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KajoReviews: Rajah’s Servant by A.B. Ward, an account of a Brooke officer in Sarawak

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It is always fascinating to read books written by Europeans who came to Sarawak before there were even proper records by locals of our own state.

Stories about our ancestors’ lifestyles and customs were sometimes seen narrowly through their European point of views.

Hence, the words such as ‘savages’ and ‘primitive’ were often found in their writings.

However if the books were written by Europeans who worked here during Brooke dynasty and during the time Sarawak was under British colony, the tone of writing can be completely different.

Perhaps due to the years they called Sarawak home and getting to know the local peoples, these writers tended to write with not only less judgmental mind but with more understanding and sometimes, fondness.

KajoReviews: Rajah’s Servant by A.B. Ward, an account of a Brooke officer in Sarawak
Resident Arthur Bartlett Ward at Simanggang circa 1913 (back row, left). Vyner Brooke (seated, second left)

Looking at a Sarawak forgotten historical figure through the eyes of a Brooke officer

One of the things we can learn from reading the memoirs of Brooke’s former civil servants or British colonial officers is to know about the locals.

Some of these locals had contributed to Sarawak but became pretty much forgotten in history.

Thankfully, they left a lot of impact to these former Sarawak officers that their stories were recorded in their books, including Arthur Bartlett Ward.

Ward was born on May 14, 1879. He served for 24 years in the Sarawak Civil Service from 1899 until 1923, 17 of which were spent under the second White Rajah, Charles Brooke.

Throughout his service, he had worked in Sri Aman, Bintulu, Limbang, Brooketon and Kuching.

In his memoir written in 1934, Ward had described many of his experiences visiting outstation posts throughout Sarawak.

While in Lubok Antu, he had the pleasure to meet with a police officer named Dagang.

“The fort was garrisoned by a guard of fortmen under the charge of old Police Sergeant Dagang. He was known to us as ‘Sniff and Jingle’ from his habit of sniffing and jingling his official keys to announce a visit to the officers’ quarters. After making a report Dagang always expected a drink of gin. His face was reminiscent of a hideous gargoyle covered with green mildew after gin it almost seemed to assume phosphorescent light.

All the same Dagang was a man in ten thousand. A Banting Dyak who had embraced Mohammedanism, he enlisted as a fortman at Simanggang at 17 years of age. He accompanied the Rajah (then Tuan Muda) on board the sailing gunboat Venus at the attack on Mukah in 1860. The advance up the Mukah river was made at night and the ‘Venus’ ran foul of thick rattan hawser stretched from bank to bank. Heavy fire was opened on the helpless vessel and things are looking bad when Dagang leaped overboard, a ‘parang’ between his teeth, and severed the rope.

Dagang showed his pluck in numerous expeditions, always proving himself a steady soldier and a gallant leader. The old man died in 1915. He was the type of the old class of government servant one was proud to know and treat as a trusted friend.”

If Dagang hadn’t appeared in Ward’s memoir, we would never heard of about the gallant story of ‘Sniff and Jingle’.

Brooke’s policy: Turning enemies into alliances?

Often through these memoirs, we caught a glimpse what was it like to be working under the Brooke’s administrations.

On that note, we can’t help but notice one specific way the former White Rajah ‘managed the locals’ in those days.

During his posting at Simanggang, Ward worked closely with senior native officer Tuanku Putra.

This local Brooke officer had interesting background.

Ward wrote, “The Tuanku was the son of Sharif Sahap, the prime pirate who had been defeated by Sir James at Pemutus in 1844. He was distinctly of the Arab type, and being a Sharif, claimed lineal descent from the Prophet Mohammed. Tall with spindle legs and a Jewish nose, his nickname with us was ‘The Camel, though his fine character had nothing in common with the animal.

“His responsible position was an example of the Rajah’s policy towards those who had once defied him. Having shown his power and reduced his opponents to impotence, they were gradually given important positions in the Government and in practically every case, these ex-rebels proved their worth, and became the most reliable and loyal supporters of the Rajah’s ruler. ‘En passant’ it is rather curious to reflect that, with natives especially, the greatest rascals always make the most faithful servants.”

More than 100 years ago, there were Ibans who made it to New York?

Having spent so much time among the Ibans in Simanggang, there is no surprise Ward spoke highly of them.

He wrote,

“The Dyak in his jungle retreat is a charming person, both men and women of pleasing appearance, short in stature but well made, full of life, hardworking and independent. Hospitality with them is not so much as a custom as a law. The Malay, owing to his contact with Islamic traditions, is reserved and indolent, his womenfold lurk in the background. Not so the Dyak, he is open in his nature, and the women are very much in the fore. My experience of the so-called ‘savage’ of the jungle is that he is definitely more moral, honest and sober than his fellow who has learned Western ideas.

“There is not so much that our wonderful civilization can teach them. The Dyak has an adventurous, roving disposition, so that parties of the young men constantly break away seeking what fortune may bring them in other lands. They go the Malay Peninsula, to Java, to the Celebes Sea, and once in a Dyak house far in the interior I was proudly shown a picture postcard of Brooklyn City Hall sent home by the chieftain’s son, who had reached New York as a ship’s hands.”

We would have never known these little yet still important facts like this about our own people if it were never been mentioned in Wards’ autobiography.

Some facts are still debatable

Still, there are many things told through Wards’ words are debatable to this day.

It is understood that Ward jotted them down based on what the locals told him back in those days. Yet, some of these facts are never or rarely heard of during present times.

This include about the origin of the Kedayan people.

Ward called them ‘one of the riddles of Borneo’ perhaps due to of their unclear origin.

As for they came from, Ward wrote, “Bulkiah, Sultan of Brunei about 1500, a sea-rover and conqueror better known throughout the East in verse and prose as Nakoda Ragam, married a Javanese princess who brought with her many followers to Brunei. These intermarried with the Bisayas, and it is conjectured that the Kedayans spring from this union.”

As we compare this to the common legend about the Kedayans, it is widely believed that a group of Javanese came to Borneo during the rule of Sultan of Bolkiah in Brunei.

However, the common known reason is that the Sultan was interested in Java’s local agricultural techniques.

Hence he brought some of the Javanese farmers back to Brunei to spread their knowledge.

These Javanese farmers subsequently intermarried with local Bruneian Malay people (not Bisaya as per stated by Ward) giving birth to the Kedayan people.

Rajah’s Servant, a book that is definitely worth reading

There are plenty of other Brooke officers as well British colonial officers who came and left with written memoirs of their experiences in Sarawak.

One of many reasons why Rajah’s servant is different from the rest is easily you can tell by the title ‘Rajah’s Servant’.

Ward obviously loved his job in Sarawak and even more so enjoyed working under Charles Brooke. He had mad respect for the former rajah.

When writing about Charles’ death, Ward wrote, “Sarawak had lost a loving ruler. I had lost my hero and a benefactor.”

As for his last days as a Sarawak officer, Ward described them as ‘painful’.

“I sent in my request to be allowed to retire. It was a wrench to so after twenty-four years in a country I was devoted to. All the same I think I was right. I had held the chief executive post for nearly eight years and in that period ideas become set. In every undertaking fresh blood infuses a new spirit, so necessary when old methods move slow to modern thought,” Ward wrote.

Perhaps that is the number one quality from Ward we need from leaders these days; the self-awareness to know when to stop and retire, the consciousness to know that their ideas are slowly going irrelevant against time, and above all having the grasp of reality of when to let go their powers.

Ward might not share the same nationality with Sarawakians but we can never doubt his love and passion for Sarawak.

However, if you also share the same passion for the state like he did, this is one of the books you must read.

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5 controversies surrounding the Malayan Emergency we’re never told in history class

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Also known as the Anti-British National Liberation War, the Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the Commonwealth military forces.

To understand why the guerrilla war started, we need to go back to the end of World War II.

After the war had ended, the Japanese left Malaya with a weak economy. There was high food price inflation, many people were unemployed and even those who were working had to suffer with low wages.

Some Malayans were naturally unhappy and a number of them turned to communism. These communists fought to win independence for Malaya from the British empire and to establish a socialist economy.

At the same time, the British were preparing Malaya to be an independent country, but were only willing to pass on the power to a government who put British interests in mind.

One of their interests was in Malaya’s rubber and tin resources. These were crucial for the British as they used them to pay war debts to the United States as well as to recover from the economical damage from World War II.

The result from this difference in interests was a conflict that spanned more than 12 years from June 1948 to July 1960.

Here are five controversies surrounding the Malayan Emergency that they never told you in history class:

1.Batang Kali Massacre

This horrific event is often referred to as ‘Britain’s My Lai’. The Mỹ Lao Massacre was the mass murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by the US troops on March 16, 1968 during the Vietnam War.

It is believed that between 347 and 504 unarmed people were killed by American soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Batang Kali Massacre was the mass murder of 24 unarmed villagers by the Scots Guards under the British Army on Dec 12, 1948.

The killings took place in a rubber plantation near Batang Kali, Selangor.

The British soldiers rounded up the civilians and separated the men from the women and children for interrogation.

Later, a total 24 unarmed men were killed using automatic weapons fire. They ranged from teenage boys to elderly men.

Their bodies were found to have been mutilated and their village burned to the ground.

The first one to respond to the killing was the British government. After the massacre, British diplomats introduced Regulation 27A, which authorised ‘the use of lethal weapons’ to ‘prevent escape from arrests’.

In other words, it was ‘legal’ to kill the 24 unarmed men since they were allegedly trying to escape from being arrested.

However, in 1969, six of the Scots Guards on patrol that day gave interviews to The People newspaper, claiming that they had been ordered to massacre the villagers in Batang Kali. Meanwhile, two sergeants insisted that the men had been shot because they tried to escape.

Over the years, there has been an ongoing court battle between the UK government and the families of the civilians executed by British troops.

In November 2015, the United Kingdom Supreme Court ruled that the British government was not obliged to hold a public inquiry into the Batang Kali massacre even though it may have been a war crime because the atrocity had occurred too long ago.

2.Headhunting by Iban trackers

During the Emergency, Iban trackers were brought in from Sarawak by the British to be attached to units who were fighting the Communists.

Their primary task was not to fight but to track. Still, there was a strong element of danger in the job.

In April 1952, the British communist newspaper the Daily Worker published a photograph of British Royal Marines in a British military base in Malaya openly posing with decapitated human heads.

5 controversies surrounding the Malayan Emergency we're never told in history class

The Commonwealth forces instructed the Iban trackers to decapitate suspected MNLA members for identification purposes.

They also allegedly permitted the trackers to take the scalps of corpses to be kept as trophies.

Regardless of the reason, this act of decapitating the heads of the enemies were controversial and the controversy was even brought up in the British Cabinet.

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe wrote in his book British Counterinsurgency, 1919-60, “On 2 May 1952 the First Lord of the Admiralty told the Cabinet that the decapitation had been performed solely for identification purposes after the bandit had been killed. While he agreed that taking the photograph was ‘reprehensible act’, he hastened to point out that the patrol involved had lost an officer and a well-loved corporal, and that the ‘indiscretion’ was the work of private soldiers.”

After the Cabinet had considered the matter for some time, they eventually agreed that British troops in Malaya ‘should be instructed to discontinue the practice’.

3.New Villages

In order to separate guerrillas from their supporters within the rural civilian populations, the British came up with a method.

The plan was to force these civilians to resettle in brand new areas far from the communists.

5 controversies surrounding the Malayan Emergency we're never told in history class
Photograph of a model new village, designed as part of the Briggs Plan to separate the largely Chinese Malaysian rural populace from communist guerrillas. Credit: Public Domain.

One of the biggest critics of this counterinsurgency method was British historian John Newsinger.

He wrote in the paper Hearts and minds: The myth and reality of British counterinsurgency,

“The key to British victory in Malaya was the so-called “Briggs Plan”. This was a counter-insurgency strategy proposed by the new director of operations, General Harold Briggs, that involved the forcible resettlement of Chinese squatters, living and farming in the jungle, into so-called new villages. The support of these communities was vital in sustaining the guerrilla units in the jungle. The British had tried intimidating them and now opted for something considerably more drastic.

“Between 1950 and 1952 some 400,000 people had their homes, possessions and crops destroyed before being herded into camps where they could be effectively policed. Here they lived under police state conditions, without civil liberties or freedom of movement. They were held behind barbed wire, overseen by guard towers and searchlights, their every move watched by informers and spies, and they were subjected to the arbitrary brutality of the police. Alongside the round up of the squatter population, the British also set about forcibly “concentrating” Chinese and Indian plantation workers and tin miners in policed camps under the control of their employers.

“By the end of the Emergency some 650,000 people, workers and their families, primarily Chinese, had been brought under police supervision and control. Something like half of Malaya’s Chinese population was forcibly resettled in this way. This was repression on a massive scale that had nothing whatsoever to do with any notion of “hearts and minds”. And, of course, the casual brutality and occasional murder continued.

“In 1953 a British officer wrote home to his parents that “no Chinese rubber tapper is safe when we search an estate, my men are trigger-happy with Chinese and several platoon commanders have had to plant grenades on tappers and call them bandits when their men have made ‘a small error in judgement’.”

“Alongside this resettlement policy, the British interned over 30,000 people without trial, a figure that would have been much higher except for the fact that they also deported large numbers of Chinese men and women suspected of Communist sympathies.

“By 1955 some 31,245 Chinese people, many of them born in Malaya, had been expelled from the colony.”

After Malaya was liberated from the British, these resettlement areas which were called ‘New Villages’ became ordinary residential towns and villages.

4.Beating, torturing and killing of civilians by British troops

British journalist and historian Brian Lapping in his paper End of Empire (1985) said that there was ‘some vicious conduct by the British forces, who routinely beat up Chinese squatters when they refused, or possibly were unable, to give information about the insurgents’.

Officially, there were 38 confirmed killings of civilians by British military forces during the emergency.

On top of that, there were 56 fatal shootings by British security that have been flagged as suspicious.

The justifications for these killings were that they were shot while attempting to flee or failing to stop when ordered to do so.

Instead of confirming these individuals were the ‘bandits’ or ‘insurgents’, the reports used the terms such as ‘Chinese’, ‘Indian’, ‘squatter’ or ‘suspect’.

The absence of evidence for these fatal shootings raised the question of whether war crimes were committed during the emergency.

5.The use of Agent Orange

During the Vietnam War, there was a US military operation called the Operation Ranch Hand.

It involved spraying an estimated 19 million gallons of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover.

The use of these herbicides during the Vietnam War was controversial. However, the American government maintained the legality of using this method because the British did the same thing before.

Britain was the first nation in history to use herbicides and defoliants as a military weapon, and Malaya was the first region to be exposed to this method of warfare during the Malayan Emergency.

It was used to destroy bushes, food crops and trees to deprive the insurgents of both food and cover.

This mixture of the herbicides and defoliant were later nicknamed Agent Orange.

After the Vietnam War had ended, the Vietnam government claimed that there were up to four million people were exposed to the chemical and as many as three million people have suffered from the effect of it.

The health effects include various types of cancer such as chronic B-cell leukemia, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, lung cancer and many more.

For Malaya, the estimated number of civilians and insurgents who were reported to have suffered from the effect of the defoliants is 10,000.

But many believed that the number is much larger. Unlike the US, the British has remained silent about how much of Agent Orange was used during the Malayan emergency making it difficult to confirm the real number of how many people have been affected by the chemical.

In fact, the prolonged absence of vegetation caused by defoliation has also resulted in major soil erosion to areas of Malaya.

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10 things you should know about Dayak traditional weapon, mandau

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While the Japanese are known for the katana and the Korean for their geom, here in Borneo the Dayak are collectively known for their mandau.

The katana, geom and mandau are all traditional weapons once used to slay enemies.

The mandau for instance, was highly associated with the headhunting custom which was officially abolished in Sarawak during the Brooke administration (but saw something of a revival during World War 2 and even the Communist insurgency).

10 things you should know about Dayak traditional weapon, mandau
A mandau from Kutai, Indonesia. Part from Tropenmuseum. Photo credit: Creative Commons.

Here are 10 things you might not know about the Dayak traditional weapon, the mandau:

1.It is known by many names.

While the Iban, Bidayuh and Penan people call it parang ilang, the Kayan call it the malat.

This traditional weapon is called baieng by the Kenyah people, bandau by Lun Bawang or Pelepet by Lundayeh.

2.A mandau usually comes with a whittling knife.

A whittling knife or a pisau raut is a popular accompanying knife placed in the same sheath with the mandau.

While the mandau is used as a weapon, a whittling knife is used as a common crafting tool.

3.A Dayak man without a mandau was considered a ‘naked’ man.

Author Charles C. Miller in his book Black Borneo (1946) described how important the mandau was to a Dayak man back in the olden days.

“A Dayak would no more be caught without that formidable weapon attached to his person than a white man would be caught without his trousers. It was so essential that a man deprived of it in battle has been known to slink around the outskirts of the kampong like a pariah for weeks, not daring to be seen in public until he has secured another one to conceal his nakedness. Proud as the Dayaks are of their carved verandahs and doorways, their real craftmanship is lavished upon their mandaus.”

4.The beauty of a mandau perhaps lies in its hilt not in the blade.

Miller in the same book described the mandau as a ‘thirty-inch combination of battle axe, sword, cutlass and machete’.

He wrote, “The blade is about two feet long by three inches wide, whetted to razor-edge sharpness on one side, and nearly a quarter-inch thick on the other to give it weight. When they swing, they want it to mean something. A slight curve to the edge makes it especially effective in a cutting stroke, such as a blow aimed at the base of the neck.

“Though the blade is intricately engraved, the real soul of the instrument is in its handle, usually of ivory, though sometimes of ebony or horn. Dragons, human heads, reptiles and every conceivable form of Oriental symbolism are delicately carved thereon with such loving attention to detail that if it be an open-jawed dragon represented there you can see every feature of the mouth to the tonsils.”

5.They used to add their victims’ hair to the handle.

Explorer Carl Bock in his book The Headhunters of Borneo in 1881 wrote, “A thick rim of gutta-percha marks the point where the handle is fitted to the blade. Here are hung tassels of horse-hair, dyed various colours, or more often of human hair taken from victims.”

Meanwhile, Miller in his account also described similar thing about the origin of human hair on a mandau.

“Instead of the weapon being notched for every human life it has taken, a tuft of the victim’s hair is added to the handlle. A bald-headed mandau, no matter how handsome its carving, is still regarded by its owner as an inferior weapon until the sorry condition can be remedied. The chief I noticed, had more hair on his mandau than on his head.”

6.In the olden days, a man was not allowed to carry a mandau regularly unless he was married or had been on a headhunting expedition.

According to Bock in his book The Headhunters of Borneo, a man with a mandau is a sign of manhood.

“It is a rule among all the tribes that no youth can regularly wear a mandau, or be married, or associate with the opposite sex, till he has been on one or more headhunting expeditions. A mandau is presented to him, probably, at his birth, or when he receive a name; but not till he has washed it in the blood of an enemy can he presume to carry it as part of his everyday equipment.”

7.A mandau is equally useful in both battle and farming fields.

The mandau was, and still is, a common farming tool. It is perfect for clearing creepers as well as cutting paddy.

Thanks to its sharp and efficient blade design, it is also useful in bringing down large timber when clearing land for farming.

8.A mandau was a common form of gift and payment.

In this modern days, the last thing you thought of gifting someone as a birthday, Christmas or farewell present gift is a sword, right? You might want to give someone who loves to cook a chef’s knife but you wouldn’t think of a weapon as a present.

However during the olden days, the mandau was a common form of present.

Norwegian explorer Carl Bock was given a mandau as a farewell gift by Sultan of Kutai when he visited the region in 1878.

In the olden days before conventional medicine, the Kayan people turned to dayong or a priestess to cure them of illnesses.

Apart from money, the fee to pay the dayong for her service usually included a gong, a valuable bead (lukut) and a fine mandau (malat bukan).

A malat was and still is a common betrothal gift among the Kayan people during a traditional engagement ceremony.

9.A mandau or parang ilang used to be a ‘sought after’ item among tomb raiders.

Frederick Boyle (1841-1914) was an English author, journalist and orchid fancier. In 1863, he visited Sarawak with his brother and the result of this trip was a book ‘Adventures Among the Dyaks of Borneo’ (1865).

According to his travel account, Boyle bought himself a parang as a souvenir.

He stated,“The finest parangs – or those esteemed so – are found in the graves of Kayan warriors, which are consequently rifled by Dayaks and Malays on every possible occasion. I have one, purchased at Kanowit, which I was told had been obtained from a sepulchre three hundred years old – a rather improbable assertion, though I believe the weapon was really found in a Kayan grave, for it was strangely stained and rusted when I bought it.”

10.It was used during World War II.

According to some reports, “hundreds of Japanese soldiers’ heads were cut from their bodies with traditional weapons called mandau.”

This happened mainly in West and Central Kalimantan, Indonesia where Dayak people took part in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese occupation during World War II.

One of the highlights of this conflict was the Dayak Desa War or Majang Desa War.

The Dayak tribes from Ketapang to Sekadau initiated the mangkuk merah (red bowl) ritual as a symbol of hostility to the Japanese. This resulted in the town of Meliau falling under Dayak control from June 24, 1945. Many Japanese were killed and their heads taken.

Weeks later, Japanese forces managed to retake the town on July 17.

Even after the war had ended, the Dayak in the area continued to resist but this time the return of Dutch colonial authority.

Decades later on July 30, 1981, the Dayaks returned five skulls of Japanese soldiers to their families in Japan.

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Taboos followed by the Iban women when their men went to war during the olden days

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While Kayan women had their forbidden things to do when their husbands left for headhunting trips, Iban women also had a list of their own taboos when their men were out for war.

John Hewitt who was the Curator of the Sarawak Museum from 1905 to 1908, published the paper ‘Taboo customs of the warpath amongst the Sea Dayaks of Sarawak’ in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in March 1909.

In the paper, Hewitt discussed some of the taboos observed by Iban (Sea Dayak) women when their husbands were sent to a punitive expedition against some border tribes.

These men were part of the Sarawak Rangers and mainly came from villages around the Batang Lupar area.

Here are some taboos that must be followed by Iban women when their husbands were sent to war:

1.The Iban women must wake up early in the morning and at the streak of dawn all windows must be opened, for fear that their husbands would oversleep and be caught by the enemy. With the window opened early to bring light into the room, so would be bright when the men commence their march.

2. Wives were not allowed to take a nap during the day or else their husbands would be drowsy when walking.

3.It is forbidden (pemali) for the women to oil their hair as it was feared that their husbands would slip while walking along a batang (tree trunks) path.

4.Hewitt stated, “Every morning they must scatter popcorns (made of rice) on the verandah: and just as the elastic popcorns bounds and rebounds on the hard floor so will the men be agile in their movement. At the same time the women sing a verse-

‘Oh kamba, enti tinggi surok,
Enti baroh, perjok,
Munsoh suroh genong
Awak ka baka ditanggong, baka sangkutong’

This can be translated to “Oh you absent ones dodge under the high obstacles and leap over the low ones. Petrify the enemy and keep off the hands raised against you”.

5. It was pemali (forbidden) to bathe in the usual way with the petticoat on because the garment would become wet and heavy so it was believed that their husbands would also feel heavy in body and unable to move rapidly.

6. Homes must be kept very tidy, all boxes being placed near the walls, for should anyone stumble in the house so may the men fall when walking and thus be at the mercy of the enemy.

7. During eating, they must eat their food only at meal times and must be sitting down properly. Otherwise, the men will be tempted ‘to chew leaves or earth on the march’.

8. At each meal, a little rice must be left in the pot and must be put aside. This is to ensure that the men shall have plenty to eat and never go hungry.

Taboos followed by the Iban women when their men went to war during the olden days
A woman is not allowed to sit so long that she might have the cramp of her husband will surely become stiff and unable to rise up quickly after resting or to run away. Image is under Creative Commons.

9.Hewitt also listed, “On no account may a woman sit so long at the loom as to have the cramp’ or the men will surely become stiff and be unable to rise up quickly after resting or to run away. Accordingly the women intersperse their weaving operations by frequent walks up and down the veranda.”

10. It is forbidden to cover up the face with a blanket or the men will not be able to find their way through tall grass or jungle.

11.When it comes to sewing, the women must not sew with a needle or the men will thread upon ‘tukak’ (sharpened spikes of bamboo placed point upwards in the ground by the enemy).

12.The women are not allowed to wear flowers or scent, otherwise the movements of the men will be revealed to the enemy by their smell.

13.It is bad luck to break the ‘kain apit’ (the piece of leather or bark of tree with which the women support their backs when weaving); should this occur the men will be caught be the chin on some overhanging bough during their expedition.

14.Lastly, the women are not allowed to be unfaithful or commit adultery during the absence of their husbands or he will lose his life in the hands of his enemy.

In the same paper, Hewitt further explained some of taboos and customs that must be observed by the men during the war trip. These include:

1.The men must not cover up the rice when cooking, or their vision will become obscured and the way difficult to see.

2.The spoon must not be left standing up in the rice pot, otherwise the enemy will so leave a spear sticking in their bodies.

3.During cooking time should the pots be a distance apart from each other they must be connected by sticks; so will the men have neighbours near at hand should they be surprised by the enemy. It is thus customary to put the pots very close together.

4.It is pemali to pick out the bits of husk from the rice when feeding lest the enemy in like manner pick out that man from a group.

5.As the rice is taken from the pot, the cavity thus left in the food must be immediately smoothed over; otherwise wounds will not heal quickly.

6.It is unlucky to sleep with legs crossed or touching those of a neighbour lest the spears of the enemy smite the unfortunate offender of this taboo.

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Taboos and customs around death during childbirth among the Dayaks in Borneo

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In the olden days, cases of dying during childbirth were not uncommon. With lack of modern medical knowledge and hygiene, it was not rare for women to experience complications while giving birth.

Most cultures around the world have their own taboos and customs for women who died during labour.

For instance in Japan, one traditional custom for the burial of a deceased pregnant woman was commonly practiced.

According to Manami Yasui in her paper Research Notes: On Burial Customs, Maternal Spirits, and the Fetus in Japan (2003), the burial custom was to open the abdomen of the deceased woman, remove the fetus, and bury the two – now separated – bodies together in the same graves.

It is said that this custom was practiced so that the pregnant women would not turn into ‘ubume’.

Taboos and customs around death during childbirth among the Dayaks in Borneo
An image of ubume as depicted by Toriyama Sekien. Credit: Public Domain.

Ubume are Japanese yokai or spirits of pregnant women. Legend has it that the ubume would ask a passerby to hold her child for just a moment, disappearing when her unsuspecting victims take the swaddled baby.

The baby then becomes increasingly heavy until it is impossible to hold. It is then revealed not to be a human child but a rock or a stone image of Jizo (a bodhisattva revered in East Asian Buddhism).

Meanwhile in Borneo, different indigenous groups each has its own belief when comes to women who died in childbirth.

In order to ensure these poor mothers have safe journeys into the afterlife, there were taboos or customs that needed to be followed.

So here are some forgotten taboos and customs of death during childbirth among Borneo natives:

1.Iban

Anthropologist Clifford Sather in his paper The Malevolent Koklir: Iban Concepts of Sexual Peril and the Dangers of Childbirth detailed the ritual of death during childbirth among the Iban people.

“The death of a woman in childbirth is regarded as especially grievous because it typically claims a woman in her prime, or middle years, whose loss seriously disrupts her family, usually leaving a widower and possibly motherless children.

As a ritual defence, to cripple the ghost and prevent the woman who has died in childbirth from wandering abroad as a koklir, the soles of her feet and the palms of her hands are pierced diagonally with citrus thorns (duri limau) immediately before her body is removed from her bilek apartment and placed inside the sapat enclosure on the gallery prior to burial. Plants have generally a life-sustaining meaning to the Iban and thorns are frequently used, as here, as a protective instrument against demonic spirits.

Piercing the soles and palms is felt to be an unpleasant task and generally falls to one of the women’s closest female relatives, usually her mother or a sister; it is performed surreptitiously so as not to be seen by other mourners, and is accompanied by a brief prayer in which the dead woman is requested to accept her fate and not cause further grief to her family and others.

Some informants say that the woman’s tongue may also be pierced with a needle or porcupine quill. Otherwise, she is given a normal burial, except that citrus branches are sometimes placed upon her grave. But owing to the especially grievous nature of her death, it is considered to be abnormally ill-lucked, and her soul is believed in consequence to suffer a separate fate in the other world, different from that of those who have died ordinary deaths.”

Now comes the question of what happens to the baby once the mother has died.

Sadly, according to one old custom, this child – although alive – would share the same fate as his dead mother.

Reverend Frederick William Leggatt came to Sarawak in 1884 and had worked among the Ibans at Banting (1885-1887), Skrang (1887-1898) and lastly Lundu (1898-1908).

This is an example case infanticide that he observed following the death of the mother.

“Sea Dyaks custom required (until a civilised government interfered to prevent such atrocious murders), that if the death of a mother followed in consequence of delivery, the child should pay the penalty (i) as being the cause of the mother’s death, (ii) because no one remained to nurse and care for it. Therefore the child was placed alive in the coffin with the mother, and both buried together, not unfrequently without consulting the father, who might venture to dare custom and be willing to spare his child. No woman would consent to suckle such an orphan lest it should bring misfortune upon her own children.

“One case I am acquainted with where the mother, in the father’s absence, gave birth to twins and died immediately afterwards. By the grandfather’s orders (the paternal grandfather) both children were buried with the mother.”

2.Dayak Embaloh

Victor T. King in his paper Cursing, Special Death and Spirits in Embaloh Society explained how the death of a woman during delivery is handled traditionally among the Dayak Embaloh of the West Kalimantan.

“Pregnancy and childbirth are hedged round with all kinds of taboo. In Embaloh society a high percentage of deaths is the result of complications in childbirth and pregnancy, and women, their husbands and the immediate family are confined by taboos (tata’) relating to food, to certain work and action, and to avoidance of certain animals. If a woman should die in childbirth her soul invariably becomes a much-feared, malevolent spirit called antu anak.

This spirit delights in seeking revenge and bringing sickness and sometimes death to pregnant women, as well as to mothers and their small children. It can also attack men at night and devour their genitals, the symbol and ultimate cause of the spirit’s demise in life. To a man the antu anak frequently appears in the guise of a beautiful woman, but it can also change into a variety of furry animals such as the monkey, squirrel and civet cat.

“The corpse of a woman who dies in delivery or when pregnant is wrapped in a rattan mat, taken as quickly as possible from the village and buried in the jungle away from the death-house. There are no ceremonies, the soul does not go to Telung, and any status a woman may have had in life is immediately cancelled. She is, in fact condemned to an eternity as an evil jungle spirit.”

3.Kayan

According to Jerome Rousseau in his book Kayan Religion, a Kayan woman who dies in childbirth should be buried immediately because she becomes a particularly fearsome spirit.

“People often fled after a sudden death, leaving old men and women to dispose of the corpse.”

The spirits of children and mothers who died in childbirth are known as the to’ ka’.

Explaining about these fearsome spirit, Rousseau stated, “These angry spirits tear off young men’s testicles and eat them. They can take the form of wild or domestic fowl, a mousedeer, or a civet cat.”

The fear of to’ ka’ is might be the reason why this now-extinct practice existed among the Kayans back then.

As what Spenser St John recorded in his book, “Among the Kayans I may mention one inhuman custom, which is, that women who appear to be dying in childbirth are taken to the woods and placed in a hastily-constructed hut; they are looked upon as interdicted and none but the meanest slaves may approach them, either to give them food or to attend to them.”

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Are ‘Kelabit’ and ‘Melanau’ results of a misspelling?

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These authors claim that the names for ethnic groups – Kelabit and Melanau – were unexpected results from misspellings.

The Melanau people

Are ‘Kelabit’ and ‘Melanau’ results of a misspelling?
In the olden days, when a Melanau child was about a month old, its head would be placed in a wooden device called the Tadal, the objective of which was to flatten the forehead and make the face as near the shape of a full moon as possible. The pressure would only be applied while the child was asleep. Credit: Creative Commons

The Melanau people are an ethnic group indigenous to Sarawak. During the 19th century, they settled dominantly along the main tributaries of the Rajang River in central part of Sarawak.

John Beville Archer, the former chief secretary of Sarawak claimed in his autobiography Glimpses of Sarawak between 1912 and 1946 that the word ‘Melanau’ was a result of misspelling.

“I see that I have been rather dictatorial about the spelling of the world Melanau. As a matter of fact the correct word should be ‘Lemanau’. It is said the spelling of the word ‘Melanau’ is a hundred year old mistake. Apparently an old writer had such an illegible hand that the mistake occurred and has never been put right. In any case, the name as applying to the whole race is merely a modern idea. It is not used by the people themselves except when dealing with Government Officials and Chinese.”

The Kelabit people

Are ‘Kelabit’ and ‘Melanau’ results of a misspelling?
A group of Kelabit men in 1912. Photo Credit: Creative Commons

Meanwhile, Sagau Batu Bala in his book Kelabits’ Story the Great Transition (2012) claimed that British zoologist and ethnologist Charles Hose was responsible for the misspelling.

The Kelabit people are the indigenous people of Borneo highlands. They have close ties to the Lun Bawang people.

According to Sagau, the mistake could be traced back to the early 20th century.

“In 1901, a group of Pa’ Labid people went down to Marudi on business. This was one of the first groups of people from the Highlands who went to Marudi after Baram became part of Sarawak. This group of Kelabits wanted to show that they were responsible subjects of the Rajah of Sarawak. They went to identify themselves and, at the same time, pay courtesy call on the newly appointed resident in his office in Fort Hose. The building of Fort Hose had just been completed in 1901 on the bank of Baram River at Marudi. When they met Charles Hose in his office, he wanted to know what race they were, as he had been instructed by the Raja of Sarawak earlier.

“He asked them, ‘Kamu dari mana?’ It means, ‘Where are you from?’ Because they were from their village called Pa’ Labid, the leader of the group answered and said, ‘Pa’ Labid.’ Charles Hose asked them again, ‘Apa bangsa kamu?’ It means, ‘What is your race?’ The leader answered and said, ‘Orang Pa’ Labid’ because they were Lun Pa’ Labid or the people of Pa’ Labid. He was right in saying that because there was no single race name for all the people who lived in the Highlands at the source of Baram River. It was Charles Hose who misheard the word Pa’ Labid, when he wrote the first letter ‘P’ became ‘K’ and the last letter ‘d’ became ‘t’, and he wrote down in his record book ‘Kalabit’.

“He accepted it to mean a race for all the people who lived in the Highlands south of all the people who lived in the Highlands south of Mount Murud. From that time onwards, Kalabit became officially the race of the people who occupied the Highlands at the source of Baram River the border of Forth and Fifth Divisions and right along the border of Sarawak and Kalimantan until today.”

What do you think of these misspellings KajoReaders?

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#KajoReviews: Sarawak by Hedda Morrison, a coffee table book must-have

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Sarawak by Hedda Morrison is a photography book published in 1957.

The book features photographs taken by the author during the 8 years she spent in Sarawak.

Morrison was married to Alastair Morrison, a district officer when Sarawak was under the British Crown Colony.

Overall, the Morrisons stayed for over 20 years in Sarawak. During this time, she produced two books: Sarawak (1957) and Life in a Longhouse (1962).

She accompanied her husband for his work allowing her to photograph the people she met and the places she visited.

Morrison reportedly used two car batteries to power her portable darkroom enlarger while without power for six years in Sarawak.

On top of that, she stored her negatives in an airtight chest using silica gel as a drying agent to overcome the perils of a tropical climate.

The outcome; her photographs of Sarawak are undoubtedly magnificent and the descriptions that came with them are insightful.

Her texts are mostly based on her personal experiences and opinions.

#KajoReviews: Sarawak by Hedda Morrison, a coffee table book must-have

Sarawak by Hedda Morrison

When Westerners publish something about Sarawak, they usually go into two different directions; romanticizing or condescending.

Morrison definitely belongs to the first category.

Commenting on the Iban people, Morrison stated, “The Ibans are an independent, brace, good-humoured, generous, open-handed people. They are also excitable and emotional. Their personal honesty and innate sense of hospitality are outstanding. There are no locked doors in longhouses. Theft is very rare and intensely despised.”

As for the Kayans and Kenyahs, she opined “In general Kayans and Kenyahs are progressive and exceptionally school conscious. They are quiet and reserved; slow and rather phlegmatic.”

While observing the Bidayuh, Morrison concluded, “The Land Dayaks are very conservative and singularly lacking in the way of wander-lust. There is a good deal of land hunger in the hill areas where they reside and where they cultivate paddy by the usual wasteful system of shifting cultivation. The land has been overworked and much of its fertility has been lost but despite this they are, as a people, very reluctant to migrate to other areas of Sarawak. A curious feature of their paddy cultivation is that they do not head of paddy with a small knife like the other peoples of Sarawak but pluck it off between their fingers.”

The rare photos of Sarawak by Hedda Morrison

Going through Hedda Morrison’s Sarawak is like going through a time portal back to Crown Colony of Sarawak.

She documented some of rare sights of Sarawak that we no longer could see today.

One example is how the Malays in Lundu prepared traditional medicine for pregnant women.

This particular medicine is made from bud of Rafflesia which was sliced up finely and mixed with various spice.

We will never see this sight again because the Rafflesia is now a totally protected plant.

Another sight that we no longer see but can be found in the book is the photo of boat-hawkers.

These were floating shops which travel from one village to another.

Moreover, there are photos of no-longer existing buildings.

For instance, there is a photo of Kampung Pichin’s longhouse in Serian. Today, the villagers no longer live in longhouses but in individuals houses instead.

There is also a photo of a Kenyah longhouse Long Selaan in the upper Baram. However, this particular building no longer exists.

We need a new version of Sarawak by Hedda Morrisson

Her photographs are all undoubtedly magnificent. However, it is possible that they were also not captured in the moment but staged for the photographer.

In a photo taken at Long Buroi in the upper Tinjar, Morrison took photo of a former spirit medium conducting a healing session through spirit invocation.

She honestly shared that despite the subjects being Christians, they all agreed to reenact the session for the photographer.

Another unfortunate fact about the book is the lack of names of the subjects.

Morrison offered a great deal of portraits but their names were not included.

Regardless, we wish that there would be a new generation of local photographers who will document Sarawak like Morrison did, because Sarawak definitely needs an upgraded version of this book.

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Stories from the past about crocodiles in Sarawak

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If Sarawak were not already nicknamed the Land of Hornbills, the next best nickname for our state should definitely be Land of the Crocodiles.

One of the two crocodile species that can be found here is Crocodylus porosus or the saltwater crocodile.

It is the largest living reptile and crocodilian known. The locals call it ‘buaya katak’, which literally translates to ‘crocodile frog’ due to its ability to jump out of the water and attack its prey by the shore and even up a tree.

Stories from the past about crocodiles in Sarawak
Saltwater crocodile is called buaya katak in Malay due to its ability to jump out of water like this. Credit: Pixabay.

The second crocodile species is the false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii) or Malayan gharial.

Sarawakians might know it as buaya jujulong or baya kenyulong.

Crocodiles in Sarawak have a centuries-long reputation for their ferocity and attacks against humans.

They also became a source of legend among the natives.

Stories from the past about crocodiles in Sarawak
Do you have any personal experiences with crocodiles in Sarawak? Let us know in the comment box. Credit: Pixabay.

Here are some stories about crocodiles in Sarawak from the past that you might never heard of:

1.James Brooke narrated about the capture of a crocodile with remains found in its stomach in his journal.

This was what the first White Rajah wrote in his journal on Nov 25, 1845.

“A male crocodile was caught this morning, measuring fifteen feet four inches in length; and it is astonishing how quiescent these animals are when taken, allowing their feet to be fastened over their back, and a strong lashing put round the mouth without any resistance, and then brought down, floated between two small canoes. When dragged out of the water to be killed, the monster only moved his tail gently backwards and forwards.

Yet when hungry, it is evident that he would attack both men and boats, for the bones of a poor fellow found in his stomach. It is probable that these cold-blooded reptiles digest their food very slowly and that one meal, which is a gorge, lasts them for some time, as is the case with the larger serpents; otherwise, if, like the dragon of all, he required a man or maid for breakfast, the demand would be a heavy drain on a small population.

The thigh and leg bones of the Malay were perfect, and the feet had some portion of the flesh adhering to them, and were crushed into a roundish form, whilst the head was found separated at the joinings or process. The poor man’s jacket and trousers were also found which enabled the relatives to recognise his remains, and, from his having been a fisherman, it was probable that he was attacked whilst occupied with his lines.”

2.The Brooke government once paid Sarawakians for every crocodile brought in dead.

Robert Taylor Pritchett (1828-1907) was a well-known artist and illustrator.

He visited both North Borneo (present-day Sabah) and Sarawak. Pritchett then wrote a paper about his journey.

The paper was published in Journal of the Society of Arts on Mar 29, 1889.

About the crocodiles in Sarawak, Pritchett stated, “The river leading up to the capital, Kuchin (Kuching), was some years ago, rather a good place for crocodiles, and you will agree with me, I think, when I tell you that Rajah Brooke decided to give one rupee per foot for every crocodile brought in dead, and Mr. Crocker told me that during the year 1881 he paid 2000 rupees, which showed 2,000 feet of crocodiles varying from 4 to 18 feet.”

Mr. Crocker here is most probably William Maunder Crocker. He joined the Sarawak civil service from 1864 until 1886.

Unfortunately, there is no official record found on the number of dead crocodiles that the Brooke government had paid for.

3.How a 12-year-old girl rescued her brother from a crocodile attack

It is possible to survive from a crocodile attack as well as to rescue someone who is being attacked by a crocodile.

These testimonies which were recorded in A History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908 (1909) by Sabine Baring-Gould and Charles Agar Bampfylde have proven so.

“A little Malay boy, just able to toddle, was larking in the mud at low water when he was seized by a crocodile, which was making for the water with its screaming little victim in its jaws, when the child’s sister, a girl of twelve, and his brother of eight, rushed to his assistance. The boy hopelessly tried to stop the crocodile by clinging to one of its fore-paws but the girl jumped upon the brute’s back, and gradually working her way to its eyes which were then just above water, succeeded in gouging out one with her fingers. This caused the crocodile promptly to drop its prey, but only just in time, as it was on the point of gliding into deep water. By the girl’s vigorous intervention it not only lost its prey but also its life, for two men coming up hacked the brute to pieces. The little heroine had remembered the story of how her grandfather saved his life in the same way. To scoop out the eyes is the only chance of escape for one taken, and it must be done promptly. The little boy was scarcely hurt. The girl’s courageous deed duly received a graceful recognition from the Ranee.

“Another girl, a Dayak girl this time, rescued her mother, who was dragged out of a boat, in which they were together, by a large crocodile. She threw herself upon the monster, and by thrusting her fingers into its eyes compelled the brute, after a short but sharp struggle, to release its prey.”

4.“May I be killed by a crocodile if I am guilty”

In the same book, Baring-Gould and Bampfylde explained a common phrase among Sarawakians in those days.

“Death caused by a crocodile is one of the most horrible of deaths, and it is often a protracted one, as the victim is borne along above water for some distance, then taken down, based against some sunken log, and brought up again. “May I be killed by a crocodile if I am guilty” is a common invocation made by Malays in protestation of their innocence; in other words, they invoke the most deadful death that comes within their ken. So did once a young Malay woman in the Simanggang Court on being convicted of a serious crime. That evening, whist she was bathing, a smothered cry, that she had barely time to utter, announced that her prayer had been heard.”

5.The duality when speaking to a crocodile

Edwin H. Gomes was an Anglican missionary who spent 17 years in Sarawak.

One of the books he wrote about his life here is Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo (1911).

In one part of the book, Gomes narrated on how a crocodile was caught by professional hunters.

According to him, professional crocodile catchers are supposed to possess some wonderful power over the animals which enables them to land them and handle them without trouble.

Once the crocodile was caught using a bait tied on a rattan line, the next step was to tie the reptile up.

In order to do this, the hunters started to talk to the creature.

Gomes observed,

“The animal is addressed in eulogistic language and beguiled, so the natives say, into offering no resistance. He is called a ‘rajah amongst animals’, and he is told that he has come on a friendly visit and must behave accordingly. First the trapper ties up its jaws – not a very difficult thing to do.

“The next thing he does appears to me not very safe. Still speaking as before in high-flown languagae, he tells the crocodile that he has brought rings for his fingers, and he binds the hind-legs fast behind the beast’s back, so taking away from him his grip on the ground, and consequently his ability to use his tail.

“Though the animal is spoken to in such flattering terms before he is secured, the moment his arms and legs are bound across his back and his powerless for evil, they howl at him and deride him for his stupidity.”

After the poor animal was derogated, according to Gomes, ‘he is taken to the nearest government station, the reward is claimed, and he is afterward cut open, and the contents of his stomach examined.’

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‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’, the first book ever printed in Sarawak

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Imagine being sent to a company function with your fellow colleagues and ended up stuck at the airport due to a flight delay, what would you do?

While you may strike a conversation or two with your colleagues, most of us would definitely find some solace through our phones.

Now, imagine it is the year 1874 having stuck with your colleagues on a river, unable to reach your destination because of the low tide, what would you do?

For a group of outstation Brooke officers who were supposed to be in Kuching but stuck somewhere along the Sarawak River, they came up with a book.

To kill time, these men shared and made up stories among themselves so enthusiastically until one of them raised an idea to publish a book together.

‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’, the first book ever printed in Sarawak

‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’

The book is befittingly entitled ‘Waiting for the Tide, or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’.

On the preface, they go,

“We start this annual with fear and trembling, as we are aware it has no pretensions to be skilled literary production, but simply what it is entitled – Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak life, which is in itself strange, wild and romantic. Written by men whose jungle life more or less unfits them for literary pursuits, the pictures being lithographed in Singapore, and the work printed by a Chinese boy educated in the Mission School here, we trust these facts may be taken into consideration, and that the sharp blasts of criticism may be tempered to this our first-born.

There was an established rule which originated in the time of Sir James Brooke, that all officers who could leave their stations should keep up the old English custom of meeting to celebrate Christmas and the New Year in Kuching.

A party of outstation officers happened to meet on a Christmas eve in one of the small streams which intersect the two branches of the Sarawak river, which is generally used as a short cut; being detained by the failing tide, they were unable to reach the capital that night, and to beguile the time these stories were sketched out whilst ‘Waiting for the tide’.”

Fraser’s story is about his encounter with pirate while A. Perry tells the story of a jungle heroine named Pya.

Meanwhile, T. Skipwith shares the story of men with tells and O.C. Vane narrates a story of rescuing a Dayak from a Monster. H. Roscoe and W.H. Don tells stories of their encounters with an alligator and wolves respectively.

But here is the thing; all of the six stories in the book were contributed under assumed names.

Optimistic Fiddler and ‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’

Fortunately about 75 years later, a Sarawak Gazette writer under the pen name ‘Optimistic Fiddler’ figured out all the identities of these authors…or did he?

Optimistic Fiddler, was actually John Beville Archer. He held several posts in Sarawak service including as the Chief Secretary in 1939.

In an article which was published on the Sarawak Gazette on March 1, 1948, Archer shared that he came across the book more than 25 years earlier in the Officers’ Mess at Fort Alice, Simanggang.

‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’, the first book ever printed in Sarawak
Fort Alice

According to Archer, as far as he knew, it was the only copy in existence.

When Archer returned to Simanggang a decade later, however, the rare book had disappeared.

After World War II, he found the book in a cupboard in the Sarawak Museum Offices.

“From the gist of the first story it seems that the two boats, one containing three, and the other two, officer meet in the mosquito ridden ‘trusan’ near Kuching just as the tide turned against them and night fell. This would be probably be up the Santubong entrance. The party, who came from outstations decided to go back to the fire and spend the night there, and from the descriptions in the tales I think we may take it that Santubong was the camp of the story-teller; the picture on the outside cover supports this.”

There is no spoiler here on what these short stories about but our curiosity as well as Archer’s remain on who were the authors behind ‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’.

A Pirate Story by W. Fraser

Archer believed that W. Fraser was William Maunder Crocker. He was the father of Harold Brooke Crocker.

Harold worked in Sarawak for almost 40 years since he joined the service in 1900, holding various positions including, Superintendent of Lands and Surveys, Director of Agriculture, Food Control Officer, residents, judge and Chief Secretary.

Meanwhile, Crocker worked in the Sarawak service from 1864 to 1880 except for a period of four years when he according to Archer, ‘engaged in mercantile pursuits’.

Crocker brought Chinese pepper and gambier planters into Sarawak and made one of the first few reliable maps of the state.

In 1887, he became the Acting Governor of British North Borneo but only for a year. Crocker Range in Sabah that separates west and east coast of Sabah was named after him.

Here in Sarawak, the remnant of Crocker’s work can be found in Mukah.

The old brick chimney in Mukah town is all that remains of a sago factory Crocker started there (when he was trying to be a merchant in that four years).

A Jungle Heroine by A. Perry

As for the writer of the second story ‘A Jungle Heroine’, Archer guessed it is written by Alfred Robert Houghton.

When Houghton first came to Sarawak in 1862 as Treasurer, he was paid $70 per month.

He held that appointment until August 1866 when he became the Magistrate of Upper Sarawak.

Houghton then subsequently became the Resident of Bintulu. When the first Council Negri was held at Bintulu on Sept 8, 1867, he was there as an appointed member of the council.

After that, he was promoted to Resident Second Class in charge of Sadong and transferred there on June 1, 1873. Then in July 1875, Houghton was appointed Resident Rejang District.

Archer was correct with the timeline of Houghton’s career as he stated, “At the time he appears to have been in charge of Sadong district.”

The youngest son of a physician in London Dr James R. Houghton, he studied for the Bar and also the medical profession before coming to Sarawak.

At some point of his career before Sarawak, Houghton was also a newspaper correspondent.

One of the highlights of his service in the state was when he accompanied Rajah Charles Brooke on the first Mujong Expedition of 1880.

After the expedition, Houghton fell sick and had to return to Kuching. He died somewhere in the Red Sea on the way home on Mar 20, 1881 at the age of 43.

Men with tails by T. Skipwith

Archer wrote, “’Men with Tails’ is no doubt Thomas Skipwith Chapman, 1864-96 who did all his service in the Kalaka district. He was a spirited artist and most of the illustrations are his.”

Chapman took part in a punitive expedition at upper Batang Lupar in 1875 under the command of Rajah Charles alongside 300 Malays and 6000 Dayaks.

Beside ‘Waiting for the Tide, or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’, Chaoman also published another book of his illustrations “A Short Trip to Sarawak and The Dayaks”

On top of that, he was one of Brooke officers along with Houghton who attended the first Council Negri meeting in Bintulu.

To the Rescue by O.C. Vane

“O.C. Vane who writes ‘To the Rescue’ is Oliver St. John 1860-84. He has the distinction of being the first Postmaster in Sarawak,” Archer stated.

However, that was not his first job in Sarawak.

According to Sarawak Gazette archivist Loh Chee Yin, Oliver Cromwell Vane St. John first joined the Sarawak Service on Aug 17, 1860 as Midshipman.

He was then appointed first clerk in the Treasury on May 1, 1861.

St. John became the first postmaster on New Year’s day 1864.

In fact, his post as the postmaster was in addition of his Treasury duties.

He was the Resident of Upper Sarawak from 1872 until his retirement in 1884. The former postmaster died in Mexico in 1898.

Adventure with an Alligator by H. Roscoe

The ‘Adventure with an Alligator is the fifth story in the book and whose author Archer did not confirm.

In the Sarawak Gazette, Archer wrote, “This may be Oliver St. John too, but that is merely a guess and I do not know enough yet to say who it is.”

It is understandable why Archer guessed so, H. Roscoe might be a pseudonym in reference to Oliver’s  uncle.

That particular uncle was Horace Stebbing Roscoe St John but Oliver had another more famous paternal uncle.

Oliver’s father, Percy St. John was the son of English journalist James Augustus St. John.

Three of James’s sons; Percy, Bayle and Horace all became journalists and authors.

James also introduced one of his sons, Spenser St. John to James Brooke.

Spenser came to Sarawak in 1848 as the first Rajah’s private secretary. He then became the British Consul General in Brunei. During his tenure in Brunei, he made two ascents of Mount Kinabalu with Hugh Low.

One of the peaks of Mount Kinabalu, ‘St. John’s Peak’ is named after him.

However, there is one problem with Archer’s assumption that H. Roscoe is Oliver St. John.

In the introduction of the book as the authors narrating how the book came about, it is stated Vane and Roscoe are two people.

After arriving at the stream where they were unable to move on, ‘Perry’ heard another boat was coming and he said he even heard ‘Skipwith’ singing ‘The Hardy Norsman’.

To that ‘Don’ replied, “I wonder if they have dined? If not, we had better join mess, there must be ‘Vane’ and ‘Roscoe’ with him, as I know they intended coming round together. Here they come.”

Another theory is H. Roscoe was Horace’s son and Oliver’s cousin but there is no record found that Horace had a son who worked in Sarawak.

Nonetheless, the mystery remains who is H. Roscoe?

Don’s Story by W.H. Don

Finally, the last story is believed to be written by William Henry Rodway. Yes, Jalan Rodway in Kuching was named after him.

We understand from the book that it was Don who suggested the idea to have each of them to tell a story that would keep them awake.

He was the first Commandant of the Sarawak Rangers, a para-military force founded in 1862.

Rodway died on Jan 11, 1924 in Torquay, England and according to his obituary, he joined the Sarawak Civil Service in 1862 and retired on pension in 1883.

Apart from the role of the commandant, he had also worked as the Resident of the First Division as well as the President of the Committee of Administration.

Is ‘Waiting for the Tide or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’ the first book published in Sarawak?

The book clearly stated it was edited, printed and published in Kuching and the year of publication on the book is 1875.

Unless there is any other book that was published here earlier than this, it is safe to say that ‘Waiting for the Tide or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’ is the first illustrated book printed in Sarawak.

Since it is a fictional book, perhaps it is also one of the firsts if not the first fiction that came out from the state.

Nearly 150 years have passed since the book was published, is the book worth your read?

Well, we leave you with the words of one of its readers who perhaps read it at least dozen times when entertainment was scarce in Simanggang.

“I recommend this book to readers, especially to newcomers to Sarawak. It has no great literary merit but it has considerable charm. As an insight into old Sarawak it is well worth reading and digesting with care.”

The book is available through Pustaka Sarawak and Singapore National Library Board.

KajoReaders, do you agree on the real identities of the authors or do you have any thoughts especially who is H. Roscoe? Let us know in the comment section.  

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What you need to know about all the great fires of Sarawak

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Sarawak has been through quite a number of great fires throughout its history.

Just like the Great Fire of London which took place from Sept 2 till 6 in 1666 which gutted the medieval City of London, Sarawak has experienced fires so ‘great’ that have taken down whole bazaars or large sections of a town. Moreover, some places in Sarawak were unfortunate enough to have more than one great fire

What you need to know about all the great fires of Sarawak
Illustration only. Image by Pixabay.

So here are some of the historic fires that have taken place in Sarawak:

1.The Great Fire of Kuching

Sarawakians might have heard about the Great Fire of Kuching that broke on Jan 20, 1884 at 1.05am.

What most people may not be aware of is the looting that happened during the incident.

If the same case happened in Kuching today, the looters would, without a doubt, be condemned on social media.

Here is a report from the Straits Times which was published on Feb 2, 1884:

“Private advices received from Kuching, Sarawak and from Captain Joyce of the S.S. Ranee, inform us that a great fire occurred there on the morning of Sunday, the 20th January, which nearly proved the destruction of the entire town. The fire originated in Carpenter Street, entirely consisting of wooden houses, which were quickly consumed, and the fire soon spread into China Street and Bishopsgate Street, in which latter thoroughfare ten wooden buildings were also consumed.

The houses were old, and the fire ran from one to the other so rapidly that in a very short time from the first alarm the the three streets above named were one mass of flame, and it was thought the entire town of Kuching be destroyed.

Some of the principal merchants’ houses in the main Bazaar were connected through their back premises with these three streets, and at one time great apprehensions were entertained that the entire Bazaar and the merchants’ premises would be absorbed in the conflagration. The brick houses of Messrs. Seng Keng and Kong Wan were entirely gutted; but further damage was stopped by an opportune downpour of rain, which fell in torrents and effectively subdued the fire.

One hundred and thirty-two houses had, in the meantime, been destroyed, including the whole Carpenter Street, China Street, and Bishopsgate Street, and some new houses built in Nochi Road by Mr Ken Wat.

The Chinese residents and coolies stood looking at the fire, and not only refused any assistance, but devoted their attention entirely to looting.”

2.The Great Fire of Lundu

The common solution for all fire incidents in the past was to rebuild the town in ironwood.

Here is a report from Straits Times on Oct 17, 1893 that showed the Brooke government had another precaution to prevent fire from spreading.

“At Lundu, a town in Sarawak, a fire which broke out in the bazaar on the 3rd September consumed fifteen shops with property valued at $40,000. The Resident paid a visit to the town a few days afterwards, and on the shopkeepers proposing to rebuild the bazaar with ironwood, he advised that it should be built for the future in blocks, with plantains or some quick growing trees planted between which would serve as a screen in case of fire in the future.”

3.The Great Fire of Bau

The fire that engulfed Bau Bazaar in 1909 was so huge that the glare was reportedly distinctly visible from Kuching.

“Shak Lung Mung Bazaar Bau, was totally destroyed by fire early on the night of the 3rd. The shops on both sides of the Bazaar road were built of most inflammable materials, wood frames, attap and kajang roofs and walls, while many of the shops contained kerosene oil in tins. In such circumstances it only remained to try and save what could be got at from the shops not burning as nothing could possibly save the Bazaar when the fire had once obtained a hold, which it did in a few minutes,” The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser reported on Dec 30, 1909.

According to the report, the loss was estimated at $50,000.”

Meanwhile, a Chinese correspondent wrote to his Singaporean friend about how Bau town was destroyed by fire, causing panic among ita inhabitants.

The content of the letter was reported on The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser on Dec 16, 1909 under the headline ‘The Gods Send Fire’.

According to the correspondent, the flames rose hundreds of feet and, together with the crackling of wood, the smoke and frantic shouting, it was likened to a day of judgement for them.

He also attributed the cause of the fire to the ‘High Gods’ to whom, the writer stated, “the people have not prayed regularly for the last ten or twelve years.”

Hence, according to writer, the only way to wreak vengeance on the ungodly was, like Sodom and Gomorrah, to devour the town with flames.

4.The Great Fire of Simanggang

“From private advices we learn that on Tuesday last, at two o’clock in the morning, fire broke out in the bazaar, at Simanggang, Sarawak.

In a short time the whole bazaar was ablaze, and seventy-five shops were demolished, in the daylight.”

This was what Malaya Tribune reported on Dec 20, 1927 about the fire.

5.The Great Fires of Matu

Matu town was first established in 1885 by a group of Chinese who came directly from China to trade with the Melanaus.

According to Chang Pat Foh in his book Legend and History of Sarawak, Matu went through two great fires in which the whole bazaar was burnt down.

The first fire took place in 1897 and the second one 30 years later in 1927.

The Straits Budgets, however, reported on Feb 18, 1909 that another fire happened a month prior.

With the headline ‘Serious Fire in Sarawak’, this is what the paper reported:

“News was received in Sarawak, on January 21, that the whole Matu Bazaar had been destroyed by fire a few days previously and the Chinese shopkeepers there were destitute of goods and provisions.
The Government dispatched the steamer Alice Lorraine direct to Matu the following morning, with stores. The Sarawak Gazette understand that the loss to the Chinese is somewhere about $99,000 at the lowest computation.”

6.The Great Fires of Sibu

Sibu was burnt to the ground twice. The first fire happened on the night of Feb 10, 1889. About 60 shophouses were razed to the ground.

At that time, the cost of the damage was estimated at $15,000.

Then another bigger fire took place on Mar 7, 1928.

According to the report on the Straits Budget which was published on Mar 22, 1928, the blaze lasted for some hours but ‘the ruins were still smouldering three days afterwards.

The report continued, stating that “The only building that escaped in the bazaar was Messr. Soon Seng and Company’s retail premises. The premises of two British firms in Sibu, the Borneo Company and the Sarawak Steamship Company were destroyed. The former company had $50,000 in notes in a Chubb safe but the money and documents were untouched, and another firm which had $100,000 in notes in a fireproof safe was equally fortunate. The total damage was estimated at about $4,000,000, several hundred houses being destroyed together with other property and merchandise.”

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