The Dayaks are as a rule the most litigious people in creation and never feel happy unless they have some “basara” or action pending. They would prove an unexhaustible source of revenue to European lawyers, could they be transplanted into our Western hemisphere. Their basara day therefore simply means another holiday for the inhabitants of a kotta, attendance at a sitting of the judges being a treat almost irresistible. The one which was now to take place was invested with special importance, as the new chief Amai Njawong would preside for the first time. First of all several trivial charges were disposed of, in the progress of which the Europeans did not fail to notice the shrewdness and sagacity of the solicitors. With the utmost interest they watched the peculiar practices of these men of the law. They were provided with a number of small rattan dolls as part of their professional paraphernalia. Whenever a point was gained by the production of irrefragable proof, the plaintiff’s lawyer stuck one of these dolls in the ground before him, so that at the end of his pleadings a number of these figures were arrayed around him. When in the defence any of his arguments or facts were disproved and the defendant’s solicitor scored a point by planting a doll before his own seat, one of the plaintiff’s collection had to be removed. Thus these dolls represented so many items of established evidence. At the close of the pleadings the verdict was awarded to the one who had most dolls standing. In these peculiar proceedings, sleight of hand plays no unimportant part. Dolls are sometimes nefariously planted or abstracted, and the recriminations which ensue necessitate a new action on the following court day, with the resumption of proceedings “de novo.” Among the most important cases there was one in which three persons stood accused of the same offence. Two of them belonged to people of distinction, but the third was a hireling. The accusation being formally made the court proceeded to the manjapa or administration of oaths. A black hen was produced and beheaded by the accuser—who then solemnly swore to the truth of the charge. The accused in their defence observed the same formality and swore solemnly to their innocence. In this dilemma the judges had recourse to the Dayak ordeal.