The accounts of the habits of the Dyacks are discrepant.  Some give them credit for being very industrious, while others again speak of them as indolent.  They are certainly cultivators of the soil, and in order to obtain the articles they need, will work assiduously.  Many of them are employed in collecting gold-dust, and some in the diamond mines; and they will at times be found procuring gums, rattans, etc., from their native forests for barter.  They are a people of great energy of character, and perseverance in the attainment of their object, particularly when on war-parties, or engaged in hunting.

Their food consists of rice, hogs, rats, snakes, monkeys, and many kinds of vermin, with which this country abounds.

Their chief weapon is the parang or heavy knife, somewhat like the kris.  It is manufactured of native iron and steel, with which the coast of the country is said to abound.  They have a method of working it which renders it unnecessary for them to look to a foreign supply; the only articles of foreign hardware that they are said to desire, are razors, out of which to make their cockspurs.  One thing seems strange:  although asserted upon good authority, that the iron and steel of the coast are thought to be superior by foreigners, they are not to be compared with that which is found in the interior, and manufactured by the Dyacks.  All the best krises used by the Malay rajahs and chiefs, are obtained from the interior.  Some of these are exquisitely manufactured, and so hard that, without turning the edge, they cut ordinary wrought iron and steel.

Among their other weapons is the sumpit, a hollow tube, through which they blow poisoned arrows.  The latter are of various kinds, and those used in war are dipped in the sap of what the natives term the “upo.”  The effect of this poison is almost instantaneous, and destroys life in four or five minutes.  Those who have seen a wound given accidentally, describe the changes that the poison occasions as plainly perceptible in its progress.  Before using the arrow, its poisoned point is dipped in lime-juice to quicken it.  The range of the sumpit is from fifty to sixty yards.  Although the arrows are poisoned, yet it is said they sometimes eat the games they kill with them, parboiling it before it is roasted, which is thought to extract the poison.  Firearms, respecting which they have much fear, have not yet been introduced among them; indeed, it is said that so easily are they intimidated by such weapons, that on hearing a report of a gun they invariably run away.  Each individual in a host would be impressed with the belief that he was the one that was to be shot.

[The diwatas.] They address their prayers to the maker of the world, whom they call Dewatta, and this is all the religion they have.  There are many animals and birds held by them in high veneration, and they are close observers of the flight of birds, from which they draw prognostics.  There is in particular a white-headed eagle or kite, upon whose flight and cries they put great reliance, and consult them in war or on any particular expedition.  For this purpose they draw numbers of them together, and feed them by scattering rice about.  It is said their priests consult their entrails also on particular occasions, to endeavor to look into future events.