the Landu district, with Sarawak
proper, Samarahau, and Sadong, and in colour only are similar to the
sea Dyaks. The land Dyak is much shorter and weaker in frame, and is
also far less skilled in the use of arms. Cowardly, weak, and
decimated by sickness, this race had up to the accession of Sir James
Brooke in 1840, led a life of slavery and oppression. Since the
establishment of the Raja's government, however, their state has
greatly improved, although they are even yet a wretched set of people,
having none of the nobler instincts or courage characterising their
brethren of the sea. The years they have passed in oppression may
account for this, as also the continual state of poverty and sickness
in which they exist, their villages being seldom entirely free from
dysentery or small-pox, while nearly all are more or less afflicted
with _korrip_, a loathsome skin disease peculiar to the Dyak. The
religion of the land Dyaks consists solely in superstitious
observances, and they are given up to the fear of ghosts. Physical
evils, such as poverty, sickness, &c., they try to avert by
sacrifices, such as the killing of goats, pigs, &c., which they offer
to these spirits. Their belief in a future state is that when a man
dies he becomes an _autu_, or ghost, and lives in the forests.

Of the other races inhabiting Sarawak, and especially the Rejang
district, may be mentioned the Kayans, a powerful tribe living at the
head of the Rejang river, and occupying the vast tract of land
between it and the territory of the Sultan of Brunei in North Borneo;
the Kanowits, who take their name from the stream of that name, which
rises in the Batang Lupar Residency, and runs into the Rejang; and the
Poonans, Pakatans, Sians, and Ukits, the latter of whom are
acknowledged to be the wildest of the human race yet met with in
Borneo. Of these tribes, all with the exception of the Ukits are
tattooed, unlike the Dyaks, who look upon the practice with contempt,
and say that they have no need to disfigure their faces to frighten
their enemies. A curious mixture of the Dyak and Malay races are the
Milanoes. These occupy the sea-coast and Oya, Muka, and Bintulu
rivers. The custom (similar to that of the Indians on the Mosquito
shore) of flattening their children's heads is prevalent among them.

We were fortunate enough to choose the right time for our expedition
to the Rejang. The gunboat _Aline_ was leaving Kuching for Sibu, the
residence of the