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Plates

Young Kayan Chief with middle-class Companion

Bruni, the pile-built Capital of the Sultans of Bruni

A Jungle Path near Marudi, Baram District

A Limestone Hill at Panga in Upper Sarawak

Old Beads Worn By Kayans

A. LUKUT SEKALA. -- Value formerly one healthy adult male slave present value, from [pound sterling] 10 to [pound sterling] 15.

B. LABANG PAGANG. -- Value 5s. to 15s. Used chiefly at marriage ceremony. Kayan value in brass-ware, one gong.

C. JEKOK0K. -- Value 15s. to 25s.; or in brass-ware, a small tawak.

D. KELAM WIT. -- Value 15s. to 30s.; or in brass-ware, a tawak which measures from the base of the boss to the outer edge a span between the first finger and the thumb. Also much used in marriage ceremony.

E. KELAM BUANG. -- Value about 15s.; much sought after and worn on a girdle by Kayan girls. The bear bead.

F. KELAM BUANG BUTIT TELAWA. -- The name means the bear bead with spider's belly. Value about 15s.

G. KAJA OBING. -- Value 15s. to 25s.

H. KELAM SONG. -- Value from [pound sterling]4 to [pound sterling]6; or one adult female slave.

L KELAM. -- Kenyah. Value about 15s.

J. LUKUT. -- Kenyah. Value about 10s., or a gong; value about ten to fifteen ingans of PADI, or about 7 bushels.

K. LUKUT MURIK. -- A bead used by the Murik tribe. Value about 10s.

L. INO KALABIT. -- A Kalabit necklace. Value about [pound sterling]5; or an adult buffalo.

M. A single blue bead from the necklace "L."

The yellow beads in the necklace are known as LABANG, and the blue ones as BUNAU. The beads in the necklace are all very old ones. The beads A to H are chiefly, though not exclusively, found among Kayans; I and J among Kenyahs; K among Muriks (Klemantans); and the necklace L among Kalabits (Murut).

NOTES

[1] -- Published in the JOURNAL OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, vol. xxxi.

[2] -- Within Borneo the distribution of the MAIAS seems to be largely determined by his incapacity to cross a river, there being several instances in which he occurs on the one but not on the other bank of a river.

[3] -- See especially the recently published HISTORY OF SARAWAK UNDER ITS TWO WHITE RAJAHS, by S. Baring-Gould and C. A. Bampfylde, London, 1910.

[4] -- Crawfurd, DESCRIPTIVE DICTIONARY, p. 140.

[5] -- Despite Crawfurd's opinion this is now an accepted fact. Raffles's HISTORY OF JAVA contains much interesting information on the point, and there is a remarkable statement which has not obtained the attention that it deserves, showing that the Chinese recognised the similarity between the Java and Soli (Nagpur) alphabets. -- Groeneveldt, NOTES ON MALAY ARCHIPELAGO AND MALACCA; Trubner's ESSAYS RELATING TO INDO-CHINA, vol. i. p. 166.

[6] -- There is a Bruni still alive whose hands have been cut off for theft.

[7] -- This account is taken from Groeneveldt (LOC. CIT.) who, however, supposes Poli to be on the north coast of Sumatra. In this he follows "all Chinese geographers," adding "that its neighbourhood to the Nicobar Islands is a sufficient proof that they are right." But Rakshas, which may have been "for a long time the name of the Nicobar Islands, probably on account of the wildness and bad reputation of their inhabitants," is merely Rakshasa, a term applied by the Hindu colonists in Java and the Malay Peninsula to any wild people, so that the statement that to the east of Poli is situated the land of the Rakshas is hardly sufficient support for even "all Chinese geographers." Trusting to "modern Chinese geographers," Groeneveldt makes Kaling, where an eight-foot gnomon casts a shadow of 2.4 feet at noon on the summer solstice, to be Java, that is to say, to be nearly 5[degree] south of the equator. Having unwittingly demonstrated how untrustworthy are the modern geographers, he must excuse others if they prefer the original authority, who states that Poli is south-EAST of Camboja, the land of the Rakshas EAST of Poli, to "all" geographers who state on the contrary that Poli is south-WEST of Camboja, the Rakshas' country WEST of Poli. The name Poli appears to be a more accurate form of Polo, the name by which Bruni is said to have been known to the Chinese in early times.

[8] -- Rajah Charles Brooke, TEN YEARS IN SARAWAK, quoted in Ling Roth's valuable work, THE NATIVES OF SARAWAK AND BRITISH NORTH BORNEO, vol. ii. p. 279.

[9] -- E. H. Parker, CHINA, p. 33.

[10] -- Groeneveldt, LOC. CIT.

[11] -- Marsden, HISTORY OF SUMATRA, p. 383.

[12] -- Than camphor, tortoiseshell, ivory, and sandal woods.

[13] -- There is some doubt as to the date of the foundation of Majapahit.

[14] -- According to a Malay manuscript of some antiquity lent to us by the late Tuanku Mudah, one of the kings (BATARA) of Majapahit had a beautiful daughter, Radin Galo Chindra Kirana. This lady was much admired by Laiang Sitir and Laiang Kemitir, the two sons of one Pati Legindir. On the death of the king, Pati Legindir ruled the land and the beautiful princess became his ward. He, to satisfy the rival claims of his two sons, promised that whoever should kill the raja of Balambangan (an island off the north coast of Borneo), known by the nickname of Manok Jingga, should marry the princess. Now at the court there happened to be Damar Olan, one of the sons of Raja Matarem, who had disguised his high descent and induced Pati Legindir to adopt him as his son. This young man found favour in the princess's eyes, and she tried to persuade her guardian to let her marry him. Pati Legindir, however, declared that he would keep to his arrangement, and roughly told the lover to bring Manok Jingga's head before thinking of marrying the princess. So Damar Olan set out with two followers on the dangerous mission, which he carried out with complete success. On his return he met his two rivals, who induced him to part with the head of the royal victim, and then buried him alive in a deep trap previously prepared. Pati Legindir, suspecting nothing, ordered his ward to marry Laiang Sitir, who brought the trophy to the palace; but the princess had learned of the treachery from one of the spectators, and asked for a week's delay. Before it was too late, Damar Olan, who had managed to find a way out of what nearly proved a grave, reached the court and told his tale, now no longer concealing his rank. He married the princess and afterwards was entrusted by Pati Legindir with all the affairs of state. Having obtained supreme power, Damar Olan sent his treacherous rivals to southern Borneo, with a retinue of criminals mutilated in their ear-lobes and elsewhere as a penalty for incest. These transported convicts, the ancestors of the Kayans, landed near Sikudana and spread into the country between the Kapuas and Banjermasin. It is interesting to see how this tale agrees with other traditions. The Kayans state that they came across the sea at no distant date. Javan history relates that Majapahit was ruled during the minority of Angka Wijaya by his elder sister, the princess Babu Kanya Kanchana Wungu. A neighbouring prince, known as Manok Jengga, took advantage of this arrangement by seizing large portions of the young king's domains. One, Daram Wulan, however, son of a Buddhist devotee, overthrew him and was rewarded by the hand of the princess regent. When Angka Wijaya came of age he entrusted the care of a large part of his kingdom to his sister and brother-in-law.

[15] -- SEJARAH MALAYA, edited by Shellabear, Singapore, 1896, p. 106.

[16] -- Whose descendants are the Malanaus.

[17] -- Cf. Low, JOURNAL STRAITS BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, vol. v. p. 1, from whose article we have obtained much interesting material.

[18] -- This is said to have been accomplished by Alak ber Tata's brother, Awang Jerambok, the story of whose dealings with the Muruts is well known both to Brunis and Muruts. He set out one day for the head of the river Manjilin, but lost his way after crossing the mountains. After wandering for three days he came upon a Murut village, whose inhabitants wished to kill him. He naturally told them not to do so, and they desisted. After some time, which he spent with these rude folk, then not so far advanced into the interior, he so far won their affections that they followed him to Bruni, where they were entertained by the sovereign and generously treated. These Muruts then induced their friends to submit.

[19] -- Founded after the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese, 1512 A.D. (Crawfurd, DESCRIPTIVE DICTIONARY). Sultan Abdul Krahar, great-great-grandson of Sultan Mohammed's younger brother, died about 1575 A.D. From this fact and the statement that Mohammed stopped the Majapahit tribute, we may infer that the latter sat on the throne of Bruni in the middle of the fifteenth century; if this inference is correct, the story of his visit to Johore must be unfounded.

[20] -- Some say he was never converted, others that he was summoned to Johore expressly to be initiated into Islam.

[21] -- He is also alleged to have seized the lady in a drunken freak. It is stated that the Sultan was so much enraged at this that he proposed to make war on Bruni. His minister, however, suggested that enquiries should be made into the strength of that kingdom before commencing operations. He was accordingly sent to Bruni, where he was so well received that he married and remained there, with a number of followers. Word was sent to Johore that the princess was treated as queen and was quite happy with her husband. This appeased the Sultan's wrath. An old friend of ours belonging to the Burong Pingai section of Bruni, that is to say, the old commercial class, says that his people are all descended from this Pengiran Bandahara of Johore, and that the name Burong Pingai is derived from the circumstance that their ancestor bad a pigeon of remarkable tameness.

[22] -- Cf. with Dalrymple's account of the origin of the Sulu Sultanate, JOURNAL INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, iii. 545 and 564. See also Lady Brassey's LAST VOYAGE, p. 165.

[23] -- He puts the longitude 30[degree] too far east; but in his day, of course, there were no chronometers.

[24] -- Cited in full by Crawfurd, DESCRIPTIVE DICTIONARY OF THE INDIAN ISLANDS. Article, "Brunai."

[25] -- Much of the following information is extracted from an article by J. R. Logan on European intercourse with Borneo, JOURNAL INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, vol. ii. p. 505.

[26] -- The article in the JOURNAL INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO says 1702.

[27] -- Crawfurd, DESCRIPTIVE DICTIONARY, p. 37.

[28] -- 1811 to 1815.

[29] -- It seems not unreasonable to conjecture that the uniformly high physical standard of the Punans and their seemingly exceptional immunity from disease are due to their exposed mode of life, and to the consequently severe selection exercised upon them by their environment.

[30] -- The Sea Dayak is exceptional in this respect; he wears a coat of coloured cotton fibre woven in various patterns by the women.

[31] -- See Chap. XII.

[32] -- The turban is a head-dress which is copied from the Malays and is rapidly spreading inland.

[33] -- This toy cross-bow is found among Kayans. Both it and the arrow used are very crudely made.

[34] -- The war dress and accoutrements will be more fully described in Chap. X.

[35] -- Accidental tearing of the lobe inevitably occurs occasionally; and if this is attributed to the carelessness of any other person a brass TAWAK or gong must be paid in compensation. Repair of a torn lobe is sometimes effected by overlapping the raw ends and keeping them tied in this position for some weeks.

[36] -- Some of the copper coins of Sarawak are perforated at the centre.

[37] -- By the Kayans the heads are suspended in a single long row from thelower edge of a long plank, each being attached by a rattan passed through a hole in the vertex. Many of the Klemantans hang them in a similar way to a circular framework, and the Sea Dayaks suspend them in a conical basket hung by its apex from the rafters.

[38] -- The sub-tribes are the following: -- Uma Pliau, Uma Poh, Uma Semuka, Uma Paku, and Uma Bawang, chiefly in the basin of the Baram; in the Rejang basin -- the Uma Naving, Uma Lesong, Uma Daro; in the Bintulu basin -- the Uma Juman; in the Batang Kayan -- the Uma Lekan; in the Kapuas -- the Uma Ging; the Uma Belun, the Uma Blubo scattered in several river-basins; and one other group in the Madalam river, and one in the Koti.

[39] -- All the Kenyahs of the Baram are known as Kenyah Bauh. On the watershed between the Batang Kayan and the Baram are the Lepu Payah and the Madang. In the Batang Kayan basin are the Lepu Tau, the Uma Kulit, Uma Lim, Uma Baka, Uma Jalan, Lepu Tepu. In the Koti basin are the Peng or Pnihing; in the Rejang the Uma Klap. These are the principal branches of the pure Kenyahs; each of them comprises a number of scattered villages, the people of each of which have adopted some local name. In addition to these there is a number of groups, such as the Uma Pawa and the Murik in the Baram, and the Lepu Tokong and the Uma Long in the Batang Kayan, the people of which seem to us to be intermediate as regards all important characters between the Kenyahs and the Klemantans. (For discussion of these relations see Chap. XXI.)

[40] -- For the marriage ceremony see Chap. XVIII.

[41] -- We take this opportunity of contradicting in the most emphatic manner a very misleading statement which of all the many misleading statements about the peoples of Borneo that are in circulation is perhaps the most frequently repeated in print. The statement makes its most recent reappearance in Professor Keane's book THE WORLD'S PEOPLES (published in 1908). There it is written of the "Borneans" that "No girl will look at a wooer before he has laid a head or two at her feet." To us it seems obvious that this state of affairs could only obtain among a hydra-headed race. The statement is not true of any one tribe, and as regards most of the "Borneans" has no foundation in fact. Applied to the Sea Dayaks alone has the statement an element of truth. Among them to have taken a head does commonly enhance a wooer's chances of success, and many Sea Dayak girls and their mothers will taunt a suitor with having taken no head, but few of them will make the taking of a head an essential condition of the bestowal of their favour or of marriage. A mother will remark to a youth who is hanging about her daughter, BISI DALAM, BISI DELUAR BULI DI TANYA ANAK AKU (When you have the wherewithal to adorn both the interior and the exterior of a room (I.E. jars within the room and heads without in the gallery) you can then ask for my child).

[42] -- For the naming ceremony see Chap. XVIII.

[43] -- It is not rare to find that a child does not know the original names of his parents, and even husbands may be found to have forgotten the original names of their wives.

[44] -- We append to this chapter a table showing the names and degrees of kinship of all the inhabitants of one Kenyah long house. At the suggestion of Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, who has found this method of great value in disentangling the complicated kinship systems of some Melanesian and Papuan and other peoples, we have collected similar information regarding Kayan, Sea Dayak, Klemantan, and Murut villages. But in no case does the table discover any trace of any elaborate kinship system.

[45] -- They are skilled woodmen, and know how to cut a tree so as to ensure its falling in any desired manner; the final strokes cut away the ends of the narrow portion of the stem remaining between the upper and lower notches.

[46] -- See Chap. X.

[47] -- See Chap. XVII.

[48] -- The same connection of ideas is illustrated by the practice of sterile women who desire children sleeping upon the freshly gathered ears in the huts in the fields.

[49] -- See Chap. XVIII.

[50] -- See Chap. V.

[51] -- See Chap. XVII.

[52] -- See Chap. XV.

[53] -- There are said to be two other less common species of wild pig, but probably there is only one other.

[54] -- A good account, taken mainly from Skertchly, of many traps may be found in Mr. Ling Roth's well-known work, THE NATIVES OF SARAWAK AND BRITISH NORTH BORNEO, London, 1896; and also in McPherson's work on FOWLING.

[55] -- A stick of this kind is used in many rites. It is prepared by whittling shavings from a stick and leaving them attached at one end; so that a series of the shavings projects along one side of the stick.

[56] -- A similar practice prevails in the Malay Peninsula.

[57] -- On one occasion on which a race between twenty-two of these war-boats was rowed at Marudi on the Baram river, we timed the winning-boat over the down-stream course of four and half miles. The time was twenty-two minutes thirteen seconds.

[58] -- There is no reason to suppose that the Kayan augurs have not complete faith in the significance of the omens, and in the reality of the protection afforded by the favourable omen-birds, which they speak of as upholding them. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the strong faith of the people in the omen-birds, and the awe inspired by them, is very favourable to the maintenance of discipline and obedience to the chiefs, and that this fact is appreciated by the chiefs. The cult of the omen-birds, which hampers the undertakings of these peoples at almost every turn, and which might seem to be wholly foolish and detrimental, thus brings two great practical advantages: namely, it inspires confidence, and it promotes discipline and a strong sense of collective unity and responsibility. It is not improbable, then, that the advantages of this seemingly senseless cult outweigh its drawbacks, which in the shape of endless delays and changes of plans are by no means small.

[59] -- So far as we know this is the only way in which the bow and arrow is used in Borneo, although the principle of the bow is frequently applied in making traps. It is perhaps worthy of remark that the dense character of the jungle is probably more favourable to use of the blow-pipe than to that of the bow and arrow.

[60] -- It is probable that the observation of this practice by Europeans has given rise to the frequently published statements that the tribes of the interior are cannibals. We affirm with some confidence that none of the peoples of Borneo ever consume human flesh as food. It is true that Kayans, Kenyahs, and Klemantans will occasionally consume on the spot a tiny piece of the flesh of a slain enemy for the purpose of curing disorders, especially chronic cough and dysentery; and that Ibans, men or women, during the mad rejoicings over captured heads will occasionally bite a head, or even bite a piece of flesh from it. A third practice involving the consumption of human flesh was formerly observed among the Jingkangs (Klemantans of Dutch Borneo); when a son was seriously ill and the efforts of the medicine-men proved ineffective, an infant sister of the patient was killed and a small piece of the flesh given to the patient to eat. It would, we think, be grossly unfair to describe any of these peoples as cannibals on account of these practices.

[61] -- At one such feast eighty-five pigs and fifty-six fowls were slaughtered.

[62] -- See footnote, vol. i., p. 76.

[63] -- The Malays of Bruni and the other coast settlements have, of course, used iron, and perhaps to some small extent forged it, since the time when they adopted Arab civilisation; but they have not at any time practised the smelting of iron ore. Between three and five hundred years ago the principal currency of the people of Bruni consisted of small oblong flattened pieces of iron known as SAPANGGAL (about 2 [ERROR: unhandled ×] 1 [ERROR: unhandled ×] 1/4 inches) bearing the Sultan's stamp. This iron was probably obtained from Chinese and other foreign traders, and was worked up into implements.

[64] -- The convenience of thus floating the timber is one reason for the general tendency shown by Kayans to migrate gradually down river.

[65] -- This is an example of a very common type of practice which implies the belief that the attributes of any object will attach themselves to any whole into which the object may be incorporated as a part; thus a hunter who has shot dead a pig or deer with a single bullet will cut out the bullet to melt it down with other lead, and will make a fresh batch of bullets or slugs from the mixture, believing that the lucky bullet will leaven the whole lump, or impart to all of it something of that to which its success was due. Compare also the similar practice in regard to the seed grain (vol. i., p. 112).

[66] -- The pair of centre columns and the main columns supporting the roof back and front should have been drawn thicker than the accessory columns supporting the floor, and the width of the roof-plates is much greater than is indicated in the diagrams.

[67] -- Some Kayans habitually speak of most of the dog-patterns by the term USANG ORANG (which means the prawn's head). This indicates possibly some gradual substitution of designs of the one origin for those of the other.

[68] -- "Materials for a Study of Tatu in Borneo," by Charles Hose and R. Shelford, J.R.A.I. vol. xxxvi. Here also we have to thank the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute for permission to republish part of this paper, and to reproduce the plates and figures accompanying it. The reference figures of this section refer to the bibliographical list at the end of this chapter.

[69] -- Since these pages were printed we have had to mourn the loss of our friend and fellow-worker, cut off in the early summer of a life strenuously devoted to scientific research.

[70] -- Nieuwenhuis also notes (9, p. 451) that men in the course of their travels amongst other tribes permit themselves to be tatued with the patterns in vogue with their hosts.

[71] -- These figures refer to the bibliography printed at the end of this chapter, vol. i., p. 280.

[72] -- The Sea Dayaks often employ for the same reason a carpal bone of the mouse-deer (TRAGULUS).

[73] -- See also Haddon (4, Fig. 2), and Nieuwenhuis (8, Pls. XXV. and XXVI.); the designs figured in the latter work are not very easy to interpret, the lower of the two rosette figures looks as if it was derived from four heads of dogs fused together. See also Ling Roth (7, p. 85).

[74] -- In ancient days when a great Kayan or Klemantan chief built a new house, the first post of it was driven through the body of a slave; this sacrifice to a tutelary deity is no longer offered, but a human figure is frequently carved on the post of a house and may be a relic of the old custom; the figure is called TEGULUN. Sea Dayak anthropomorphs are termed ENGKRAMBA and appear in cloths and bead-work designs, also in carvings on boundary marks, witch-doctor's baskets, etc.

[75] -- We apply the term SERIAL to those designs in which the units of the pattern are repeated, or in which the units follow each other in serial order; the UDOH ASU on a Kayan man's thigh is an ISOLATED design, but the design on his hands is a SERIAL design.

[76] -- Cf. Ling Roth (7, p. 34) and Nieuwenhuis (9, Pl. 32).

[77] -- The Sea Dayak word TELINGAI or KELINGAI has the same meaning.

[78] -- The prices in the Baram river are much higher than in the Mendalam, where a gong can only be demanded by an artist of twenty years' experience; less experienced artists have to be content with beads and cloth (9, p. 452).

[79] -- The wooden block is carefully cut square, and the design occupies the whole of one surface; this is characteristic of the blocks of female designs, whereas designs for male tatu are carved on very roughly shaped blocks and do not always occupy the whole of one surface. Since the female designs have to be serially repeated it is important that the blocks should be of the exact required size, otherwise the projecting parts of the uncarved wood would render the exact juxtaposition of the serially repeated impressions very difficult, whilst the isolated male designs can be impressed on the skin in a more or less haphazard way.

[80] -- The drawing is taken from a rubbing of a model carved by an Uma Lekan; this will account for the asymmetry noticeable every here and there throughout the design. A print from an actual tatu-block is shown in Pl. 139, Fig. 7; this would be repeated serially in rows down the front and sides of the thigh, so that absolute uniformity would be attained; the carver of the model, which was about one-sixth life size, has not been able to keep the elements of his design quite uniform.

[81] -- For other examples of modified ASU designs employed by Kenyah tribes, see E. B. Haddon (4, pp. 117, 118).

[82] -- By this name we denote those Kenyah tribes which stand nearest to the Klemantans and furthest from the Kayans in respect of customs. Cf. Chap. XXI.

[83] -- The names of the designs are given in Kayan.

[84] -- The same author states that "a sometime headman of Senendan had two square tattoo marks on his back. This was because he ran away in a fight, and showed his back to the enemy." This explanation seems to us most improbable.

[85] -- As an instance of a quite opposite effect produced by a mark on the forehead, we may note here, that some Madangs who had crossed over from the Baram to the Rejang on a visit, appeared each with a cross marked in charcoal on his forehead; they supposed that by this means they were disguised beyond all recognition by evil spirits. The belief that such a trivial alteration of appearance is sufficient disguise is probably held by most tribes; Tama Bulan, a Kenyah chief, when on a visit to Kuching, discarded the leopard's teeth, which when at home he wore through the upper part of his ears, and the reason that he alleged was the same as that given by the Madang. These people believe not only that evil spirits may do them harm whilst they are on their travels, but also that, being encountered far from their homes, the spirits will take advantage of their absence to work some harm to their wives, children, or property.

[86] -- Dr. Schmeltz has kindly furnished us with an advance sheet of his forthcoming catalogue of the Borneo collection in the Leyden Museum; he catalogues these drawings as tatu marks, but in a footnote records our opinion of them made by letter. Dr. Nieuwenhuis apparently adheres to the belief that they really are tatu marks.

[87] -- Mr. E. B. Haddon (4, p. 124) writes: "The tattoo design used by the Kayans and Kenyahs ... has been copied and adopted by the Ibans in the same way as the Kalamantans have done, the main difference being, that the Ibans call the design a scorpion. FOR THIS REASON THE PATTERN TENDS TO BECOME MORE AND MORE LIKE THE SCORPION ... ." The italics are ours. Is not this "putting the cart before the horse"? It is only when the design resembles a scorpion that the term SCORPION is applied to it; all other modifications, even though tending towards the scorpion, are called DOG; PRAWN, or CRAB.

[88] -- The following statement, which was written by us of the Kenyahs in a former publication, holds good also of the Kayans: "They may be said to attribute a soul or spirit to almost every natural agent and to all living things, and they pay especial regard those that seem most capable of affecting their welfare for good or ill. They feel themselves to be surrounded on every hand y spiritual powers, which appear to them to be concentrated in those objects to which their attention is directed by practical needs; adopting a mode of expression familiar to psychologists, we may say that they have differentiated from a 'continuum' of spiritual powers a number of spiritual agents with very various degrees of definiteness. Of these the less important are very vaguely conceived, but are regarded as being able to bring harm to men, who must therefore avoid giving offence to them, and must propitiate them if they should by ill-change have been offended. The more important, assuming individualised and anthromorphic forms and definite functions, receive proper names, are in some cases represented by rude images, and become the recipients of prayer and sacrifice" (JOURN. OF ANTHROP. INSTITUTE, vol. xxxi. p. 174).

[89] -- If the dead man possessed no sufficiently presentable garments, these may be supplied by friends. This last act of respect and friendship has not infrequently been permitted to one of us.

[90] -- See vol. ii. p. 29.

[91] -- See vol. ii. p. 61.

[92] -- See vol. ii., p. 137.

[93] -- For the views of an individual Kayan on Laki Tenangan, see vol. ii., p. 74.

[94] -- See vol. ii., p. 53.

[95] -- See Chap. X.

[96] -- The idea of giving up a valued possession to the god or spirit in order to appease or propitiate him seems to underlie a curious rite formerly practised by the JINGKANGS, a Klemantan sub-tribe living on the great Kapuas river. These people, like most of the peoples of Borneo, value their male children more highly than their female children. If a boy seems to be at the point of death, and if all other efforts to restore him have proved unavailing, the relatives would kill an infant sister of the boy, and would cause the boy to eat a small bit of the roasted flesh. The intention seems to be to appease some malevolent spirit that is causing the sickness; and the eating of the flesh seems to be considered necessary in order to connect the sacrifice clearly with the sick child.

[97] -- Cf. vol. ii., p. 75, for the statement of a Kayan on this question.

[98] -- See vol. ii., p. 138.

[99] -- See vol. ii., p. 29, for usage of this word.

[100] -- This relation is illustrated by the fact that among the charms and objects of virtue which the Kenyahs hang beside the heads in the galleries of their houses, or over the fireplaces in their rooms, are to be found in many houses one or two specimens of stone axe-heads. The original use of these objects is not known to the great majority of their possessors, who regard them as teeth dropped from the jaw of the thunder-god, BALINGO. It is generally claimed that some ancestor found these stones and added them to the family treasures. A man who possesses such "teeth," carries them with him when he goes to war. The Madang chief TAMA KAJAN ODOH, mentioned in the following note as claiming descent from Balingo, possessed the unusual number of ten such teeth. The credit of having first obtained specimens of these stones from the houses belongs to Dr. A. C. Haddon, who discovered a specimen in a Klemantan house of the Baram basin in the year 1899. The existence of such Stones in native houses in Dutch Borneo had been reported by Schwaner many years before that date.

[101] -- When questioned as to this claim, he gave us at once without hesitation the names in order of the ancestors of nineteen generations through whom he traces his descent from Balingo. It is perhaps worth while to transcribe the list as taken down from his lips in ascending order: -- KAJAN, TAMA KAJAN ODOH, SIGO, APOI, BAUM ([ERROR: unhandled ♀]), ODOH SINAN ([female]), ALONG, APOI, LAKING, LAKING GILING, GILING SINJAN, SINJAN PUTOH, PUTOH ATI, ATI AIAI JALONG, BALARI, UMBONG DOH ([female]), KUSUN PATU BALINGO. This succession of names, it will be noticed, is consistent with the custom, common to the Kenyahs and Kayans, of naming the father after his eldest child.

[102] -- There are four words used by the Kayans to express the notion of the forbidden act, MALAN, LALI, PARIT, and TULAH. All these are used as adjectives qualifying actions rather than things; but they are not strictly synonymous terms. MALAN and PARIT seem to be true Kayan words; LALI and TULAH to have been taken from the Malay, and to be used generally by Kayans in speaking with Kenyahs or men of other tribes to whom these words are more familiar than the Kayan terms.

MALAN applies rather to acts involving risks to the whole community, PARIT to those involving risk to the individual committing the forbidden act: thus, during harvest it is MALAN for any stranger to enter the house, and the whole house or village is said to be MALAN; but it is PARIT for a child to touch one of the images. Again, it is not MALAN for the proper persons to touch the dried heads on certain occasions, but it is always in some degree PARIT for the individual, and for this reason the task is generally assigned to an elderly man. LALI and TULAH seem to be the LINGUA FRANCA equivalents of MALAN and of PARIT respectively.

[103] -- "The Relations between Men and Animals in Sarawak," J. ANTH. INST. vol. xxxi.

[104] -- We are not aware that the "bull-roarer" is put to any other uses than this by any of the tribes.

[105] -- See Chap. XIII.

[106] -- Vol. ii., p. 120.

[107] -- The word BALI is used on a great variety of occasions, generally as a form of address, being prefixed to the proper name or designation of the being addressed or spoken of. The being thus addressed is always one having special powers of the sort that we should call supernatural, and the prefix serves to mark this possession of power. It may be said to be an adjectival equivalent of the MANA of the Melanesians or of the WAKANDA or ORENDA of North American tribes, words which seem to connote all power other than the Purely mechanical. It seems not improbable that the word BALI has entered the Kayan language from a Sanskrit source; for in Sanskrit it was prefixed to the names of priests and heroes. The word is even more extensively used by the Kenyahs, who prefix it to the names of several of their gods; and the Klemantans use the word VALI in the same way.

[108] -- This procedure seems to be one of the many varieties of "crystal gazing" that are practised among many peoples; and it seems probable that the DAYONG, in some cases at least, experiences hallucinatory visions of the scenes that he so vividly describes as he gazes on the polished metal. The sword so used becomes the property of the DAYANG.

[109] -- These beads seem to be designed for use by the ghost in paying for its passage across the river of death.

[110] -- Among some of the peoples it is customary to beat a big gong while this operation is in progress, or, in the case of a woman, a drum, in order to announce to the inhabitants of the other world the coming of the recently deceased. The beating of gongs is in general use for signalling from house to house.

[111] -- Small articles specially valued by the deceased are enclosed in the coffin; thus, OYANG LUHAT, a Kayan PENGHULU (see Chap. XXII.), who bled slowly to death from an accidentally inflicted wound, gave strict instructions as he lay dying that his certificate of office bearing the Rajah's signature and his Sarawak flag, the public badge of his office, should be put in his coffin with his body; and there can be no reasonable doubt that he hoped to display them, or rather their ghostly replicas, in the other world. As a clear instance of such belief it seems worth while to mention the following case. One of us had given some coloured prints to a Kayan boy, an only son to whom his parents were much attached. On a subsequent visit he was told by the bereaved mother that the child had been very fond of the pictures, and that she had put them in his coffin because she knew that he would like to look at them in the other world.

[112] -- Among Klemantans it is usual to spoil all articles hung upon a tomb; and they give the reason that in the other world everything is the opposite of what it is here: the spoilt shall be perfect, the new and unspoilt shall be old and damaged, and so on. It is probable that the real or original motive for this practice is the desire to avoid placing temptations to theft in the way of strangers.

[113] -- Among some of the Klemantan tribes the opposite practice of shaving the whole scalp is observed in mourning.

[114] -- In some of the remoter forts of the Sarawak government old heads that have been confiscated are kept, and are occasionally lent for the purpose of enabling a village to go out of mourning without shedding human blood.

[115] -- When pressed in private after a ceremony of this kind, a certain DAYONG admitted to us that perhaps, if we should look into the house, we should see the food apparently untouched; but he maintained that nevertheless all the strength or essence of the food would have been consumed, the husks merely being left.

[116] -- Apparently it is not that the DAYONG claims to be "possessed" by the soul of the dead man; for from time to time he inclines his ear again to the soul-house to catch the faint voice of the ghost. We know of no cases in which it is claimed that the body of a living man is "possessed" by a departed soul.

[117] -- Cases occur among the Kayans, though but rarely. The method most employed is to stab a knife into the throat.

[118] -- In one such case the body was laid out in the gallery of the house and preparations for the funeral were far advanced, when one of us (C. H.) arrived. On glancing at the alleged corpse he suspected that life was not extinct, and succeeded, by the application of ammonia to the nostrils, in restoring the entranced Kayan to animation, and shortly to a normal condition of health.

[119] -- The man mentioned in the foregoing footnote had given to a DAYONG (no doubt in response to leading questions) a circumstantial account of adventures of this kind, before we had an opportunity of questioning him after an interval of some ten days. He then admitted that he could remember nothing clearly.

[120] -- The cry of this species is peculiar; it terminates with an interrupted series of cries that sound like mocking laughter.

[121] -- See below, vol. ii. p. 130.

[122] -- The incident was reported by Dr. Hose to the British Consul at Bruni, who entered an effective warning against repetitions of such acts.

[123] -- A dangerous madman is generally kept shut up in a large strong cage in the gallery of the house.

[124] -- It is believed that the tatuing on the woman's hands and forearms illuminates for the ghost dark places traversed on the journey to the other world.

[125] -- Coco-nuts are commonly opened by two blows with a sword struck upon opposite sides, and it seems probable that the method of splitting the jar was suggested by this practice.

[126] -- In this chapter we have departed from our rule of describing first and most fully the facts and beliefs of the Kayan people, because before planning this book we had paid special attention to this topic, and had obtained fuller information in regard to the Kenyahs than to other peoples, and had published this in the form of a paper in the JOURNAL OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ("The Relations between Men and Animals in Sarawak," J. ANTH. INSTIT. vol. xxxi.). This paper, modified and corrected in detail, forms the substance of this chapter. We wish to epxress our thanks to the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for permission to make use of this paper.

[127] -- We find that the practices of these people in connection with omens or auspices so closely resemble those of the early Romans that it seems worth while to draw attention to these resemblances, and we therefore quote in footnotes some passages from Dr. Smith's DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITIES, referring to the practice of the Romans: "In the most ancient times no transaction, whether private or public, was performed without consulting the auspices, and hence arose the distinction of AUSPICIA PRIVATA and AUSPICIA PUBLICA."

[128] -- See Chap. XXII.

[129] -- "No one but a patrician could take the auspices."

[130] -- "Romulus is represented to have been the best of augurs, and from him all succeeding augurs received the chief mark of their office."

[131] -- "Hence devices were adopted so that no ill-omened sound should be heard, such as blowing a trumpet during the sacrifice."

[132] -- "The person who has to take them (the auspices) first marked out with a wand ... a division of the heavens called 'templum,' ... within which he intended to make his observations."

[133] -- "It was from Jupiter mainly that the future was learnt, and the birds were regarded as his messengers."

[134] -- "The Roman auspices were essentially of a practical nature; they gave no information respecting the course of future events, they did not inform men what was to happen, but simply taught them whether they were to do or not to do the matter purposed; they assigned no reason for the decision of Jupiter, they simply announced -- Yes or No."

[135] -- "It was only a few birds which could give auguries among the Romans. They were divided into two classes: Oscines, those which gave auguries by singing or their voice; and Alites, those which gave auguries by their flight." "There were considerable varieties of omen according to the note of the Oscines or the place from which they uttered the note; and similarly among the Alites, according to the nature of their flight."

[136] -- "They endeavoured to learn the future, especially in war, by consulting the entrails of victims."

[137] -- This phrase as commonly used implies the exchange of greetings.

[138] -- See Chap. XII.

[139] -- Of the Romans it is said: "When a fox, a wolf, a serpent, a horse, a dog, or any other kind of quadruped, ran across a person's path or appeared in an unusual place, it formed an augury."

[140] -- JOURN. OF STRAITS ASIATIC SOCIETY, Nos. 8, 10, and 14.

[141] -- See Chap. XXII.

[142] -- See Chap. XVII.

[143] -- In the paper from which the greater part of this chapter is extracted this word was spelt NYARONG. It is now clear to us that it should be spelt as above, with the initial NG, a common initial sound in the Sea Dayak language. The most literal translation of the word is, the thing that is secret, or simply, the secret, or my secret.

[144] -- Almost every Iban possesses and constantly carries with him a bundle of such objects; they are regarded as charms and are called PENGAROH; but few probably claim to enjoy the protection of a secret helper.

[145] -- INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY, and elsewhere.

[146] -- Now that the sacrifice of human victims is forbidden, Kenyahs and Klemantans sometimes carve a human figure upon the first of the main piles of a new house to be put into the ground.

[147] -- See vol. ii., p. 4.

[148] -- Quoted in Mr. Frazer's TOTEMISM, 1st ed., 1887, p. 8.

[149] -- Aban Jau possessed a large curiously shaped pig's tusk which he wore on his person in the belief that any firearm fired at it would not go off. It is probable that his belief in this charm was connected with his belief in the dream-pig. The belief was very genuine, until in a moment of excessive confidence he hanged the tusk upon a tree and invited one of us to fire at it. The tusk was shattered. Aban Jau said nothing; but presumably a process of disintegration began in his mind; for after some hours he remarked that his charm had lost its power.

[150] -- Dr. Boas is of the opinion that the totems of the Indians of British Columbia have been developed from the personal MANITOU, the guardian animals acquired by youths in dreams. Miss A. C. Fletcher is led to a similar conclusion by a study of the totems of the Omaha tribe of Indians (IMPORT OF THE TOTEM, Salem, Mass., 1897). The facts described above in connection with the NGARONG of the Ibans and similar allied institutions among other tribes of Sarawak would seem, then, to support the views of these authors as to the origin of totemism.

[151] -- Sixteen different methods, most of which combine the notion of soul-catching with that of exorcism, are enumerated and described by Mr. E. H. Gomes in his recent work, SEVENTEEN YEARS AMONGST THE DAYAKS OF BORNEO.

[152] -- In a recent note in the JOURNAL OF THE SARAWAK MUSEUM, Jan. 1911, Mr. W. Howell states that the power of TAU TEPANG is supposed to be transmitted in certain families from generation to generation; that the head of a TAU TEPANG man leaves his body at night and goes about doing harm, especially to the crops; that the power is passed on to a child of a TAU TEPANG family by the mother, who touches the cut edge of the child's tongue with her spittle.

[153] -- Cf. BAWANG DAHA, the lake of blood of the Kayan Hades, vol. ii., p. 40.

[154] -- The people are naturally reticent about this rite. The facts were brought to our knowledge by a case which is instructive in several ways. A Sebop had murdered a Chinese trader and taken his head. He was ordered to surrender himself for trial at the fort within the space of one month, and informed that he would be taken alive or dead if he failed to present himself. He refused and took to the jungle. Upon which one of the up-country chiefs (Tama Bulan) was commissioned to arrest him. The murderer was found in the jungle and called on to surrender, but refused, and died fighting. At this his brother was enraged against the chief and made the TEGULUN against him; and being at a distance from his victim, the man was at no pains to keep the matter secret, and it came to the ears of the chief. He, although the most enlightened native in the country, felt uneasy under this terrific malediction and complained to the Resident, who insisted on a public taking back or taking off of the curse.

[155] -- A free translation runs: --

"O holy DAYONG; thou who lovest mankind, Bring back thy servant from Leman, The region between the lands of life and death, O holy DAYONG."

[156] -- See vol. ii., p. 11.

[157] -- Although breach of custom and of LALI by any individual may bring misfortune on the whole household, the offending individual is regarded as specially liable to wasting sickness with diarrhoea and spitting of blood.

[158] -- We have a wooden image of this being. It is rudely anthropomorphic, and is covered with fish-like scales. Its sex is indeterminate. He is supposed to ascend the river from the sea, kneeling on the back of a sting-ray.

[159] -- The sword handle is sometimes made of hard wood, but generally of deer's horn, very elaborately carved (see Pl. 129). It seems possible that this elaborate carving which, in spite of many minor variations, is of only two fundamental types, is or was at one time connected with this myth. But we have not been able to get any statement to this effect.

[160] -- The creeper is here regarded as the male partner.