The style of building of the Dyaks is very peculiar; most of their villages consisting of a single house, in which from fifteen to twenty families live together, in separate compartments. The floor of these long buildings, which are thatched with palm leaves, rests on piles about six or ten feet from the ground, and the simple furniture consists of some mats, baskets, and a few knives, pots, a very primitive loom, and some dried heads by way of ornament. Though habitual assassins from ignorance and superstitious motives, the Dyaks are said to be of a mild, good-natured, and by no means bloodthirsty character. They are hospitable when well used, grateful for kindness, industrious and honest, and so truthful that the word of one of them might safely be taken before the oath of half-a-dozen civilised Malays. The celebrated traveller, Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer, who had the courage to wander among the Dyaks, and the good fortune to return with her head on her shoulders, speaks highly of their patriarchal life, the love they have for their children, and the respectful conduct of the children towards their parents. As to their personal appearance, she affirms that, though some authors describe them as fine men, they are only a little less ugly than the Malays. [Illustration: CORAL ISLAND.] CHAPTER XXI. THE TROPICAL OCEAN. Wanderings of an Iceberg--The Tropical Ocean--The Cachalot-- The Frigate Bird--The Tropic Bird--The Esculent Swallow--The Flying-fish--The Bonito--The White Shark--Tropical Fishes-- Crustaceans--Land Crabs--Molluscs--Jelly Fish--Coral Islands. Day after day the glacier of the north protrudes its mass farther and farther into the sea, until finally, rent by the tides, and with a crash louder than that of the avalanche, the iceberg rolls into the abyss. The frost-bound waters, that have languished so many years in their Greenland prison, are now drifting to the south, on their way to the tropical ocean; but the sun must rise and set for many a day before they bid adieu to the fogs of the north. See there yon dismal ice-blocked shore, with the jagged mountains in the background, their snowy peaks rising high into the sky. Screeching sea-birds--fulmars, gulls, guillemots, auks--mix their hoarse voices with the melancholy tones of the breakers and the winds, and between them all resounds, from time to time, the bellowing of the walrus or the roar of the polar bear. The weak rays of the sun, just dipping over the horizon, have called forth these symptoms of life; but as soon as the great luminary disappears, animal creation becomes mute, and the voices of the air and ocean are again the only sounds which break the silence of the arctic night. The crystal mass floats along, buried in deep darkness; but soon a new and wondrous sight is seen, for the flaming swords of the northern light flit through the heavens, casting a magic gleam, here on the desert shore, there on the dark bosom of the sea.