_ Dyak girls are not subjected to any such restraints, and in some respects they enjoy more liberty than is good for them. As usual among the lower races, they have to do most of the hard work. "It is a sad sight," says Low, "to see the Dyak girls, some but nine or ten years of age, carrying water up the mount in bamboos, their bodies bent nearly double, and groaning under the weight of their burden." Lieutenant Marryat found that the mountain Dyak girls, if not beautiful, had some beautiful points--good eyes, teeth, and hair, besides good manners, and they "knew how to make use of their eyes." Denison (cited by Roth, I., 46) remarks that
"Some of the girls showed signs of good looks, but
hard work, poor feeding, and intermarriage and
early marriage soon told their tale, and rapidly
converted them into ugly, dirty, diseased old hags,
and this at an age when they are barely more than
young women."
They marry sometimes as early as the age of thirteen, and in general they are inferior in looks to the men. Marryat thought he saw "something wicked in their dark furtive glances," while Earl found the faces of Dyak women generally extremely interesting, largely on account of "the soft expression given by their long eyelashes, and by the habit of keeping the eyes half closed." "Their general conversation is not wanting in wit," says Brooke (I., 70),
"and considerable acuteness of perception is evinced,
but often accompanied by improper and indecent
language, of which they are unaware when giving
utterance to it. Their acts, however, fortunately
evince more regard for modesty than their words."
Grant, in describing his tour among the Land Dyaks, remarks:
"It has been mentioned once or twice that we found
the women bathing at the village well. Although,
generally speaking, no lack of proper modesty is
shown, certainly rather an Adam and Eve like idea
of the same is displayed on such occasions by these
simple people." _