e no offspring,
the number of children born to each marriage must average four or five,
and we know that families of seven or eight are very common, and of ten
and twelve by no means rare. But from inquiries at almost every Dyak
tribe I visited, I ascertained that the women rarely had more than three
or four children, and an old chief assured me that he had never known a
woman to have more than seven.

In a village consisting of a hundred and fifty families, only one
consisted of six children living, and only six of five children, the
majority of families appearing to be two, three, or four. Comparing this
with the known proportions in European countries, it is evident that the
number of children to each marriage can hardly average more than three
or four; and as even in civilized countries half the population die
before the age of twenty-five, we should have only two left to replace
their parents; and so long as this state of things continued,
the population must remain stationary. Of course this is a mere
illustration; but the facts I have stated seem to indicate that
something of the kind really takes place; and if so, there is no
difficulty in understanding the smallness and almost stationary
population of the Dyak tribes.

We have next to inquire what is the cause of the small number of births
and of living children in a family. Climate and race may have something
to do with this, but a more real and efficient cause seems to me to
be the hard labour of the women, and the heavy weights they constantly
carry. A Dyak woman generally spends the whole day in the field, and
carries home every night a heavy load of vegetables and firewood, often
for several miles, over rough and hilly paths; and not unfrequently
has to climb up a rocky mountain by ladders, and over slippery
stepping-stones, to an elevation of a thousand feet. Besides this, she
has an hour's work every evening to pound the rice with a heavy wooden
stamper, which violently strains every part of the body. She begins this
kind of labour when nine or ten years old, and it never ceases but with
the extreme decrepitude of age. Surely we need not wonder at the limited
number of her progeny, but rather be surprised at the successful efforts
of nature to prevent the extermination of the race.

One of the surest and most beneficial effects of advancing civilization,
will be the amelioration of the condition of these women. The
precept and example of higher races