If the invading party is very strong, it may surround a
house whose defenders have been warned of their coming, and attempt
to starve them into submission. In the old days it was not uncommon
for a strong party of Kayans to descend upon a settlement of the more
peaceable coastwise people, and to extort from them a large payment of
brass-ware as the price of their safety. If the unfortunate household
submitted to this extortion, the Kayans would keep faith with them,
and would ratify a treaty of peace by making the headman of the
village blood-brother of their chief.
Some features of the tactics adopted by the Kayans are worthy of
more detailed description. If a strong party determines to attack a
house in face of an alert defence, they may attempt to storm it in
broad daylight by forming several compact bodies of about twenty-five
men. Each body protects itself with a roof of shields held closely
together, and the several parties move quickly in upon the house
simultaneously from different points, and attempt to carry it by
assault. The defenders of the house would attempt to repel such an
attack by hurling heavy bars of iron-wood, sharpened at both ends, in
such a way that the bar twirls in the air as it hurtles through it;
and this is one of the few occasions on which the blow-pipe is used
as a weapon of defence.
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