rs of the
missionary as useless as endeavoring to read off a blank paper. I
doubt not but the Sibnowan Dyaks would readily receive missionary
families among them, provided the consent of the Rajah Muda Hassim
was previously obtained. That the rajah would consent I much doubt;
but if any person chose to reside at Tungong, for the charitable
purpose of leading the tribe gradually, by means of education, to
the threshold of Christianity, it would be worth the asking, and I
would exert what influence I possess with him on the occasion. I feel
sure a missionary would be safe among them, as long as he strictly
confined himself to the gentle precepts and practice of his faith;
he would live abundantly and cheaply, and be exposed to no danger
except from the incursion of hostile tribes, which must always be
looked for by a sojourner amid a Dyak community.

"I must add, that this day, when so many of my friends are destroying
partridges, I have had my gun in my hand, to procure a few specimens.

"_2d._--To continue my account of the Sibnowan Dyaks. I made particular
inquiry about the superstition stated to exist regarding birds,
and the omens said to be drawn from their flight; but I could trace
no vestige of such a belief, nor did they seem at all acquainted
with its existence. The government of the Sibnowans may be called
patriarchal. The authority of the chief appears limited within very
narrow bounds; he is the leader in war, and the dispenser of the laws;
but possesses no power of arbitrary punishment, and no authority for
despotic rule. The distinction between Sejugah and the lowest of his
tribe is not great, and rather a difference of riches than of power. A
few ornamented spears, presented by the Malays, seem his only insignia
of office; and these were never displayed in our presence, save in the
dance. The chiefship would appear to be elective, and not hereditary;
but I could not distinctly understand whether the appointment rested
with the rajah or the tribe. The former claims it; but the latter
did not speak as though his right were a matter of necessity or
certainty. On asking Kalong, the eldest son of Sejugah (a young man
of twenty years of age, active, clever, and intelligent), whether he
would succeed his father, he replied, he feared he was not _rich _
enough; but two or three of the tribe, who were present, asserted
that he would be made chief. The Rajah Muda Hassim told me that the
only hold he had on the Dya