Palangkaraya – "I felt so strong; so powerful." These are the words of a 21-year-old Dayak as he narrated his experience in chopping off the heads of his Madurese victims last week amid the bloody ethnic violence in Kalimantan.

In the courtyard of a village headman's house, a dozen Dayak headhunters sat smoking pungent clove cigarettes on Thursday, revelling in mass murder and plotting more, The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.

"For seven days, I didn't sleep or eat. In the first fight, the Madurese threw bombs at us, but none of us was hurt. Then we attacked. I just stabbed and slashed and cut off their heads. I don't know how many I killed, but it was at least 10."

The wild man of Borneo is alive and flourishing in the 21st century.

If the minority Madurese refuse to leave their homes, they will be decapitated, the headhunters insist. But to foreigners, the killers display a timid charm. "Would you like to come along?" they asked. All but two of the group were new recruits.

Another Dayak, who asked not to be named, had returned recently from fighting in Sampit, where an estimated 400 migrants from the distant island of Madura were slaughtered last week. Most were beheaded.

The uninitiated listened intently, their brows wrapped with red headbands symbolising courage, as the young man recounted his killing spree.

He did not follow the ancient Dayak custom and bring home any of his victims' heads as souvenirs, but some of his brethren did, and buried them with their ancestors" bones to act as their servants in the afterlife. "Some acted like this, but for me the heads are a bit heavy," he said.

The young warrior, who comes from a remote settlement, only travelled to support other Dayaks when he saw on television that they were under threat in Sampit.

For the next proposed attack on a small village, two hours downriver, a shaman with special skills will be required as the 50 Madurese there have two guns, said the village headman. "Our fighters will need a spell to make them immune to bullets," Tiel Jelau, the 73-year-old chieftain said.