It is interesting to watch the process of a gradual enlightening going on among such a race when brought into contact with higher civilization and better religion. Mr. Gomes mentions some instances of its expression. Perhaps I may add an illustrative instance which occurred in my own experiences, many years ago. One night I was at anchor with a Dyak crew on the Saribas River, waiting for the turn of the tide. About 3 a.m. I was awakened by a frightened cry from one of the crew: “Antu! antu!” (A spirit, a spirit!). Thinking myself lucky at last in a chance of actually seeing one of those invisible beings whom Dyaks dread so much, I pushed my head from under the mosquito-curtain, and looked out, and beheld a comet brightly shining not far above the horizon. Presently I heard a school-lad say: “That’s not a spirit; it’s only a star with a tail. I have learnt about it.” There was the old superstition and the new knowledge struggling together, a symbol of what is going on in other departments of Dyak thought and belief—the working of that which, it is to be hoped, will issue in a higher and an improved life for the race. Our Author’s book will evoke a lively interest in such an improvement in Dyakland, and will inspire a deeper sympathy with every progressive effort towards it. In going over Mr. Gomes’s pages my thoughts have often gone back to days, now long past, when he and I were workers together among the people of whom he writes so sympathetically, and many a long-forgotten incident has come back to mind; and it is a pleasure to write a simple word of welcome to this product of his pen, and to express a conviction that his book is just what was wanted to give the public a clear and adequate conception of one of the leading races which have been ruled over by the “Two White Rajahs” of Sarawak. JOHN PERHAM. CHARD, _December, 1910_. AUTHOR’S NOTE I wish to express my thanks to Sir Clement Kinloch-Cooke, M.P., for the preface which he has kindly contributed to this volume, and for allowing me to reproduce my translations of Sea Dyak legends which appeared in the _Empire Review_; to Bishop Hose, under whom I worked for seventeen years among the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak, for allowing me to use his excellent article on “The Contents of a Dyak Medicine-chest”; to the Rev. John Perham, formerly Archdeacon of Singapore, with whom I worked in Sarawak for some years, for his introduction, and also for allowing me to make use of the scholarly papers which he wrote for the _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Asiatic Society_, on Sea Dyak Religion and Folklore; and to the Rev. David Steele-Morris for going through the manuscript and making many useful suggestions.