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ROTH, Henry Ling.
The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo.
Based chiefly on the MSS. of the late Hugh Brooke Low, Sarawak Government Service. With a Preface by Andrew Lang.
First edition "limited to 700 for sale." In his introduction Roth explains the origins of this work; "Some years ago my friend, Prof. E. B. Tylor, FRS, placed in my hands a parcel of MSS, the writing of which was so fine and obliterated that I was obliged throughout to use a strong magnifying glass in order to be able to read it. The papers, which were largely written in pencil, were partly destroyed by moisture and by insects. These very incomplete MSS. were the posthumous papers of an eccentric young gentleman named Hugh Brooke Low, who, however, possessed a very intimate knowledge of the natives… He was the son of Mr. (now Sir) Hugh Low, Secretary to the Governor of Labuan… Hugh was born at Labuan on the 12th May, 1849… He was sent home at an early age and received his education partly in Germany, and partly in England… He failed to pass the examination for the Indian Civil Service in 1869, and accepted an appointment which was offered to him by the present Raja of Sarawak, Sir Charles Brooke, G.C.M.G. He died in London on the 12th July, 1887… During the eighteen years of his service under the Government of Sarawak, he was stationed principally on the Rejang river, which gave him great opportunities of studying the Dyak and Kayan races inhabiting the banks of this noble river, but he had also experience of many other parts of the territory of the Raja of Sarawak, and his death was much regretted by their Highnesses the Raja and Ranee of Sarawak and by all the native tribes with whom he had so long been in close contact." Roth himself had already published an ethnographical study on the peasantry of Russia and his "compassionate, encyclopaedic work" (DAB) The Aborigines of Tasmania. The Natives of Sarawak was considered the standard work well into the twentieth century and remains an important contribution, and an extremely handsome piece of turn-of-the-century book production.
2 volumes, large octavo. Original green "crazed" cloth, blind panels to the boards, title gilt to upper board and spine, top edge gilt, chocolate brown surface-paper endpapers. Numerous illustrations, many of them full-page, one coloured, one folding, folding map at the rear of Volume I. The lightest of shelf-wear, hinges remain uncracked, a very good set indeed.
