In Several Other
Matters Of Morality They Rank Above Most Uncivilized, And Even Above
Many Civilized Nations.
They are temperate in food and drink, and the
gross sensuality of the Chinese and Malays is unknown among
Them.
They have the usual fault of all people in a half-savage state -
apathy and dilatoriness, but, however annoying this may be to
Europeans who come in contact with them, it cannot be considered a
very grave offence, or be held to outweigh their many excellent
qualities.
During my residence among the Hill Dyaks, I was much struck by the
apparent absence of those causes which are generally supposed to
check the increase of population, although there were plain
indications of stationary or but slowly increasing numbers. The
conditions most favourable to a rapid increase of population are: an
abundance of food, a healthy climate, and early marriages. Here these
conditions all exist. The people produce far more food than they
consume, and exchange the surplus for gongs and brass cannon, ancient
jars, and gold and silver ornaments, which constitute their wealth.
On the whole, they appear very free from disease, marriages take
place early (but not too early), and old bachelors and old maids are
alike unknown. Why, then, we must inquire, has not a greater
population been produced? Why are the Dyak villages so small and so
widely scattered, while nine-tenths of the country is still covered
with forest?
Of all the checks to population among savage nations mentioned by
Malthus - starvation, disease, war, infanticide, immorality, and
infertility of the women - the last is that which he seems to think
least important, and of doubtful efficacy; and yet it is the only one
that seems to me capable of accounting for the state of the
population among the Sarawak Dyaks.
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