In all the Dyak villages every precaution is taken to guard against surprise. I have already described the strength and fortifications of Loondoo, and a similar principle is every where adopted. The town being built on the banks of the river, the boom I have described is invariably laid across the stream to prevent the ascent of boats. Commanding the barriers, one or more forts are built on an eminence, mounting within them five or six of the native guns, called leilas. The forts are surrounded by a strong stockade, which is surmounted by a cheveaux-de-frise of split bamboos. These stockaded forts are, with the houses and cocoa nuts adjoining, again surrounded by a strong stockade, which effectually secures them from any night attack. Great respect is paid to the laws and to the mandates of their Chiefs, although it but too often happens that, stimulated by revenge, or other passions, they take the law into their own hands; but if crimes are committed, they are not committed without punishment following them, and some of their punishments are very barbarous and cruel: I have seen a woman with both her hands half-severed at the wrists, and a man with both his ears cut off. The religious ideas of the Dyaks resemble those of the North American Indians: they acknowledge a Supreme Being, or "Great Spirit;" they have also some conception of an hereafter. Many of the tribes imagine that the great mountain Keney Balloo is a place of punishment for guilty departed souls. They are very scrupulous regarding their cemeteries, paying the greatest respect to the graves of their ancestors. When a tribe quits one place to reside at another, they exhume the bones of their relations, and take them with them. I could not discover if they had any marriage ceremony, but they are very jealous of their wives, and visit with great severity any indiscretion on their parts. The Dyaks live principally upon rice, fish, and fruit, and they are very moderate in their living. They extract shamshoo from the palm, but seldom drink it Their principal luxury consists in the chewing the betel-nut and chunam; a habit in which, like all the other inhabitants of these regions, from Arracan down to the island of New Guinea, they indulge to excess. This habit is any thing but becoming, as it renders the teeth quite black, and the lips of a high vermilion, neither of which alterations is any improvement to a copper-coloured face. They both chew and smoke tobacco, but they do not use pipes for smoking; they roll up the tobacco in a strip of dried leaf, take three or four whiffs, emitting the smoke through their nostrils, and then they extinguish it. They are fond of placing a small roll of tobacco between the upper lip and gums, and allow it to remain there for hours. Opium is never used by them, and I doubt if they are acquainted with its properties.