In some parts of Dutch Borneo the cruel custom prevails of locking up a girl when she is eight to ten years old in a small, dark apartment of the house, which she is not allowed to leave for about seven years.  She spends her time making mats and doing other handiwork, but is not allowed to see anyone—­not even of her own family—­except a female slave.  When she is free from her prison she appears bleached a light yellow, as though made out of wax, and totters along on small, thin feet—­which the natives consider especially attractive.

CHARMS OF DYAK WOMEN

Dyak girls are not subjected to any such restraints, and in some respects they enjoy more liberty than is good for them.  As usual among the lower races, they have to do most of the hard work.  “It is a sad sight,” says Low (75), “to see the Dyak girls, some but nine or ten years of age, carrying water up the mount in bamboos, their bodies bent nearly double, and groaning under the weight of their burden.”  Lieutenant Marryat found that the mountain Dyak girls, if not beautiful, had some beautiful points—­good eyes, teeth, and hair, besides good manners, and they “knew how to make use of their eyes.”  Denison (cited by Roth, I., 46) remarks that

“Some of the girls showed signs of good looks, but hard work, poor feeding, and intermarriage and early marriage soon told their tale, and rapidly converted them into ugly, dirty, diseased old hags, and this at an age when they are barely more than young women.”

They marry sometimes as early as the age of thirteen, and in general they are inferior in looks to the men.  Marryat thought he saw “something wicked in their dark furtive glances,” while Earl found the faces of Dyak women generally extremely interesting, largely on account of “the soft expression given by their long eyelashes, and by the habit of keeping the eyes half closed.”  “Their general conversation is not wanting in wit,” says Brooke (I., 70),

“and considerable acuteness of perception is evinced, but often accompanied by improper and indecent language, of which they are unaware when giving utterance to it.  Their acts, however, fortunately evince more regard for modesty than their words.”

Grant, in describing his tour among the Land Dyaks, remarks (97): 

“It has been mentioned once or twice that we found the women bathing at the village well.  Although, generally speaking, no lack of proper modesty is shown, certainly rather an Adam and Eve like idea of the same is displayed on such occasions by these simple people.”

DYAK MORALS

Concerning the sexual morality of the Dyaks, opinions of observers differ somewhat.  St. John (I., 52) observes that “the Sea Dyak women are modest and yet unchaste, love warmly and yet divorce easily, but are generally faithful to their husbands when married.”  It is agreed that the morality of the Land Dyaks is superior to that of the Sea Dyaks; yet with them,