“as among the Sea Dyaks, the young people have almost unrestrained intercourse; but, if a girl prove with child a marriage immediately takes place, the bridegroom making the richest presents he can to her relatives” (I., 113).  “There is no strict law,”

says Mundy (II., 2),

“to bind the conduct of young married people of either sex, and parents are more or less indifferent on those points, according to their individual ideas of right and wrong.  It is supposed that every young Dyak woman will eventually suit herself with a husband, and it is considered no disgrace to be on terms of intimacy with the youth of her fancy till she has the opportunity of selecting a suitable helpmate; and as the unmarried ladies attach much importance to bravery, they are always desirous of securing the affections of a renowned warrior.  Lax, however, as this code may appear before marriage, it would seem to be sufficiently stringent after the matrimonial.  One wife only is allowed, and infidelity is punished by fine on both sides—­inconstancy on the part of the husband being esteemed equally as bad as in the female.  The breach of the marriage vows, however, appears to be infrequent, though they allow that, during the time of war, more license is given.”

NOCTURNAL COURTSHIP

Brooke Low relates that the Sea Dyak girls receive their male visitors at night.

“They sleep apart from their parents, sometimes in the same room, but more often in the loft.  The young men are not invited to sleep with them unless they are old friends, but they may sit with them and chat, and if they get to be fond of each other after a short acquaintance, and wish to make a match of it, they are united in marriage, if the parents on either side have no objections to offer.  It is in fact the only way open to the man and woman to become acquainted with each other, as privacy during the daytime is out of the question in a Dyak village.”

The same method of courtship prevails among the Land Dyaks.  Some queer details are given by St. John, Crossland and Leggatt (Roth, 110).  About nine or ten o’clock at night the lover goes on tiptoe to the mosquito curtains of his beloved, gently awakens her and offers her some prepared betel-nut.  If she accepts it, he is happy, for it means that his suit is prospering, but if she refuses it and says “Be good enough to blow up the fire,” it means that he is dismissed.  Sometimes their discourse is carried on through the medium of a sort of Jew’s-harp, one handing it to the other, asking questions and returning answers.  The lover remains until daybreak.  After the consent of the girl and her parents has been obtained, one more ordeal remains; the bridal couple have to run the gauntlet of the mischievous village boys, who stand ready with sooted hands to begrime their faces and bodies; and generally they succeed so well that bride and groom present the appearance of negroes.