Through Central Borneo. By Carl Lumholtz. 2 vols. (T. Fisher
Unwin. 42s. net.)—The Norwegian explorer Mr. Lumholtz spent two years in Dutch Borneo during the war, and has given a painstaking account of the country and the tribes, with a large number of good photographs. One wishes at times that Mr. Lumholtz could write like Mr. Conrad, whose stories are largely concerned with Borneo and other little known islands in Malaysia. Mr. Lumholtz has much to say about the Dayaks, whose propensity for head-hunting makes thorn unpopular, but who are, ho says, honest, trustworthy, and hospitable, and more clever with their hands than Malays or Javanese. They practise head-hunting for religious reasons, believing that the soul of the decapitated enters into the soul of the slayer and strengthens him, or that the slain man becomes the slayer's servant in the next world. At the death of a chief it is thought desirable to deposit heads as sacrifices on his grave, so that the souls of the victims may attend him hereafter. The Dutch Govern- ment are trying to suppress head-hunting ; they do not hang the murderers, but send them to Java for a few years of hard labour.
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