"You wanted heads," declared her lover. "I have brought them. Do you
not recognize them?"
Then to her horror she saw they were the heads of her father, her
mother, her brother and of a young man who was Hathnaveng's rival
for her affections. Hathnaveng was immediately seized by some of
the tribesmen, and by way of punishment was placed in a small bamboo
structure such as is commonly used by the Dayaks for pigs, and allowed
to starve to death.[12] This is a true story, and occurred while I
was still in Borneo.
The day after we arrived at Kapit a great crowd of Dayaks, belonging to
the tribe of those implicated in the attack on the Punans, assembled
at the fort to talk with Dr. Hose on the matter, and the upshot of
it all was startling in its severity. This was Hose's ultimatum:
They must give up the rest of those that took part in the raid, and
they would all get various terms of imprisonment. They must return
the rest of the heads. They must pay enormous fines, and, lastly,
those villages which had men who took part in the raid, must move
down the river opposite Sibu, and thus be under Hose's eye as well
as under the guns of the fort. I watched the faces of the crowd, and
it was interesting to witness their various emotions.
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