Borneo is not the jungle of my childhood. That naive vision came from Hollywood-specifically Tarzan and King Kong-as well as Kipling's Jungle Book, diced with the imagination of 19th century European explorers. In this world all things sprang from the earth in a blaze of glory. The jungle was an orchard with succulent fruits and showy flowers; rowdy birds and butterflies; serpents coiled around trees; monkeys swinging from vine to vine; and lions and tigers lurking everywhere. The backbone of the jungle was the tree, thick and emerald, festooned with epiphytes, draped with lianas, and reaching for the firmament. This jungle is a myth, of course. It never was, even before man arrived to age the land beyond recognition.

The mythology of Borneo is also woven with tales of lost stone age tribes and fierce head hunters. And while much of this was sensationalized by the overactive imagination of early explorers, there is history as well as legend here. It is important to understand that traditional head hunting was more than anger gone amuck or a ritual of intertribal warfare. It was also a religious rite, to appease the gods, much like human sacrifice by the Aztec and other Mesoamerican tribes.

Head hunting has slowly declined during the 20th century thanks to peace agreements among tribes, conversion of natives from their traditional animism to Islam and Christianity, as well as retribution from colonial powers and modern governments. However, the practice of head hunting in Borneo is deeply rooted in the mists of time and so never far below the surface. (next photo)