hung up in rows flat against the wall. The flooring
of this room is the same as that of the public hall outside, and made of
split palm or bamboo tied down with cane. The floor is swept after a
fashion, the refuse falling through the flooring to the ground
underneath. The room is stuffy and not such a pleasant place as the open
hall outside. The pigs and poultry occupy the waste space under the
house.

Each family has its own portion of the long public hall outside, and the
length of this corresponds to the breadth of the room occupied by the
family, and in each of these portions there is a small fireplace which
consists of a slab of stone, at which the men warm themselves when they
get up, as they usually do, in the chill of the early morning before the
sun has risen.

Over this fireplace in the open hall hangs the most valuable ornament in
the eyes of the Dyak, the bunch of human heads. These are the heads
obtained when on the war-path by various members of the family--dead and
living--and handed down from father to son as the most precious
heirlooms--more precious, indeed, than the ancient jars which the Dyaks
prize so highly.

The posts in this public part of the Dyak village house are often
adorned with the horns of deer and the tusks of wild boar. The empty
sheaths of swords are hung from these horns or from wooden hooks, while
the naked blades are placed in racks overhead.

If you can imagine a long house built several feet above the ground on
posts, with walls and roof of palm leaf thatch, and this house divided
into two parts, one a large public hall common to all the inmates, and
the other divided into separate rooms each occupied by a different
family, then you have some idea of the kind of house in which the Dyaks
live.

The women are earlier risers than the men, and retire to bed earlier.
They generally go to the river as soon as they wake, carrying their
water-gourds with them. They have a bath, fill their gourds with water,
and return to the house to cook the morning meal.

The principal article of food is rice, which is cooked in brass or iron
pots. With their rice they eat either vegetables or fish. Sometimes they
have the flesh of wild pig or deer, but that is not usual. Nearly every
animal is eaten by the Dyaks; fish, venison and pork are eaten by all,
and many tribes eat monkeys, snakes and even crocodiles. A favourite
method of cooking is to put the proper quantity of fish or vegetables or