The Pagan Tribes of Borneo Part 10

The interior peoples have long possessed a certain number of European-made muskets (mostly flint-locks) and small Bruni-made bra.s.s cannon, obtained from the Malay and Chinese traders. The latter were chiefly valued for the defence of the house, but were sometimes mounted in the bows of the war-boats. The difficulty of obtaining supplies of gunpowder has always restricted greatly the use of firearms, and in recent years the European governments have strictly limited the sale of gunpowder and firearms; and even at the present day any war-party commissioned by one of the governments to execute any police measure, such as apprehending, or burning the house of, people who have wantonly killed others, has to rely in the main on its native weapons.

The equipment of the fighting-man consists, in addition to his weapons, of a war-cap and war-coat and shield (Pl. 93 and Fig. 26). The former is a round closely-fitting cap woven of stout rattans split in halves longitudinally. It affords good protection to the skull against the stroke of the sword. It is adorned with two of the long black-and-white barred feathers of the hornbill's tail in the case of, any man who has earned this distinction by taking part in successful expeditions.

The war-coat is made of the skin of the goat, the bear, or (in case of distinguished chiefs) of the tiger-cat. The whole of the skin in one piece is used, except that the skin of the belly and of the lower parts of the forelimbs are cut away. A hole for the warrior's head is made in the mid-dorsal line a little behind the skin of the head, which is flattened out and hangs over the chest, descending to the level of the navel; while the skin of the back, flanks, and hind limbs in one large flap, covers the back and hind parts of the warrior as far as the bend of the knees. A large pearly sh.e.l.l usually adorns the lower end of the anterior flap. The warrior's arms are thus left free, but unprotected. In the finest coats there is a patch of brightly coloured beadwork at the nape of the neck, and the back-flap is adorned with rows of loosely dangling hornbills' feathers; but these again are considered appropriate only to the coats of warriors of proved valour.

The Kayan shield is an oblong plate cut from a single piece of soft wood. Its ends are pointed more or less acutely; the length between the points is about four feet. The inner surface forms a flat hollow; the outer is formed by two flat surfaces meeting in a flat obtuse angle or ridge extending from point to point. The grain of the wood runs longitudinally, and a downward falling PARANG is liable to split the wood and become wedged fast in it. In order to prevent the shield becoming divided in this way, and to hold fast the blade of the sword, it is bound across with several stout strips of rattan which are laced closely to the wood with finer strips. The handle, carved out of the same solid block of wood as the body of the shield, is in the middle of the concave surface; it is a simple vertical bar for the grasp of the left hand. The Kayan shield is commonly stained red with iron oxide, and touched up with black pigment, but not otherwise decorated.

Wooden shields of this kind are used by almost all the tribes, but some of them decorate their shields elaborately. The two surfaces of almost all Kenyah shields (Fig. 27) are covered with elaborate designs picked out in colours, chiefly red and black. The designs are sketched out on the wood with the point of a knife, and the pigment is applied with the finger and a chisel-edged stick. The princ.i.p.al feature of the designs on the outer surface is in all cases a large conventionalised outline of a face with large eyes, indicated by concentric circles in red and black, and a double row of teeth with two pairs of canines projecting like huge tusks. This face seems to be human, for, although in some shields there is nothing to indicate this interpretation, in others the large face surmounts the highly conventionalised outline of a diminutive human body, the limbs of which are distorted and woven into a more or less intricate design. Each extremity of the outer surface is covered by a similarly conventionalised face-pattern on a smaller scale. On the inner side each longitudinal half is covered with an elaborate scroll-pattern, generally symmetrical in the two halves; the centre of this pattern is generally a human figure more or less easily recognisable; the two halves sometimes bear male and female figures respectively.

The shields most prized by the Kenyahs are further decorated with tufts of human hair taken from the heads of slain enemies. It is put on in many rows which roughly frame the large face with locks three or four inches in length on scalp, cheeks, chin, and upper lip; and the smaller faces at the ends are similarly surrounded with shorter hair. The hair is attached by forcing the ends of the tufts into narrow slits in the soft wood and securing it with fresh resin.

The Klemantan shields are, in the main, variations on the Kenyah patterns. The Murut shields closely resemble those of the Kayans, though the Dusuns, who have the domesticated buffalo, use a shield of buffalo-hide attached to the forearm by a strap -- a feature unknown in all the other types, which are borne by the handle only. The Sea Dayaks nowadays make a greater variety of shields, copying those of the other tribes with variations of their own. The shield originally used by them before coming into contact with many other tribes, but now discarded, was made of strips of bamboo plaited together and stiffened with a longitudinal strip of wood (Fig. 28). It was of two shapes, both oblong, one with rounded, the other with pointed ends.

The Land Dayaks still use a shield of tough bark (Fig. 29), and it is not improbable that these were used by other tribes at no distant date.

Every Kayan household possesses, beside the many smaller boats, one or more boats especially designed for use in war. A typical war-boat is about 100 feet in length, from six to seven feet wide in its middle part, and tapers to a width of about three and a half feet at bow and stern. In some cases the length of the war-boat, which is always made from a single log, is as much as 145 feet in length (Pl. 96), but so large a boat is unwieldy in use, and its construction costs an excessive amount of labour. The ordinary war-boat carries from sixty to seventy men seated two abreast on the cross-benches. It is steered by the paddles of the two bow-men and the four next the stern. One of these war-boats, manned by sixty or seventy paddlers, can maintain a pace about equal to that of our University racing eights.[57]

War is only undertaken after formal consultation and many discussions between the chief or chiefs and all the leading men. If the village primarily concerned does not feel itself strong enough to achieve its ends, it will seek the help of some neighbouring village, usually, but not always one of its own tribe. The discussion may be renewed day after day for some little time, before the decision to fight is taken and the time for the expedition is fixed.

The next step is to seek favourable omens, and two men are told off for this work. They repair to some spot in the jungle, or more commonly on the bank of the river, where they build a small hut; they adorn it by fraying the poles of its framework, and so secure themselves against interruptions by pa.s.sing acquaintances. The sight or sound of certain birds and beasts is favourable, of others unfavourable; but the favourable creatures must be observed in a certain order, if the omens are to be entirely satisfactory. If very bad omens are observed, the men return home to report the fact, and will make another attempt after a few days. If the omens are of mixed character, they will persist for some time, hoping to get a sufficient number of good omens to counteract or nullify the bad. When seeking for their place of observation, their choice is determined by seeing a spider-hunter (ARACHNOTHERA) flying across the river, chirping as it flies. When this is seen they stop the boat, calling out to the bird, "O friend ISIT, protect us and give us success." One of the men lands on the bank, hews out a pole about eight feet long, cuts upon it bunches of shavings without detaching (Pl. 97) them from the pole, and thrusts one end of it into the ground so that it remains sloping towards the abode of the foe. While this is being done on the bank, fire of some sort (if only a cigarette) is lighted in the boat, and the position is explained more fully to the bird, but without any mention of the name of the enemy. The observers then erect a hut near the omen-pole for their shelter, and pa.s.s the night there before looking out for the omen-bird next desired. This is the trogan (HARPACTES DUVAUCELII), which has a peculiar soft trilling note and a brilliant red chest. When this bird appears, it is addressed in the same way as the spider-hunter; and this second step of the process is also marked by a feathered stick thrust into the ground before the hut. Then they spend another night in the hut hoping for significant dreams. To dream of abundance of fruit (which symbolises heads) is favourable; any dream of a disagreeable or fearful situation is unfavourable. After a favourable dream comes the most important stage of the business, the observation of the hawks. They look for LAKI NEHO from the door of their hut about nine o'clock in the morning. As soon as a hawk is seen, they light a fire and call on him to go to the left, waving a feathered stick in that direction, and, shouting at the top of his voice, one of them pours out a torrent of words addressed to the hawk. If he goes out of sight towards the right, they console themselves by remarking that he is one of low degree, and they sit down to wait for another. If two hawks are seen to fight in the air, that foretells much bloodshed. They are not satisfied until they see a hawk sail far away out of sight towards the left. Then a break is made; after which they observe the hawks again, until they see one sail out of sight towards the right. If all this is accomplished without the intervention of unfavourable omens, they return home to report progress; but immediately return to the hut and remain there. Then for one, two, or even three days, all the men of the house stay at home quietly, busying themselves in preparing boats and weapons. The chief, or some deputy, then performs the rites before the altar-post of the war-G.o.d that stands before the house in the way described in Chap. XV. The omens given by the hawks on this occasion are guarantees for the safety of the house and those left in it, and against accidents and sickness incidental to the journey; they have no reference to the actual fighting.[58]

All the men of the war-party then proceed in their war-boats to the spot where the war-omens have been observed, and camp round about it in roughly built huts. Here they will remain at least two days, establishing their connection with the favourable omen-birds. From this encampment they may not return to the house, and, if they are expecting a party of allies, they may await them here. By this time the war-fever is raging among them, and rumours of the preparations of the enemy are circulating. Spies or scouts may be sent out to seek information about the enemy; but usually such information is sought from the liver of a pig with the customary ceremony. A sharp ridge on the liver dividing their own region from that of the enemy is unfavourable, a low soft ridge is favourable.

From the moment of leaving the village the men of the war-party must observe many tabus until their return home. They may not eat the head of a fish; they must use only their home-made earthen pots; fire must be made only by friction (see Pl. 89); they must not smoke; boys may not lie down, but must sleep sitting. The people who remain at home are not expected to observe these tabus; they may go to the farms, but must keep quiet, and undertake nothing outside the ordinary routine.

If the object of the attack is a village in their own river, the expedition paddles steadily day after day until it reaches the mouth of some small stream at a distance of some miles from the enemy's village. Forcing their boats some two or three miles up this stream they make a camp. Here two solid platforms are built about twenty feet apart, and a large beam is laid from one to the other. The chiefs and princ.i.p.al men take their seats on the platforms, and then every man of the party in turn approaches this beam, the fighting leader, who is usually not one of the chiefs, coming first. If he is willing to go through with the business, I.E. to take part in the attack, he slashes a chip from the beam with his PARANG and pa.s.ses under it. On the far side of the beam stands a chief holding a large frond of fern, and, as each man pa.s.ses under, he gives him a bit of the leaf, while an a.s.sistant cuts a notch on a tally-stick for each volunteer. If for any reason any man is reluctant to go farther, he states his excuse, perhaps a bad dream or illness, or sore feet, and returns to the boats, amid the jeers of those who have pa.s.sed the ordeal, to form one of a party to be left in charge of the camp and boats.

Next, all the left-handed men are sorted out to form a party whose special duty is to ambush the enemy, if possible, at some favourable spot. These are known as the hornets (SINGAT). If any swampy ground or other obstruction intervenes between their camp and the enemy's village, a path is made through or over it to facilitate retreat to the boats. A pa.s.sword is agreed upon, which serves as a means of making members of the party known to one another upon any chance meeting in the dark.

Scouts are sent out at dusk and, if their reports are favourable, the attack is made just before dawn. About half the warriors are provided with large bundles of dry shavings, and some will carry torches. When the attacking party has quietly surrounded the house or houses, the bundles of shavings are ignited, and their bearers run in and throw them under the house among the timbers on which it is supported. Then ensues a scene of wild confusion. The calm stillness of the tropical dawn is broken by the deep war-chorus of the attacking party, by the shouts and screams of the people of the house suddenly roused from sleep, by the cries and squeals of the frightened animals beneath the house, and the beating of the alarm signal on the TAWAK. If the house is ignited, the encircling a.s.sailants strive to intercept the fleeing inhabitants. These, if the flames do not drive them out before they have time to take any concerted measures, will hurl their javelins and discharge their firearms (if they have any) at their a.s.sailants; then they will descend, bringing the women and children with them, and make a desperate attempt to cut their way through and escape to the jungle or, sometimes, to their boats. Kayans conducting a successful attack of this kind will make as many prisoners as possible, and will as a rule kill only those men who make desperate resistance, though occasionally others, even women and children, may be wantonly killed in the excitement of the moment. It is not unusual in the case of an able-bodied man who has surrendered, but shown signs of attempting to escape or of renewing his resistance, to deal him a heavy blow on the knee-cap, and so render him lame for some time. It usually happens that the greater part of the fugitives escape into the jungle; and they are not pursued far, if the victors have secured a few heads and a few prisoners. The head is hacked off at once from the body of any one of the foe who falls in the fight; the trunk is left lying where it fell. If any of the a.s.sailants are killed in the course of the fray, their heads are not taken by their friends, and their corpses are left upon the field covered with boughs, or at most, in the case of chiefs, are dragged into the jungle and covered up with boughs and twigs, in order to prevent their heads being taken by the enemy. If any of the enemy remain so badly wounded that they are not likely to recover, their heads are taken; and if no other heads have been secured, the head of one of the more seriously wounded captives is taken, or of one who is deformed or incapacitated in any way. If a captive dies of his wounds his head is taken; but it is a rare exception for Kayans to kill any of their captives after the short excitement of the battle is over. The attacking party, even though it has gained a decisive victory, usually returns with all speed, but in good order, to its boats, carrying with it through the jungle all the loot that is not too c.u.mbersome for rapid portage, especially old beads, gongs, and bra.s.s-ware; for they are always in danger of being cut off by a party of their enemies, rallied and reinforced by parties from neighbouring friendly villages. Still more are they liable to be pursued and cut off, if the attack on the village has failed through the defenders having been warned; for an attack upon a strong house or village has little chance of success if the defenders are prepared for and expecting it. The pursuit of the retreating party may be kept up throughout one or two days, and, if the pursuers come up with them, a brisk and b.l.o.o.d.y battle is the natural outcome; and it is under these circ.u.mstances that the most severe fighting takes place. But here again it is seldom that any large proportion of either party is slain; for the dense jungle everywhere offers abundant opportunities of concealment to those who condescend to seek its shelter, and there are few, even among the Kayans and Kenyahs, who will fight to the bitter end, if the alternative of flight is open to them.

A successful war-party returning home makes no secret of its success. The boats are decorated with palm leaves (DAUN ISANG), and a triumphal chorus is raised from time to time, especially on pa.s.sing villages. As the villagers come out to gaze on them, those who have taken heads stand up in the boats. The heads, slightly roasted, are wrapped up in palm leaves and placed in baskets in the stern of the boat. If the return home involves a journey of several days, the victors will, if possible, pa.s.s the nights in the houses of friendly villages, where they are made much of, especially those who have taken heads; and on these occasions the glamour of victory is apt to turn the heads of some of the women and to break down the reserve that modesty normally imposes upon them.

On approaching their own village, whither the rumour of their success usually precedes them, the war-party is received with loud acclamations, the people coming down to the riverside to receive them. Before they ascend to the house, the heads have to be safely lodged in a small hut specially built for their reception; and the young boys are brought down to go through their first initiation in the arts of war. Each child is made to hold a sword and, with the a.s.sistance of some aged warrior, to strike a blow at one of the newly captured heads. The older boys, some nine or ten years of age, who are ripe for their second partic.i.p.ation in mock warfare, also strike at a head in a similar way, but engage also in mimic battles with one another, using wooden swords and spears, and, curiously enough, small roughly made bows and arrows.[59] It is customary for the victorious warriors to spend the first night after their return encamped before the house. A strip of green DAUN ISANG is tied about the left wrist of each man who has taken part in the expedition, and also of each of the young boys. Those who have taken heads adorn also their war-caps with the same leaf and with feathered sticks. On the following day a tall post of bamboo (BALAWING) is erected near the figure of the war-G.o.d. It is covered with frayed palm leaves (DAUN ISANG), and from its tip a single head, also wrapped in leaves, is suspended by a long cord (Pl. 66). Before the altar-post of the war-G.o.d several shorter thicker posts are erected, and to each of these two or three small pieces of human flesh, brought home from the corpses of the slain enemies for this purpose, are fastened with skewers. These pieces of flesh seem to be thank-offerings to the hawks to whom the success is largely attributed. These bits of flesh are dried over a fire at the first opportunity on the return journey, in order to preserve them.[60]

As soon as the news of the taking of heads reaches the house, the people go out of mourning, I.E. they shave the parts of the scalp surrounding the crown and pull out eyebrows and eyelashes (which have been allowed to grow during mourning); they put off their bark-cloth garments and resume their cotton-cloths and ornaments.

If, as is usually the case on the return of a war-party, mourning for a chief is to be terminated, one of the heads is carried down river to his tomb, followed by most of the men, while the women wail in the house. The head is first brought before the house, but not into it. An old man shoots a dart into the air in the direction of the enemy, and then, pattering out a long formula in the usual way, he slaughters a fowl and puts a part of the carcase upon a short stick thrust into the earth. The men of the party then march past, each touching the carcase with his knee, and saying as he does so, "Cast out sickness, make me strong and healthy, exalt me above my enemies, etc. etc." Beside the tomb a tall pole is set up, and the head dressed in leaves is suspended by a cord from its upper end. A number of pigs will already have been slain in preparation for the feast, and their lower jaws are hung about the tomb on poles. The deep war-chorus is shouted by the party as it travels to and from the tomb. In returning the whole party bathes in the river, and while they are in the water an old man waves over them some of the ISANG leaves with which the head has been decorated, wishing them health and long life.

A few days (not less than four) after the return of the war-party, the heads are brought into the house with much rejoicing and ceremony. Every family kills a pig and roasts its flesh,[61] brings out stores of rice-spirit, and prepares cakes of rice-flour. The pigs'

livers are examined, and their blood is smeared upon the altar-post of the war-G.o.d with a sort of brush (PLA) made by fraying the end of a stick in a more than usually elaborate manner. Each head, adorned with a large bunch of DAUN ISANG, is carried by an elderly man or woman into the house, followed by all the people of the house -- men, women, and children -- in long procession. The procession marches up and down the whole length of the gallery many times, the people shouting, singing, stamping, and pounding on the floor with PADI pestles, or playing the KELURI. This is followed by a general feast and drinking bout, each family preparing its feast in its own chamber, and entertaining friends and neighbours who come to take part in the general rejoicing. In the course of the feasting the women usually take temporary possession of the heads, and perform with them a wild, uncouth dance, waving the heads to and fro, and chanting in imitation of the men's war-song (Pl. 102). The procession may be resumed at intervals until the heads are finally suspended beside the old ones over the princ.i.p.al hearth of the gallery. The heads have usually been prepared by removal of the brain through the great foramen, by drying over a fire, and by lashing on the lower jaw with strips of rattan. The suspension of the head is effected by piercing a round hole in the crown, and pa.s.sing through it from below, by way of the great foramen, a rattan knotted at the end. The free end of the rattan is pa.s.sed through and tied in a hole in the lower edge of a long beam suspended parallel to the length of the gallery from the beams of the roof (Pl. 68). The Kenyahs suspend the heads in the same way as the Kayans, but most of the Klemantans and Ibans use in place of the long beam a strong basket-work in the shape of a cone, the apex being attached to the roof beams, and the heads tied in two or three tiers in the wall of the cone. In either case the heads hang some five or six feet above the floor, where they are out of reach of the dogs.

Defence

Since every Bornean long-house is, or until recently was, liable at almost any time to a night attack of the kind described above, the situation of the house is chosen with an eye to defence. The site chosen is in nearly all cases on the bank of a river or stream large enough for the navigation of small boats; a high and steep river-bank is commonly preferred; and spits of land between two converging streams or peninsulas formed by sharp bends of the rivers are favoured spots.

Beside the natural situation, the prime defence of the house is its elevation some 10 to 30 feet above the level of the ground, joined with the difficulty of access to the house by means of narrow ladders easily drawn up or thrown down. This elevation of the house serves also to secure its contents against sudden risings of the river, and also against the invasion of evil odours from the refuse which acc.u.mulates below it; but its primary purpose is undoubtedly defence against human enemies. The interval between the low outer wall of the gallery and the lower edge of the roof is the only aperture through which missiles can be hurled into the house, and this is so narrow as to render the entry of any missiles well-nigh impossible.

When a household gets wind of an intended attack, they generally put the house into a state of defence by erecting a fence of vertical stakes around it, some three yards outside the posts on which it is supported and some six to eight feet in height. This fence is rendered unclimbable by a frieze consisting of a mult.i.tude of slips of bamboo; each of these is sharpened at both ends, bent upon itself, and thrust between the poles of the palisade so that its sharp points (Pl. 100) are directed outwards. This dense jungle of loosely attached spikes const.i.tutes an obstacle not easily overcome by the enemy; for the loosely fitting bamboo slips can neither be hacked away nor removed individually without considerable expenditure of time, during which the attackers are exposed to a shower of missiles from the house. A double ladder in the form of a stile is placed across the fence to permit the pa.s.sage of the people of the house. If there is any definite pathway leading to the house, a log is sometimes suspended above it by a rattan pa.s.sing over a branch of a tree and carried to the house. This can be allowed to fall upon the approaching enemy by severing the rattan where it is tied within the house (Klemantan).

A further precaution is to stick into the ground round about the house a large number of slips of bamboo. Each slip is some six inches in length, and its sharp, fire-hardened point projects upwards and a little outwards.

If the attacking party is likely to approach by the river, a trap may be arranged at some point where, by reason of rapids or rocks, the boats are likely to be delayed. Here a large tree overhanging the river is chosen for the trap. Stout rattans are made fast to its branches, brought over the branches of a neighbouring tree, and made fast in some spot within reach of a hidden watcher. The stem of the overhanging tree is then cut almost through, so that a few blows of a sword, severing the supporting rattans, may cause the tree to fall upon the pa.s.sing boat.

When a hostile war-party enters a section of a river in which there is a number of villages of one tribe or of friendly tribes, its approach may be signalled throughout the district by the beating of the TAWAK. The same peculiar rhythm is used for this purpose by all the tribes, though it probably has been copied from the Kayans by all the others. It consists in a rapid series of strokes of increasing rate upon the boss, followed by one long deep note, and two shorter ones struck upon the body and once repeated. Whenever this war-alarm is heard in a village, it is repeated, and so pa.s.sed on from village to village. The people working in the farms or in the jungle, or travelling on the river, return at once to their villages on hearing the alarm, and the houses are prepared for defence. When the news of the approach of a hostile party has been spread in this way throughout the river, it has little chance of successfully attacking a house or village, and it will, unless very numerous, content itself with attempting to cut off some of the people returning home from the farms. 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 bra.s.s-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 a.s.sault. 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.

A village that has been warned of the approach of the foe may send out a party to attempt to ambush the attackers at some difficult pa.s.sage of the river or the jungle. Scouts are sent out to locate the enemy. Some climb to the tops of tall trees to look for the smoke of the enemy's fires. Having located the enemy, the scouts approach so closely as to be able to count their numbers and observe all their movements; and, keeping in touch with the party, they send messages to their chief. If the defenders succeed in ambushing the attackers and in killing several of them, the latter usually withdraw discouraged, and may for the time give up the attempt. If the defending party should come upon the enemy struggling against a rapid, and especially if the enemy is in difficulties through the upsetting of some of their boats, or in any other way, they may fall upon them in the open bed of the river, and then ensues the comparatively rare event, a stand-up fight in the open. This resolves itself in the main into hand-to-hand duels between pairs of combatants, as in the heroic age. The warriors select their opponents and approach warily; they call upon one another by name, hurling taunts and swaggering boastfully in the heroic style. Each abuses the other's parents, and threatens to use his opponent's skin as a war-coat, or his s.c.r.o.t.u.m as a tobacco-pouch, to take his head and to use his hair as an ornament for a PARANG-handle; or doubt as to the opponent's s.e.x may be insinuated. While this exchange of compliments goes on, the warriors are manoeuvring for favourable positions; each crouches, thrusting forward his left leg, covering himself as completely as possible with his long shield, and dodging to and fro continually. The short javelins and spears are first hurled, and skilfully parried with spear and shield. When a man has expended his stock of javelins and has hurled his spear, he closes in with his PARANG. His enemy seeks to receive the blow of the PARANG on his shield in such a way that the point, entering the wood, may be held fast by it. Feinting and dodging are practised; one man thrusts out his left leg to tempt the other to strike at it and to expose his head in doing so. If one succeeds in catching his enemy's PARANG in his shield, he throws down the shield and dashes upon his now weaponless foe, who takes to his heels, throwing away his shield and relying merely on his swiftness of foot. When one of a pair of combatants is struck down, the other springs upon him and, seizing the long hair of the scalp and yelling in triumph, severs the neck with one or two blows of the PARANG. The warrior who has drawn first blood of the slain foe claims the credit of having taken his head. Such a free fight seldom lasts more than a few minutes. Unless one party quite overwhelms the other in the first few minutes, both draw off, and the fight is seldom renewed.

Since the establishment of the European governments in Borneo, punitive expeditions have been necessary from time to time in order to put a stop to wanton raiding and killing. In this respect the Ibans and some of the Klemantans have been the chief offenders; while the Kayans and Kenyahs have seldom given trouble, after once placing themselves under the established governments. In the Baram river, in which the Kayans form probably a larger proportion of the population than in any other, no such expedition against them has been necessary since they accepted the government of H.H. the Rajah of Sarawak nearly twenty-five years ago.

In organising such an expedition, the European governments, especially that of Sarawak, have usually relied in the main on the services of loyal chiefs and their followers, acting under the control of a European magistrate, and supported usually by a small body of native police or soldiers armed with rifles. There is usually no difficulty in securing the co-operation of any desired number of native allies or volunteers; for in this way alone can the people now find a legitimate outlet for their innate and traditional pugnacity. Sometimes the people to be punished desert their village, hiding themselves in the jungle; and in such cases the burning of their houses is usually deemed sufficient punishment. In cases of more serious crime, such as repeated wanton bloodshed and refusal to yield to the demands of the government, it becomes necessary to apprehend the persons primarily responsible, and, for this purpose, to pursue the fugitives. These sometimes establish themselves on a hill-top surrounded by precipices which can be scaled only by the aid of ladders, and there defy the government forces until the hill is carried by a.s.sault, or by siege, or the defenders are enticed to descend. One such hill in the basin of the Rejang (Sarawak), Bukit Batu by name, consists of a ma.s.s of porphyry some 1500 feet in height, and several miles in diameter, with very precipitous sides. This has been used again and again as a place of refuge by recalcitrant offenders, being so strong a natural fortress that it has never been possible to carry it by a.s.sault. On the last occasion on which Bukit Batu was used in this way, two Iban chiefs established themselves on the hill and defied the government of Sarawak for a period of four years, during which the hill became a place of refuge for all evil-doers and outlaws among the Ibans of the Rejang and neighbouring districts, who built their houses on ledges of the mountain some four hundred feet above the level of the river.

The punitive expedition that we briefly describe in Chapter XXII. was but a small affair compared with some, in which as many as 10,000 or 12,000 men have mustered under the government flag. So large a number is seldom necessary or desired by the government; but when contingents from all the loyal communities of a large district eagerly offer their services, it is difficult to deny any of them permission to take part. Kenyahs and Kayans will co-operate harmoniously, and also Klemantans; but the former distrust the Sea Dayaks and will not join forces with any large number of them.

The modes of warfare of the other tribes are similar in most respects to that of the Kayans described above; but some peculiarities are worthy of note.

Kenyah warfare is very similar to Kayan, save in so far as their more impetuous temper renders their tactics more dashing. While the Kayans endeavour to make as many captives as possible, the Kenyahs attach little value to them. While Kayans never attack communities of their own tribe, such "civil war" is not unknown among the Kenyahs, whose tribal cohesion is less intimate in many respects. From these two differences it results that the Kenyah war-parties are generally smaller than those of the Kayans, more quick-moving, and more p.r.o.ne to attack groups of the enemy encountered on farms or on the river. Like the Ibans, the Kenyahs make peace more readily than the Kayans, who nurse their grievances and seek redress after long intervals of time.

The Ibans conduct their warfare less systematically, and with far less discipline than the Kayans and Kenyahs. An attack upon a house or village by Bans is usually made in very large force; the party is more of the nature of a rabble than of an army; each man acts independently. They seek above all things to take heads, to which they attach an extravagant value, unlike the Kayans and Kenyahs who seek heads primarily for the service of their funeral rites; and they not infrequently attack a house and kill a large number of its inmates in a perfectly wanton manner, and for no other motive that the desire to obtain heads. This pa.s.sion for heads leads them sometimes into acts of gross treachery and brutality. The Ibans being great wanderers, small parties of them, engaged perhaps in working jungle produce, will settle for some weeks in a household of Klemantans, and, after being received hospitably, and sometimes even after contracting marriages with members of the household, will seize an opportunity, when most of the men of the house are from home, to take the heads of all the men, women, and children who remain, and to flee with them to their own distant homes.

So strong is this morbid desire of the Ibans to obtain human heads, that a war-party will sometimes rob the tombs of the villages of other tribes and, after smoking the stolen heads of the corpses, will bring them home in triumph with glowing accounts of the stout resistance offered by the victims. Their att.i.tude in this matter is well expressed by a saying current among them, namely, "Why should we eat the hard caked rice from the edge of the pot when there's plenty of soft rice in the centre?" The Iban women urge on the men to the taking of heads; they make much of those who bring them home, and sometimes a girl will taunt her suitor by saying that he has not been brave enough to take a head; and in some cases of murder by Sea Dayaks, the murderer has no doubt been egged on in this way.

Nevertheless, we repeat that there is no ground for the oft-reprinted a.s.sertion that the taking of a head is a necessary prelude to marriage.[62] Like other tribesmen Ibans do not bring home the heads of their companions who have fallen in battle; but while men of other tribes are content to drag the corpses of their fallen friends into some obscure spot and to cover them with branches, Ibans frequently cut off the heads and bury them at a distance from the scene of battle, in order to prevent their being taken by the enemy.

The Ibans use a rather greater variety of weapons than the Kayans, in that they have spears whose blades bear barbs which prevent the withdrawal of the blade from the body of the enemy without great violence.

The Klemantan tribes are on the whole far less warlike than Kayans, Kenyahs, and Ibans. Their offensive warfare is usually on a small scale, and is undertaken primarily for revenge. Their warlike ambition is easily satisfied by the taking of a single head, or even by a mere hostile demonstration against the enemy's house. Nevertheless, like all the other tribes, except the Punans, the Klemantans need a human head to terminate a period of mourning.

We venture to append to this chapter a few speculations on the origin and history of head-hunting. From what we have said above it is clear that the Ibans are the only tribe to which one can apply the epithet head-hunters with the usual connotation of the word, namely, that head-hunting is pursued as a form of sport. But although the Ibans are the most inveterate head-hunters, it is probable that they adopted the practice some few generations ago only (perhaps a century and a half or even less) in imitation of Kayans or other tribes among whom it had been established for a longer period. The rapid growth of the practice among the Ibans was no doubt largely due to the influence of the Malays, who had been taught by Arabs and others the arts of piracy, and with whom the Ibans were a.s.sociated in the piratical enterprises that gave the waters around Borneo a sinister notoriety during the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the settlements of Ibans were practically confined to the rivers of the southern part of Sarawak; and there the Malays of Bruni and of other coast settlements enlisted them as crews for their pirate ships. In these piratical expeditions the Malays a.s.signed the heads of their victims as the booty of their Iban allies, while they kept for themselves the forms of property of greater cash value. The Malays were thus interested in encouraging in the Ibans the pa.s.sion for head-hunting which, since the suppression of piracy, has found vent in the irregular warfare and treacherous acts described above. It was through their a.s.sociation with the Malays in these piratical expeditions that the Ibans became known to Europeans as the Sea Dayaks.

It seems not impossible that the practice of taking the heads of fallen enemies arose by extension of the custom of taking the hair for the ornamentation of the shield and sword-hilt. It seems possible that human hair was first applied to shields in order to complete the representation of a terrible human face, which, as we have seen, is commonly painted on the shield, and which is said to be valued as an aid to confusing and terrifying the foe. It is perhaps a difficulty in the way of this view that the use of human hair to ornament the shield is peculiar to the Kenyahs and some of the Klemantans (the latter probably having imitated the former in this), and does not occur among the Kayans. The Kenyahs themselves preserve the tradition of the origin of the taking of heads; and the suggestion is further borne out by the legend of TOKONG, which is widely known, but is probably of Kenyah origin (see Chapter XVII.), according to which the frog admonished a great Kenyah chief that he should cease to take only the hair of the fallen foe, but should take their heads also.

A second plausible view of the origin of head-taking is that it arose out of the custom of slaying slaves on the death of a chief, in order that they might accompany and serve him on his journey to the other world. We have pointed out several reasons for believing that this practice was formerly general, and that it has fallen into desuetude, but is hardly yet quite extinct. It is obvious that since the soul of the dead man is regarded as hovering in the neighbourhood of the body for some little time after its death, it would be felt that the despatch of a companion soul was not a matter of immediate urgency; and considerations of economy might well lead the mourners to prefer capturing and killing members of some hostile community to slaying one or more of their slaves, highly valued and sometimes affectionately regarded as they are. It would then be felt that the relatives of the deceased should continue to display signs of mourning until they should have discharged this last duty to their departed friend. The next step would be to supplant the practice of capturing a member of a hostile community, and bringing him home to be slain, by the simpler, less troublesome, and more merciful one of slaying the enemy on the field of combat and bringing home only his head. In this way we may, with some plausibility, seek to account for the origin of the practice of taking heads, and of the tradition that the taking of a head is necessary for the termination of a period of mourning. This second suggestion is strongly supported by the fact that Kayans, Kenyahs, and Klemantans occasionally, on returning home from a successful raid, will carry one of the newly taken heads to the tomb of the chief for whom they are mourning, and will hang it upon, or deposit it within, the tomb beside the coffin. The head used for this purpose is thickly covered with leaves (DAUN ISANG) tied tightly about it. It is possible that this thick covering was first applied in order to disguise the fact that the head is that of an enemy, and that the sacrifice of the life of a domestic slave, originally demanded by custom and piety, has been avoided by this process of subst.i.tution.

We have suggested above two different origins of the custom of taking the heads of enemies. These two possibilities are by no means mutually exclusive, and we are inclined to think that both subst.i.tutive processes may have co-operated in bringing about this custom.

It seems probable that the taking of heads was introduced to Borneo by Kayans when they entered the island, probably some few centuries ago, and that the Klemantans and other tribes, like the Ibans, have adopted the custom from their example.

We will conclude this chapter by questioning yet another of the stories, the frequent repet.i.tion of which has given the tribes of the interior the reputation of being savages of the worst type, namely, the story that it is the practice of Kayans to torture the captives taken in battle. This evil repute is, we have no doubt, largely due to the fact that very few Europeans have acquired any intimate first-hand acquaintance with the Kayans or Kenyahs; and that too often the stories told by Sea Dayaks have been uncritically accepted; for the Sea Dayaks have been bitterly hostile to the Kayans ever since the tribes have been in contact; and the Iban is a great romancer. It will be found that many of the alleged instances of torture by Kayans have been described by Sea Dayaks; and we think there is good reason for hesitating to accept any of these. But we would point out that, if some of these accounts have been founded on fact, the Sea Dayak victims, or their companions, have in all probability provoked the Kayans to severe, reprisals by their atrocious behaviour, and may be fairly said to have deserved their fate.

It is true that Kayans have been guilty of leaving a slave or captive bound upon a tomb until he has died from exposure to the sun. We know also of one instance in which a Murut slave, having treacherously murdered the only son of a great Kayan chief in the Baram, at the instigation of Bruni Malays, was killed by a mult.i.tude of small stabs by the infuriated Kayan women, on being brought captive to the house.

But such occurrences as these by no means justify the statement that it is the practice of Kayans to torture their captives; and we have heard of no well-attested instances that give any colour to it. As we have said above, Kayans commonly treat their captives so kindly that they soon become content to remain in the households of their captors. The Kayan feeling about torture is well ill.u.s.trated by the fact that the Kayan village responsible for the exposure of the slave mentioned above was looked at askance by other Kayans. The spot was regarded with horror by them, and they regard as a consequence of this act the failure of the line of the chief of that village to perpetuate itself.

We have to admit that some of the Klemantans cannot be so whole-heartedly defended against the charge of torturing their captives. But we believe that it is not regularly practised by any Klemantan tribe, but rather only on occasions which in some way evoke an exceptional degree of emotional excitement. Thus, in one instance known to us, the Orang Bukit of the Bruni territory, having lost the most highly respected of their chiefs, purchased a slave in Bruni to serve as the funereal victim, and, having shut him in a wicker cage, killed him with a mult.i.tude of stabs, some eight hundred persons taking part in the act. But even this act was, it must be observed, of the nature of a pious and religious rite rather than an act of wanton cruelty.

We cannot leave this subject without this last word. If we are quite frank, we shall have to admit that, even though the worst accounts of Kayan cruelty were substantially true, such behaviour would not in the least justify the belief that the Kayans are innately more cruel than ourselves. If we are tempted to take this view, let us remember that, after our own race had professed Christianity for many generations, the authority of Church and State publicly decreed and systematically inflicted in cold blood tortures far more hideous and atrocious than any the Kayan imagination has ever conceived.