Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean JunglesGomes, Edwin Herbert
History
Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean Jungles
Gomes, Edwin Herbert
Iban (Bornean people); Sarawak (Malaysia) -- Description and travel
Mr. Gomes is thus able to make the Sea Dyak live before us in genuine
colours. We can see this dusky son of the jungle in his beliefs and
fears, which are many, in his work and in his play, in his ugly faults
and amiable virtues, in his weaknesses and in his abilities. And I think
that everyone who reads his pages will feel that henceforth he knows the
Sea Dyak of Sarawak better than he ever knew him before, and will come to
the conclusion that, in spite of his faults, he is a very likeable man.
The Sea Dyaks, then, are worth knowing. They constitute a very valuable
element in the population of Sarawak, not only from their numbers, but
also from their force of character. They are active, hardworking,
industrious, ready to earn an honest penny when they have the chance; and
in their domestic relations are amiable and hospitable towards strangers,
and when treated with civility and sympathy, all their good points come
to the surface. They work hard at rice-planting, which, it is true, is
of a very primitive sort, but it is the best they know, and as good
as that practised by their Mohammedan neighbours, the Malays. If some
simple system of irrigation could be introduced among them, especially
in lowland cultivation, this, their main industry, would be far more
productive than it is, and it would be a real boon to the country at
large. They have adventured upon the cultivation of other products when
the way has been made clear to them, which is an evidence of their
capacity for progress. They penetrate and traverse far-off jungles in
search of indiarubber and gutta-percha to add to their earnings. An
increasing number of them are keen upon book-learning, as Mr. Gomes
points out. They form the Rajah’s soldiers and guards, and are capable
of useful service in subordinate positions as officers. And thus these
people, who were once only known as fighters, pirates, and head-takers,
are now a real influence in the evolution of a better civilization and a
more fruitful era to come in those lands. The civilizing, Christianizing
force no doubt works slowly; but there it is, and, comparing present with
past, we can see it. A large influx of white people of the usual colonist
class would doubtless be too strong for them, and would push them out of
the way; but with a favourable chance, which they now have, of working
out a salvation for themselves, I think the Sea Dyaks have a better
future before them than Mr. Gomes appears to anticipate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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