our admiration for that weird kind of beauty which, in primitive art as well as in animal warning colorationn, is so often found in close connection with the feelings of terror. We have deemed it profitable to dwell at some length on these remarkable products of savage decorative art. The demon shields of the Dyaks, in spite of the fact that their motives have evidently been borrowed from Chinese and Indian art,[458] are eminently representative of the nation and its social _milieu_. These wild men of the woods have been able to express in their ornamental composition, better than would have been possible in any higher form of art, all the intense feelings of their wild romantic life. The terror and intoxication of slaughter, as they are experienced in a tribe for which furtive murder is the holiest of all religious actions, speak their violent language in the glaring patterns. But at the same time the elegant design, which is so characteristic a peculiarity of the shields, as well as of every other specimen of Dyak art, corresponds to the graceful and elegant personal appearance which, according to the unanimous verdict of all travellers, distinguishes these fierce savages.[459] And it seems as if this gracefulness, no less than the weird emotional content of the pictures, may be derived from the custom of head-hunting. The continuous insecurity which has given its own character even to the Dyak architecture[460] has of course not been without its influence on the physical development of the tribe itself. Where assault from insidious enemies is always to be expected, and where the type of fighting is single combat, lightness and suppleness of movement must be indispensable for the struggle for existence. We can, therefore, easily understand how these people have acquired that natural grace which similar utilitarian causes have developed among all mountainous animals, and among most beasts of prey.[461] Nor is it difficult to comprehend that this beauty of the human body, once called into existence by natural selection, must have awakened æsthetic attention to form and grace, and thus indirectly influenced even the manifestations of ornamental art.