affection and are adopted, freed, and married
to free women. Slaves and masters eat together the same food in
the rural villages.[711] Among the land Dyaks slaves, by
destitution and debt, "are just as happy as if perfectly free,
enjoying all the liberty of their masters, who never think of
ill-using them."[712] In old times one who set a house on fire
was liable to become the slave of any one who was burned
out.[713] Slaves on Timor do not seem to care for liberty. Their
livelihood would not be so certain. There is a kind of slavery to
the kingdom, not to any individual, but the slave cannot be sold
by the king.[714] In the Barito valley a debtor slave has to do
any kind of work. He may be punished by blows, or fines added to
his debt, which may also be increased by any breaches of customs,
or by the value of broken tools or vessels. A month after a child
is born to him ten gulden are added, also expenses of education
when the child is ready to go to work. He may be slain at a feast
of the dead by his master. The owner can torment the debtor by
new fines, and keep up the debt or even increase it.[715] In the
Katingan valley there are no debtor slaves, because after three
years a debtor who cannot pay becomes an hereditary slave, and
cannot get his liberty even if he should get the means to pay his
debt.[716] If he ever gets the means to pay and attempts to free
himself he is compelled to pay fees, taxes, and customary dues to
the "spirits of the house," etc. When he leaves his master's
house he must not return to it for a year or two, nor eat
anything brought from it--"to prove his independence." Then he
gives a feast and becomes free.[717] "Slavery and pawnship are,
in the nature of the case, the same."[718] The Dyaks put their
Eden on a cloud island. They have a myth that the daughters of
the great Being let down seven times seven hundred cords of gold
thread in order to lower mortals upon a mountain, but the mortals
were overhasty and tried to lower themselves by bamboos and
rattans. The god, angry at this, condemned them to slavery. The
myth, therefore, accounts for a caste of slaves. Formerly also
war captives and criminals who could not pay fines became slaves.
Debts cause men to fall into pawnship. Extravagant living, and
gambling, lead to this condition. If a man becomes pawn for a
debt his whole house