e some gods, but they know hardly
anything about them, and they do not want to know. They neither make
images to the gods, nor say prayers to them. They live like the beasts,
thinking only of this life; yet they are more unhappy than beasts, for
they imagine there are evil spirits among the woods and hills, watching
to do them harm. It is often hard to persuade them to go to the top of a
mountain, where they say evil spirits dwell. Such a people would be more
ready to listen to a missionary than those who have idols, and temples,
and priests, and sacred books.

Their wickedness is very great. It is their chief delight to get the
heads of their enemies. There are a great many different tribes of Dyaks,
and each tribe tries to cut off the heads of other tribes. The Dyaks who
live by the sea are the most cruel; they go out in the boats to rob, and
to bring home, not _slaves_, but HEADS! And how do they treat a head when
they get it? They take out the brains, and then they dry it in the smoke,
with the flesh and hair still on; then they put a string through it, and
fasten it to their waists. The evening that they have got some new heads,
the warriors dance with delight,--their heads dangling by their
sides;--and they turn round in the dance, and gaze upon their heads,--and
shout,--and yell with triumph! At night they still keep the heads near
them; and in the day, they play with them, as children with their dolls,
talking to them, putting food in their mouths, and the betel-nut between
their ghastly lips. After wearing the heads many days, they hang them up
to the ceilings of their rooms.

No English lord thinks so much of his pictures, as the Dyaks do of their
heads. They think these heads are the finest ornaments of their houses.
The man who has _most_ heads, is considered the _greatest_ man. A man who
has NO HEADS is despised! If he wishes to be respected, he must get a
head as soon as he can. Sometimes a man, in order to get a head, will go
out to look for a poor fisherman, who has done him no harm, and will come
back with his head.

When the Dyaks fight against their enemies, they try to get, not only the
heads of _men_, but also the heads of _women_ and CHILDREN. How dreadful
it must be to see a poor BABY'S HEAD hanging from the ceiling! There was
a Dyak who lost all his property by fire, but he cared not for losing
anything, so much as for losing his PRECIOUS HEADS; nothing could console
him for THIS loss; some of