Alpine firs, and plants common to an European climate flourish in luxuriance.
“Their language does not differ much from the Javan of the present day, though more gutturally pronounced. Upon a comparison of about a hundred words with the Javan vernacular, two only were found to differ. They do not marry or intermix with the people of the lowlands, priding themselves on their independence and purity in this respect.”—Raffles’s History of Java.
GROUP IV.
DYAKS OF BORNEO, A. MALES; B. FEMALES.
The native, and aboriginal tribes of Borneo, have no general name by which they designate themselves, neither have they a general name for their island; and this is a fact which occurs pretty generally throughout the Indian Archipelago. A mere islet, a piece of land visibly and palpably surrounded by water—takes the name of pulo (island); but the larger masses like Celebes, Borneo, Sumatra, and (as Mr. Craufurd writes) each and all of the islands with the single exception of Borneo, are treated as continents,—so narrow is the knowledge of the inhabitants and so limited their powers of comprehension and generalisation. Hence, Borneo is an European rather than a native term; taken from the name of a particular portion of the island and extended to the whole. It was first used by Pigafetta, a companion of Magalhan, during his voyage round the world in 1521. This gave it a currency in Europe which it has maintained ever since.
As to the different divisions of the population, they generally take their designation from the name of the stream on which they reside; so that when we hear of such tribes as the Sarebas, the Lundu, the Sakarran, &c., we may safely conclude that rivers so called form their several occupancies.
The natives, then, have no general name by which they designate themselves collectively. But we have. We—i.e., the Europeans—call them Dyaks. Dyak is a Malay word—much such a word as Savage, or Barbarian—so that expressions like Dyak, Sarebas (the savages of the Sarebas), &c., are only partially native—partially native and partially Malay.
The Malay origin of the word indicates the existence of a Malay population in, or in the neighbourhood of, the island; a Malay population as well as a native. And such is the case. Over and above the proper aborigines, we find in Borneo, Chinese from China, Bugis from the Island of Celebes, and (as aforesaid) Malays from the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra.