gines are split up into a number of petty
tribes, speaking very distinct dialects and, generally, at enmity
amongst themselves, so that a general coalition of the bad elements
amongst them is impossible.

The institution and amusement of head-hunting appears never to have been
taken up and followed with so much energy and zeal in North Borneo as
among the Dyaks of Sarawak. I do not think that it was as a rule deemed
absolutely essential with any of our tribes that a young man should have
taken at least a head or two before he could venture to aspire to the
hand of the maiden who had led captive his heart. The heads of slain
enemies were originally taken by the conquerors as a substantial proof
and trophy of their successful prowess, which could not be gainsaid, and
it came, in time, to be considered the proper thing to be able to boast
of the possession of a large number of these ghastly tokens; and so an
ambitious youth, in his desire for applause, would not be particularly
careful from whom, or in what manner he obtained a head, and the victim
might be, not only a person with whom he had no quarrel, but even a
member of a friendly tribe, and the mode of acquisition might be, not by
a fair stand-up fight, a test of skill and courage, but by treachery and
ambush. Nor did it make very much difference whether the head obtained
was that of a man, a woman or a child, and in their petty wars it was
even conceived to be an honourable distinction to bring in the heads of
women and children, the reasoning being that the men of the attacked
tribe must have fought their best to defend their wives and children.

The following incident, which occurred some years ago at the Colony of
Labuan, serves to shew how immaterial it was whether a friend, or foe,
or utter stranger was the victim. A Murut chief of the Trusan, a river
on the mainland over against Labuan, was desirous of obtaining some
fresh heads on the occasion of a marriage feast, and put to sea to a
district inhabited by a hostile tribe. Meeting with adverse winds, his
canoes were blown over to the British Colony; the Muruts landed, held
apparently friendly intercourse with some of the Kadaian (Muhammadan)
population and, after a visit of two or three days, made preparations to
sail; but meeting a Kadaian returning to his home alone, they shot him
and went off with his head--though the man was an entire stranger to
them, and they had no quarrel with any of his tribe.

With