The Head-hunters of Borneo: a Narrative of Travel up the Mahakkam and down the Barito; also Journeyings in Sumatra

Abstract

THIS large and lavishly-illustrated volume derives its chief value from the fact that the author is a clever artist, and that all the handsome coloured plates which form the main feature of the book are evidently careful drawings made on the spot, not imaginary designs concocted from more or less imperfect sketches or descriptions. The houses, villages, and forest scenes are all true to nature, and the same may be said of the numerous portraits of the Dyaks and illustrations of their domestic life and customs. The figures are indeed wonderfully life-like and the drawing accurate, the only fault being a very slight tendency to Europeanise the features—a kind of personal equation due to Mr. Bock's artistic studies having been made from European models. This is visible in the small and well-formed mouths of the two women in Plate 16, and in the perfectly straight and well-developed nose of the “Chief of the Forest People” in Plate 24. When, however, he has taken special pains and has had ample time to finish his drawing, as in “Hetdung, my favourite Dyak Boy” (Plate 23), he avoids this fault, and gives us a portrait as perfect and as characteristic as a good photograph. The Head-hunters of Borneo: a Narrative of Travel up the Mahakkam and down the Barito; also Journeyings in Sumatra. By Carl Bock (late Commissioner of the Dutch Government). With thirty Coloured Plates, Map, and other Illustrations. (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1881.)