This legend shows, at any rate, how fixed
is this habit, not alone in the passions of the people, but also in
their traditional regard. Yet, strange as it may seem, they are an
attractive race. A missionary's wife who has known them well declares
that they are gentle and kindly, simple as children, disposed to love
and reverence all who are wiser and more civilized than themselves. Ida
Pfeiffer concludes that the Dyaks pleased her best, not only among the
races of Borneo, but among all the races of the earth with which she has
come in contact. And a cultivated Englishman, with wealth and social
position at command, has been so attracted to them, that he has lavished
both his fortune and his best years in the work of their elevation. The
social condition of the Dyaks has been sufficiently wretched. Subjected
to the Malays, they have been forced to work in the mines without pay,
while they were liable at any moment to be robbed of their homes, and
even of their wives and children. "We do not live like men," said one of
them, with great pathos. "We are like monkeys, hunted from place to
place. We have no houses, and we dare not light a fire lest the smoke
draw our enemies upon us."
Running along the whole northern coast of Borneo, eight hundred miles,
and inland perhaps two hundred, is found Borneo Proper, one of the three
great Mohammedan kingdoms into which the island was divided as early as
the sixteenth century.
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