Many races inhabit Borneo; but the Malays and Sea and Land Dyaks greatly preponderate.  The Malays, who came from continental Asia, are the conquering and governing race.  In their native condition they are indolent, treacherous, and given to piracy.  The very name Malay has come to stand for cruelty and revenge.  But well governed, they prove to be much like other people, susceptible to kindness, capable of affection, amiable, fond to excess of their children, and courteous to strangers.  The Sea Dyaks are piratical tribes, dwelling on the coasts or borders of rivers, and subsisting by rapine and violence.  The Land Dyaks are the descendants of the primitive inhabitants.  They are a mild, industrious race, and remarkably honest.  One hideous custom, that of preserving the heads of their fallen enemies as ghastly tokens of victory, has invested the name of Dyak with a reputation of cruelty which is not deserved.  This singular practice, originating, it is said, in a superstitious desire to propitiate the Evil Spirit by bloody offerings, has in process of time become connected with all their ideas of manly prowess.  The young girl receives with proud satisfaction from her lover the gift of a gory head, as the noblest proof both of his affection and his heroism.  This custom is woven, too, into the early traditions of the race.  The Sakarrans tell us that their first mother, who dwells now in heaven near the evening star, asked of her wooer a worthy gift; and that when he presented her a deer she rejected it with contempt; when he offered her a mias, the great orang-outang of Borneo, she turned her back upon it; but when in desperation he went out and slew a man, brought back his head, and threw it at her feet, she smiled upon him, and said that was indeed a gift worthy of her.  This legend shows, at any rate, how fixed is this habit, not alone in the passions of the people, but also in their traditional regard.  Yet, strange as it may seem, they are an attractive race.  A missionary’s wife who has known them well declares that they are gentle and kindly, simple as children, disposed to love and reverence all who are wiser and more civilized than themselves.  Ida Pfeiffer concludes that the Dyaks pleased her best, not only among the races of Borneo, but among all the races of the earth with which she has come in contact.  And a cultivated Englishman, with wealth and social position at command, has been so attracted to them, that he has lavished both his fortune and his best years in the work of their elevation.  The social condition of the Dyaks has been sufficiently wretched.  Subjected to the Malays, they have been forced to work in the mines without pay, while they were liable at any moment to be robbed of their homes, and even of their wives and children.  “We do not live like men,” said one of them, with great pathos.  “We are like monkeys, hunted from place to place.  We have no houses, and we dare not light a fire lest the smoke draw our enemies upon us.”