DY'AK, or DAYAK. A general name ap plied by the Malay invaders to the peoples in habiting the interior and a considerable portion ef the coast of the great island of Borneo. who seem to be its aborigines. Physically and lin guistically they all belong to the Malayan race, but there are numerous variations from the char acteristic type. Dyak culture runs all the way from the savagery of the mountainous interior to the civilization of the coast, when.. under Javanese. Bugi, and Chinese influences, (lie artistic and industrial abilities possessed more or by all the tribes are seen to better advan tage, and many States and Sultanates have from time to time flourished. The Dyaks have taken to Islam less kindly than their Idndred. the Malays proper, and some of the uncivilized tribes of the interior probably preserve traits of origi nal Malayan heathenism, elsewhere lost. Intel It-On:illy. morally, and socially the Dyak at his best is perhaps superior to the typical Malay. as lie also exceeds him in stature and often in good looks. The Dyaks are also less restrained and more given to physical (Tel:, than the Malays proper. The paddle. the spear, the blow-gun,
bnmhoo and metalwork, represent some of the outcrops of 1)yak genius. Among the more savago I)yak tribes arc the (Jo-tit of the central the I'unau, farther to the northeast: the Kay:uns; the Kcnyas; the ]3cmhau. etc. The Slilanos about the Red jaug River, the Land Dyaks, the Sea Dyaks of S:nawak, etc.. the Dusuu of the northeast, arc all more or less civilized. Smue of the Dyaks take well to agriculture; and head Jnmting amid for which the Dyaks were once so famous. are rapidly disappearing. The traditional home of the Dvaks is in the mouttaius of the central interior, from which the so-called 'Sea Dyaks,' once famous as pirates, have waudercd farthest. The results of the Haddon exploring expedition of I898-09 have added much to our knowledge of the tribes of the interior. Besides the general works on Rorveo, consult: Bock, lived hunters of lio•nco (Lou don, ISSI) ; ltleimm, 1)ic hilde,mdemm Lei den 1)uyuks auf Borneo : Roth, Time \'otim-cs of Simrueok cm md British Xo,•tIt Borneo (London, 1896),