st proof to a man's tribesmen
of the discharge of the debt of life; it was the trophy of success
in defeating the foe. Whatever the cause of taking the head may have
been with the first people, it would surely spread to others of a
similar culture who warred with a head-taking tribe, as they would
wish to appear as cruel, fierce, and courageous as the enemy.

Henry Ling Roth[33] quotes Sir Spencer St. John as follows concerning
the Seribas Dyaks of Borneo (p. 142):

A certain influential man denied that head-hunting is a religious
ceremony among them. It is merely to show their bravery and manliness,
that it may be said that so-and-so has obtained heads. When they
quarrel it is a constant phrase, "How many heads did your father or
grandfather get?" If less than his own number, "Well, then, you have
no occasion to be proud!" Thus the possession of heads gives them
great considerations as warriors and men of wealth, the skulls being
prized as the most valuable of goods.

Again he quotes St. John (p. 143):

Feasts in general are: To make their rice grow well, to cause the
forest to abound with wild animals, to enable their dogs and snares
to be successful in securing game, to have the streams swarm with
fish, to give health and activity to the people themselves, and to
insure fertility to their women. All these blessings the possessing
and feasting of a fresh head are supposed to be the most efficient
means of securing.

He quotes Axel. Dalrymple as follows (p. 141)

The Uru Ais believe that the persons whose heads they take will become
their slaves in the next world.

On the same page he quotes others to the same point regarding other
tribes of Borneo.

Roth states (p. 163):

From all accounts there can be little doubt that one of the chief
incentives to getting heads is the desire to please the women. It may
not always have been so and there may be and probably is the natural
blood-thirstiness of the animal in man to account for a great deal
of the head-taking.

He quotes Mrs. F. F. McDougall in her statement of a Sakaran legend
of the origin of head-taking to the effect that the daughter of their
great ancestor residing near the Evening Star "refused to marry until
her betrothed brought her a present worth her acceptance." First
the young man killed a deer which the girl turned from with disdain;
then he killed and brought her one of the great monkeys of the forest,
but it did not please her. "Then, in a f