Edna Ferber - "Roast Beef, Medium"

Alexander von Humboldt - "Equinoctial Regions of America "

Arthur Conan Doyle - "Sir Nigel"

James De Mille - "The Living Link"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Pagan Tribes of Borneo

C >> Charles Hose and William McDougall >> The Pagan Tribes of Borneo




The Supreme Council consists of the three Malay officers named above
together with three or four of the principal European officers, and the
Rajah, who presides over its deliberations. It meets at least once a
month to consider all matters referred to it by lower tribunals. It
embodies the absolute authority of the Rajah; from its decrees
there is no appeal. It decides questions of justice, administration,
and legislation; and it continually enriches and improves the law
by creating precedents, which serve to guide the local courts, by
deliberately revising and repealing laws, and by adding new laws to
the Statute Book. It is the sole legislative authority. The presence of
the Malay members at the meetings of the Council is by no means a mere
formality; they take an active part in its deliberations and decisions.

Beside the Supreme Council there exists a larger body whose functions
are purely advisory. It is called the Council NEGRI or State Council,
and consists of the Rajah and the members of the Supreme Council,
the Residents in charge of the more important districts, and the
principal "Native Officers" and PENGHULUS, some seventy members in
all. This Council meets at Kuching once in every three years under
the presidency of the Rajah, who provides the members with suitable
lodgings and entertains them at dinner. At the meeting of this
council topics of general interest are discussed, and the Rajah makes
some general review of the state of public affairs and the progress
achieved since the previous meeting. But the principal purpose of the
institution is the bringing together, under conditions favourable for
friendly intercourse, of the leading men of the whole country. Each
new member is formally sworn in, taking an oath of loyalty to the Rajah
and his government. The native chiefs return from these meetings with
an enhanced sense of the importance and dignity of their office and
with clearer notions of the whole system of government and of their
places in it.

Though Mohammedan law remains as the basis of the law administered
among the Malays, notable improvements have been introduced,
E.G. the death penalty for incest and corporal punishment for conjugal
infidelity have been abolished; slaveholding, though not made illegal,
has been discouraged throughout the country by rendering it easy for
slaves to secure their freedom; and the power of the master over his
slave has been greatly restricted. A man is not allowed to marry a
second or third wife, unless he can prove himself able to provide for
each of the women and her offspring; wilful murder is always punished
by death or long imprisonment, not merely by imposition of a fine as
in former times.

The development of commerce and industries has, of course, given rise
to legal questions for which the Mohammedan law provides no answers;
and to meet these necessities, laws modelled on the Indian code and
on English law have been enacted.

The presence of a large Chinese community (now comprising some
50,000 persons) has always been a source of legal and administrative
difficulties. These difficulties have been met in the past by securing
the presence of leading Chinese merchants on the judicial bench,
as assessors familiar with the language, customs, and circumstances
of their countrymen, whenever the latter have been involved in legal
proceedings. In the present year a special court for the trial of
Chinese civil cases has been instituted, consisting of seven of the
leading Chinese merchants, of whom all, save the president, who is
nominated by the Rajah, are elected by the Chinese community.

The government of the pagan population, comprising as it does so many
tribes of diverse customs, languages, and circumstances, has presented
a more varied and in many respects a more difficult problem. But the
same principles have been everywhere applied in their case also. The
backbone of the administrative and judicial system has been constituted
by the small staff of English officers carefully chosen by the Rajah,
and increased from time to time as the extension of the boundaries of
Sarawak opened new fields for their activities. During recent years
this administrative staff has counted some fifty to sixty English
members. Of these about a dozen are quartered in Kuching, namely,
the Resident of the first division, his assistant, a second-class
Resident, and the heads of the principal departments, the post office,
police and prisons, the treasury, the department of lands and surveys,
public works, education, and the rangers.

The Sarawak rangers are a body of some 400 men trained to the use of
fire-arms and under military discipline. The majority are Sea Dayaks,
the remainder Malays and Sikhs. Two white officers, the commandant
and the gunnery instructor, are supported by native non-commissioned
officers. The force is recruited by voluntary enlistment, the men
joining in the first place for five years' service. This force supplies
the garrisons of the small forts, one or more of which are maintained
in each district; and from it a small body of riflemen has commonly
been drawn to form the nucleus of any expeditionary force required
for punitive operations.

The whole territory of Sarawak is divided into four divisions, each of
which is again divided into two or more districts. The first division
coincides with Sarawak proper; the second includes the Batang Lupar,
Saribas, and Kelaka districts; the third comprises the Rejang, Oya,
Muka, Bintulu, and Matu districts; the fourth consists of the Baram,
Limbang, Trusan, and Lawas. The first, third, and fourth divisions
are administered by divisional Residents, which three officers rank
next to the Rajah in the official hierarchy. Each district is under
the immediate charge of an officer. These district officers are
of two ranks, namely Residents of the second class, and Assistant
Residents. In each district, with the exception of the smallest, the
Resident is assisted in his multifarious duties by a second white
officer of the rank of cadet or extra-officer, and has under his
direction a squad of ten to twenty-five rangers under the charge of a
sergeant; a sergeant of police in charge of about twelve policemen,
who are generally drawn from the locality; several Malay or Chinese
clerks; and generally some two or three "native officers." The last
are Malays of the aristocratic class resident in the district; they
are appointed by the Rajah on the recommendation of the Resident and
receive a regular salary. Their duties are to assist the Resident in
his police-court work, to hold special courts for the settlement of
purely Malay cases of a domestic nature, and to take charge of the
station in the absence of the Resident and his assistant.

The prime duty of the Resident is to preserve order in his district
and to punish crimes of violence. But he is responsible also for
every detail of administration, including the collection of taxes
and customs duties, the settlement of disputes, and the hearing of
complaints of all kinds, the furnishing of reports to the central
government on all matters of moment, the development of trade and the
protection of traders, especially the inoffensive Chinese; and above
all, in the newer districts, it is his duty to gain the confidence
of the chiefs of the wilder tribes, and to lead them to accept the
Sarawak flag and the benefits of the Rajah's government, in return
for the small poll-tax required of them. It is well recognised by
the Rajah and his officers that the success of a Resident depends
primarily upon his acquiring intimate knowledge of the people and
establishing and maintaining good relations with them; and with this
end in view every Resident is expected to be familiar not only with
the Malay language, which is the official language of the country, as
well as in some measure a common medium of communication between the
chiefs of the various tribes, but also with one or more of the other
languages spoken in his district. The headquarters of the Resident
are usually the fort, or a small residency built not far from it in
the lower reaches of the chief river of his district. Here a Chinese
bazaar, I.E. a compact village of Chinese traders and shopkeepers, and
a Malay Kampong, generally spring up under the shelter of the fort;
and thus the station becomes the headquarters of trade as well as of
administration. To this centre the workers of jungle produce bring
their stuff, floating down river on rafts of rattans or in their
canoes; from it the Malay and Chinese traders or pedlars set out in
their boats for long journeys among the up-river people; and to it
come occasional parties of the up-river tribesmen, to consult with
the Resident, to seek redress for wrongs, to report the movements of
tribes in the adjacent territories, or to obtain permission to go on
the war-path in order to punish offences committed against them.

Since the river is the one great high road, and since the Resident
and his assistants are seated generally near the point where it leaves
the district, the coming and going of all visitors can hardly escape
their observation. And, since the station sees every few days the
arrival of visitors or the return of parties of its own people from
up river, the Resident can keep himself pretty well informed of the
state of the country, and all news of importance will reach him after
no long delay, if only he is always accessible and willing to turn
a sympathetic ear to all comers.

But the successful administration of one of the larger and wilder
districts, such as the Rejang or the Baram, requires that the Resident
shall not be content with the zealous discharge of his many duties
at his headquarters. He can only establish intimate relations of
reciprocal knowledge and confidence with the chiefs of the many
scattered communities of his district by making long journeys up river
several times a year. And situations not infrequently arise which
urgently demand his presence in some outlying part of his district
and which serve as the occasions of such journeys.

Before describing such a journey, something must be said of the
place in the scheme of government occupied by the chiefs and headmen
of the various communities. Each of the Malay Kampongs and other
similar villages of the Malanaus and other coastwise peoples is
under the immediate charge of one of its more influential elders,
who bears the title of TUAH KAMPONG. He is appointed by the Rajah on
the recommendation of the Resident and receives a small salary. His
duties are to settle the minor disputes of his village, to collect
the tax, to keep order, and to report all breaches of the peace to
the Resident. He has authority to call in the police and to order
the arrest of any villager; in cases of dispute between villages he
represents his village in the Resident's court, and, where his own
people are concerned, he may sit on the bench with the Resident to
hear and advise upon the case. The Sarawak flag is the badge of his
office, and his position and duties are defined in a document bearing
the Rajah's signature.

From among the more influential chiefs of the up-river communities
the Rajah appoints, on the recommendation of the Resident, a certain
number in each district to the office of PENGHULU. In a district of
Mixed population such as the Baram, one PENGHULU (sometimes two) is
usually appointed for each of the principal tribes of the district,
E.G. in the Baram are, or recently were, two Kayans, one Kenyah, one
Sebop, and one Barawan holding the office. The principal PENGHULUS
are made members of the Council of State, and they are expected to
attend its triennial meetings. The status of the PENGHULUS is similar
to that of the TUAH KAMPONG, and he also is given the Sarawak flag,
which he will display on his boat on official journeys, and a document
signed by the Rajah recording his appointment and the duties of his
office; but many of them derive a considerably greater importance than
their fellows from the numerical strength and the warlike character
of their followings. The PENGHULU has authority not only over his
own house or village, but also over the chiefs or headmen of other
communities of the same tribe and region. He is expected to keep the
Resident informed of any local incident requiring his attention,
and to be present in the Resident's court when any of his people
are tried for any serious offence; he has authority to try minor
cases, both civil and criminal, among his own people. Perhaps his
most important service is the following. When an up-river man has
been charged with a serious offence, the summons of the Resident's
court is forwarded to the PENGHULU of his tribe and district with the
instruction that he shall send the man down river to headquarters. It
is generally possible for the PENGHULU to call the man to him, and,
by explaining to him the situation and the order of the Resident,
to secure his peaceful surrender. But in case of refusal to come, or
of active resistance, the PENGHULU is expected to apply such force
as may be necessary for effecting the arrest and the conveyance to
headquarters. In this way in a well-governed district the arrest of
evildoers is effected with remarkable sureness and with far less
risk of violence, bloodshed, and the arousal of angry passions,
than if the Resident should send his police or rangers to do the
work. The PENGHULU is in a much better position than the Resident for
obtaining accurate information upon, and a full understanding of, the
circumstances of any such up-river incidents; and his help is thus
often of the greatest value to the Resident. If he judges that the
accused man is innocent, and especially if the charge against him has
been made by a Chinaman, a Malay, or a member of any other than his
own tribe, he will usually accompany the prisoner to headquarters,
in, order to see that no injustice is done him. Another important
function of the PENGHULU is the preliminary investigation of breaches
of the peace among his people (see vol. ii. p. 219).

The PENGHULU is responsible also for the collection of the door-tax
from the chief of each house or village of his people and for
its delivery to the Resident. He is allowed to exercise a certain
discretion in the matter of remission of taxes to elderly or infirm
householders. He is responsible also for the transmission to the
Resident of all sums in payment of fines of more than five dollars,
imposed by himself or by his subordinate chiefs. On the happily
infrequent occasions on which it becomes necessary to organise a
punitive expedition, the PENGHULUS are expected to help in the raising
of the required force, and to accompany the expedition as commanders of
their own group of warriors, acting under the orders of the Resident.

A PENGHULU is punished for neglect of his duties by suspension from his
office for a definite period, or in more serious cases by dismissal
and the appointment of another chief Since the dignity and prestige
of the office are high, this punishment is deeply felt.

Among the Kayans and Kenyahs and most of the Klemantans, the PENGHULUS
exercise a very effective authority, and, since with few exceptions the
chiefs chosen to fill the office have been loyal, zealous, and capable,
they have rendered great services to the government. Among the Sea
Dayaks the lack of authority of the chiefs, which is a characteristic
feature of their social system, has rendered it impossible to secure
for their PENGHULUS the same high standing and large influence; the
result of which has been the creation of an unduly large number of
these officers and the consequent further depreciation of the dignity
of the office.

The PENGHULU is the link between the native system of government as
it obtained before the coming of the white man, and that established
and maintained by the Rajah and his white officers. The former
consisted of the exercise of authority by the several chiefs, each
over the people of his own village only, except in so far as a chief
might acquire some special prestige and influence over others through
his own reputation for wisdom and that of his people for success in
war. Among the Kayans and Kenyahs especially, the principal chiefs have
long aimed at extending their influence by marrying their relatives
to those of other powerful chiefs. In this way chiefs of exceptional
capacity, aided by good fortune, have achieved in certain instances
a very extended influence. Such a chief was Laki Avit, a Kenyah,
who, some twenty years before the Rajah's officers first entered
upon the task of administering the Baram, was recognised throughout
all the interior of the district as the leading chief, a position
which could only have been achieved by the consistent pursuit of a
wise policy of conciliation and just dealing between. Kenyahs and
Kayans. But the order and peace maintained by the influence of such
a chief depended wholly on his continued vigour, and they seldom or
never survived his death by more than a few years. In the case of Laki
Avit, for example, the Bruni Malays, jealous and afraid of the allied
Kayans and Kenyahs, soon succeeded by means of murderous intrigues
in bringing back the more normal condition of suspicious hostility
and frequent warfare. Thus, although several chiefs had endeavoured
to establish peace throughout wide areas, no one of them had achieved
any enduring success. For this end the unifying influence of a central
authority and superior power was necessary, and this was supplied by
the Rajah. We may liken the whole system of society as now established
to a conical structure consisting of a common apex from which lines of
authority descend to the base, branching as they go at three principal
levels. If we imagine the upper part of this structure cut away at
a horizontal plane just above the lowest level of branching, we have
a diagrammatic representation of the state of affairs preceding the
Rajah's advent -- a large number of small cones each representing
a village unified by the subordination of its members to its chief,
but each one remaining isolated without any bond of union with its
neighbours. At the present time the base of the cone remains almost
unchanged, but the Rajah's government binds together all its isolated
groups to form one harmonious whole, by means of the hierarchy of
officers whose authority proceeds from the Rajah himself, the apex
of the system.

The establishment of the Rajah's government has thus involved no
breaking up of the old forms of society, no attempt to recast it
after any foreign model, but has merely supplied the elements that
were lacking to the system, if it was to enable men to live at peace,
to prosper and multiply, and to enjoy the fruits of their labours. But
though we describe the society of Sarawak as being now a completed
structure, the simile is inadequate and might mislead. The structure
is not that of a rigid building, but of a living organisation; and
its efficiency and permanence depend upon the unceasing activities of
all its parts, each conscious of the whole and of its own essential
role in the life of the whole, and each animated by a common spirit
of unswerving devotion to, and untiring effort in the cause of, the
whole. The Rajah's power rests upon the broad base of the people's
willing co-operation; he in turn is for them the symbol of the whole,
by the aid of which they are enabled to think of the state as their
common country and common object of devotion; and from him there
descends through his officers the spirit which animates the whole,
a spirit of reciprocal confidence, justice, goodwill, and devotion to
duty. The system is in fact the realisation of the ideal of monarchy
or personal government; its successful working depends above all on
the character and intellect of the man who stands at the head of the
state; and the steady progress of all better aspects of civilisation
in Sarawak, a progress which has evoked the warm praise of many
experienced and independent observers,[214] has been due to the fact
that the resolution, the tact and sympathy, the wisdom and high
ideals which enabled the first of its English Rajahs to establish
his authority, have been unfailingly displayed in no less degree by
his successor throughout his long reign.

It is obvious that this permeation of the whole system of government
by the spirit of its head can only be perpetuated by constant personal
intercourse between him and his officers and between the officers of
the various grades. This has been a main principle observed by the
Rajah. He has frequently visited the district stations, to spend a
few days in consultation with his white officers, and to renew his
personal acquaintance with the local chiefs, who spontaneously assemble
to await his arrival. Such visits to any station have seldom been
made at greater intervals than one year; and these annual meetings
at the district stations between the Rajah and his officers of all
grades have been of the utmost value in preserving the profound and
personal respect with which he is regarded throughout the land and
which is in due measure reflected to his representatives, both white
and native. The Rajah has also kept himself in close touch with the
Residents and the affairs even of the remotest districts by encouraging
the Residents to write to him personally and fully on all important
matters, and by writing with his own hand full and prompt replies.

The foregoing brief account of the system of government will have
accentuated its essentially personal character; and it will have
made clear the necessity for constant personal intercourse between
the officers of various grades, and for the long excursions of the
Residents into the interior parts of their districts, one of which
we propose to describe as an illustration of the intimate working
of the administrative system. For in the larger and wilder districts
the Resident's station may be separated from populous villages by a
tract of wild jungle country, the return journey over which cannot
be accomplished in less than a month or even more.

The journey we are about to describe, as illustrative of the
administrative labours of the Resident of one of the wilder districts,
was made in the Baram in the year 1898 by one of us (C. H.) in the
course of his official duties and in part only by the joint-author
of this book. A slight sketch of the political history and condition
of the Baram is required to render intelligible the objects of the
journey and the course of events. The Baram was added to Sarawak
territory, under the circumstances described above (vol. ii. p. 261),
in the year 1882. At that time it enjoyed the reputation of a wild
and dangerous region, owing to the strength of the Kayans, who,
dwelling in all the middle parts of the rivers, had made a number
of bold raids as far as the coast and even to the neighbourhood of
Bruni. The Sea Dayaks had obtained no footing in the river, and the
Klemantans, who dwelt in the lower reaches, had proved quite incapable
of withstanding their formidable neighbours. The latter had driven them
out of the more desirable parts of the river, had made many slaves,
and had appropriated many of the valuable caves in which they had
gathered the edible nests of the swift. But considerable numbers of the
Klemantans remained in the lower reaches and in some of the tributary
rivers. The upper waters of the Baram were occupied mainly by Kenyah
communities; and about the watershed in which the Baram, the Rejang,
and the Batang Kayan have their sources (a mountainous highland,
geographically the very centre of the island, known as Usun Apo), were
the Madangs, a powerful sub-tribe of the Kenyahs, whose reputation as
warriors was second to none. In 1883 a fort was built at Marudi (now
officially known as Claudetown), a spot on the river-bank some sixty
miles from the sea, the first spot at which in ascending the river a
high bank suitable for a settlement is encountered. Here Mr. Claude
de Crespigny, assisted by two junior officers, a squad of some thirty
rangers, and a few native police, began the task of introducing law and
order into these 10,000 square miles of dense jungles, rushing rivers,
and high mountains, the scene for unknown ages of the hard perpetual
struggle of savage man with nature, and of the fierce conflict of
man with man. At first the interior tribes remained aloof, and the
little outpost of civilisation was frequently threatened by them
with extermination. But after some few years the Kayans of the lower
villages became reconciled to the new state of affairs, recognised
the authority of the Rajah and of the Resident, and consented to pay
the small annual door-tax amounting to two dollars per family or door.

These were the Kayans of villages that were readily accessible
because seated on reaches of the river navigable by the Resident's
steam-launch, that is, not more than seventy miles above Claudetown. It
was soon realised that the people of the remoter parts were only to
be brought under the Rajah's government by means of friendly visits
of the Resident to their villages. This policy was actively pursued
by Mr. Charles Hose, who had become assistant to the Resident in 1884,
officer in charge in 1888, and Resident in 1890; some four or five long
journeys were made each year, each occupying several weeks. During
these journeys, which were necessarily made in the native boats,
the Resident would spend the nights, whenever possible, in the native
houses, sometimes whiling away several days in friendly intercourse
with his hosts, and thus acquiring much useful information as well
as more intimate understanding of their characters, languages, and
customs. In this way the area of government control was extended step
by step, until about the year 1891 practically all the inhabitants of
the Baram had accepted the Rajah's government and acknowledged it by
the payment of some tax, however small. The chiefs of the Klemantans
and their people were for the most part very glad to place themselves
under the protection of this new government; but the Kayans and
Kenyahs, not feeling themselves to be in need of any such protection,
were less ready to accept the Resident's proposals. Two considerations
mainly induced them to take this course: first, they desired peace,
or at any rate less warfare, and it was possible to convince them that
this result might be achieved by pointing to other districts such as
the Rejang, with whose affairs they had some acquaintance. Secondly,
they found that a Chinese bazaar had sprung up at Claudetown, and that,
as soon as they accepted the Rajah's government, they would obtain
greatly increased facilities for driving the highly profitable trade
in jungle produce; for, before they had come under the government,
the Chinese and Malay traders had hardly ventured to penetrate to
their remote villages with their cloths and lucifer matches, hardware,
steel bars, and other much-coveted goods.