The Pagan Tribes of Borneo Part 21

As among ourselves, several very different systems for the cure of sickness are practised among the Kayans, and these seem to imply very different theories of the cause of disease. But the Kayans, less consistent or more open-minded than ourselves, are not divided into sects, each following one system of therapeutics, but rather the various systems are held in honour by all the people, and one or the other is applied according to the indications of each case. Thus, bodily injuries received accidentally or in battle are treated surgically by cupping, splints, bandaging, and so forth. Familiar disorders, such as malarial fever, are treated medically, I.E. by rest and drugs. Cases of severe pain of unknown origin are generally attributed to the malign influence of some TOH,[105] and the method of treatment is usually that of extraction.[106] Madness also is generally attributed to possession by some TOH. But in cases of severe illness of mysterious origin that seems to threaten to end mortally, the theory generally adopted is that the patient's soul has left his body, and the treatment indicated is therefore an attempt to persuade the soul to return. The first two modes of treatment are not considered to demand the skill of a specialist for their application, but the third and fourth are undertaken only by those who have special powers and knowledge.

Among the Kayans the professional soul-catcher, the DAYONG, is generally a woman who has served a considerable period of apprenticeship with some older member of the profession, after having been admonished to take up this calling by some being met with in dreams -- often a dream experienced during sickness. The DAYONG does not necessarily confine his or her activities to this one calling; for in a large village there are usually several DAYONGS, and the occasions demanding their services recur at considerable intervals of time. The relatives of the sick man usually prefer to call in a DAYONG from some other village. The DAYONG is expected to make the diagnosis and to determine upon the line of treatment to be practised. If he decides that the soul or BLUA of the patient has left his body, and has made some part of the journey towards the abode of departed souls, his task is to fall into a trance and to send his own soul to overtake that of his patient and to persuade it to return. The ceremony is usually performed by torch-light in the presence of a circle of interested relatives and friends, the patient being laid in the midst in the long public gallery of the house.

The DAYONG struts to and fro chanting a traditional form of words well known to the people, who join in the chorus at the close of each phrase, responding with "BALI-DAYONG," [107] I.E. "Oh powerful DAYONG;"

the meaning and intention of this chorus seem to be that of the "Amen"

with which a Christian congregation a.s.sociates itself with the prayer offered by its pastor. For the chant with which the DAYONG begins his operations is essentially a prayer for help addressed to LAKI TENANGAN, or, in case of a woman, to DOH TEMANGAN also.

The DAYONG may or may not fall and lie inert upon the ground in the course of his trance; but throughout the greater part of the ceremony he continues to chant with closed eyes, describing with words and mimic gestures the doings of his own soul as it follows after and eventually overtakes that of the patient. When this point is reached his gestures generally express the difficulty and the severity of the efforts required to induce the soul to return; and the anxious relatives then usually encourage him by bringing out gongs or other articles of value, and depositing them as additions to the DAYONG'S fee. Thus stimulated, he usually succeeds in leading back the soul towards the patient's body. One feature of the ceremony, not quite logically consistent with its general scheme, is that the DAYONG takes in his hand a sword and, glancing at the polished blade with a startled air, seems to catch in it a glimpse of the wandering soul.[108] The next step is to restore the soul to the body. The DAYONG comes out of his trance with the air of one who is suddenly transported from distant scenes, and usually exhibits in his palm some small living creature, or it may be merely a grain of rice, a pebble, or bit of wood, in which the captured soul is in some sense contained. This he places on the top of the patient's head, and by rubbing causes it to pa.s.s into the head. The soul having been thus restored. to the body, it is necessary to prevent it escaping again; and this is done by tying a strip of palm-leaf about the patient's wrist.

A fowl is then killed, or, in very severe cases of sickness, a pig, and its blood is sprinkled or wiped by means of the sword or knife upon this confining bracelet. In mild cases the fowl may be merely waved over the head of the patient without being killed. The DAYONG then gives directions as to the MALAN (the tabus) to be observed by the patient, especially in regard to articles of diet, and retires, leaving his fee to be sent after him.

This ceremony clearly involves a curious confusion of symbolical and descriptive acts, which are not ordered in strict consistency with any clearly defined theory of the nature of the soul and of its relations to the body, or of the exact nature of the task of the soul-catcher.

The catching of souls is practised in very similar fashion among all the peoples of Borneo, even by the Punans, though the details of the procedure differ from tribe to tribe.

Mental derangement is commonly attributed to possession by evil TOH, and exorcism is practised among some of the tribes, but very little by the Kayans, who generally content themselves with confining any troublesome madman in a cage.

No doubt the catching of the soul does make strongly for the recovery of the patient, through inspiring him with hope and confidence. But it cannot always stave off death. If, in spite of the operations of one soul-catcher, the patient's strength still sinks, some other pract.i.tioner is usually called in for consultation. In the case of a chief the help of three or even four may be invoked successively or together; and the ceremony of catching the soul may be repeated again and again with greater elaboration of detail, and may be prolonged through many hours and even days with brief interruptions.

When all these efforts prove unavailing, despairing relatives sometimes put the end of a blow-pipe to the dying or dead man's ear (or merely their lips) and shout through it, "Come back, this is your home, here we have food ready for you." Sometimes the departed soul is believed to reply, "I am far from home, I am following a TOH and don't know the way back."

If, in spite of all these efforts, the patient dies, a drum is loudly beaten (or in case of a female a TAWAK) in order to announce the decease to relatives and friends gone before, the number of strokes depending upon the rank and s.e.x of the departing spirit. The corpse is kept in the house during a period which varies from one night for people of the lower cla.s.s, to three nights for middle cla.s.s folk, and ten days for a chief. During this time the dead man lies in state. The corpse has a bead of some value under each eyelid;[109]

it is dressed in his finest clothes and ornaments, and is enclosed within a coffin hollowed from a single log, the lid of which is sealed with resin and lashed round with rattans.

The coffin is covered with a particular design in red and black and white, and is placed in the gallery on a low platform, surrounded by the most valuable personal property of the dead man, whose family will take pains to make the display of property as imposing as possible. A fire is kept burning near the coffin, and small packets of cooked rice and of tobacco are placed upon it for the use of the dead man's soul. Hundreds of cigarettes are hung in bundles about the platform by people of the house, sent by them as tokens of kindly remembrance to their departed friends, who are believed to be able to recognise by smell the hands that made each bundle. During the whole period the dead man is attended continuously by at least two or three mourners, either relatives or, more rarely, hired mourners, who from time to time throughout both day and night wail loudly, renewing their wailing at the arrival of each party of friends or relatives.

These parties come in from neighbouring villages in response to news of the death sent them by special messengers, and in the case of an influential chief several thousand men and women sometimes congregate in this way to do him honour.

Upon the arrival of any person of importance, gongs and drums are beaten, and the dead man is informed of the fact by the DAYONG or by a relative. The visitor is led to a scat near the coffin, where he will sit silently or join in the wailing, until after a few minutes he enters into conversation with his hosts. When all the expected guests have arrived, pigs are slaughtered and a feast is made.

While the coffin lies in the house all noises other than the wailing are avoided in its immediate neighbourhood, and the children, dogs, and fowls are kept away from it. The DAYONG will sit beside the coffin occasionally brandishing a sword above it in order to keep in check the TOH who, attracted to the neighbourhood of the corpse, might grow too bold.

On the day appointed for the removal of the corpse it is the duty of the DAYONG to instruct the dead man's soul how to find his way to the other world; this he does, sitting beside the coffin and chanting aloud in doleful tones. For (curiously enough in view of the theory implied by the soul-catching ceremony) the man's soul is regarded as remaining in, or in the proximity of, the body so long as it remains in the house. This is one of several indications that the Kayans vaguely distinguish two souls -- on the one hand the ghost-soul or shade, which in dreams wanders afar, on the other hand the vital principle. It would seem that so long as this vital spark remains in the body the ghost-soul may return to it; but that, when death is complete, this vital spark also departs, and then the ghost-soul will return no more.

The use of the word URIP further bears out this interpretation. In common speech URIP means alive, but it is applied also as a prefix to the names of those recently deceased, and seems to mark the speaker's sense of the continuance of the personality as that which has life in spite of the death of the body.

Thus BLUA and URIP seem to mark a distinction which in Europe in different ages has been marked by the words soul and spirit, ANIMA and ANIMUS, psyche and pneuma, and which was familiar also to the Hebrews. In this, of course, Kayan thought on this subject does but follow on the lines of many other peoples of more advanced civilisation.

When the DAYONG has completed his instructions, the rattan lashings about the head of the coffin are loosed. Since this is the moment at which the soul is believed to take its final departure from the body, it is probable that this custom of unlashing the coffin is connected with the idea of facilitating its escape, although we have obtained no definite statement to this effect. At the same time the fire that has been kept burning by the coffin is allowed to die out. To the coffin, which is shaped roughly like a boat, two small wooden figures are attached -- a figure of a woman at the head, a male figure at its foot. These figures are not improbably a vestige of a bygone custom of killing slaves, whose souls would row the boat of the dead man on his journey to the other world. This interpretation is borne out by the fact that a live fowl is usually tied to one of these wooden figures. The coffin is then conveyed out of the house by lowering it to the ground with rattans, either through the floor, planks being taken up for the purpose, or under the caves at the side of the gallery. In this way they avoid carrying it down the house-ladder; and it seems to be felt that this precaution renders it more difficult for the ghost to find its way back to the house.[110]

All this is done with great deliberation, the coffin being brought by easy stages to the river bank. There it is laid in a large boat gaily decorated with bright-coloured cloths, which is paddled down river to the graveyard, followed by the boats of the mourning friends, who refrain from speaking to any persons encountered on the way. The tombs of the village are on the river bank some quarter of a mile below the house, generally on the opposite bank. Here the final resting-place of the coffin has been prepared by erecting a great log of timber, which is large in proportion to the social standing of the dead man. In the case of a chief the log is of ironwood, some three feet or more in diameter and some thirty feet in length. One end of this is sunk some four or five feet into the ground. The erecting of such a ma.s.sive support is a task of some difficulty, achieved by first digging the pit at the foot of the log and then hauling up the other end with a rough windla.s.s. The upper end, which is always the root-end of the log, is cut in the form of a deep cleft, just wide enough to receive the coffin. Above the cleft a large slab of hardwood forms a cover for the coffin, and this is often elaborately carved (see Pls. 152, 153). In some cases two, and in others even four, smaller poles are used for the support of the coffin, but this usually only to avoid the labour of erecting one very large one. The coffin is lifted into this cleft by the aid of a scaffolding which is built around the large pole, and which afterwards falls away when the lashings are cut. On landing at the graveyard the mourners carry the coffin between the two parts of a cleft pole which are fixed in the ground so as to make a large V (this is called NYRING, the wall), and all the mourners are expected to pa.s.s through this cleft, each, in doing so, placing his foot upon a fowl which is laid bound upon the ground. The coffin is then lifted to its cleft, and the weapons, implements, and war clothes, the large hat, the cooking-pot, and in fact any articles of personal property that may be of use to the departing soul, are hung upon the tomb.[111] If a gong is hung up, it may be cracked or pierced beforehand, but it is not usual among Kayans to spoil other articles before hanging them on the tomb.[112]

The scaffolding about the tomb is then caused to fall away, and it only remains for the mourners to purify themselves. This they do with the help of the lower jaws of the pigs that were consumed at the funeral feast. The jaws are placed together with water in a gong or other basin, and the DAYONG, taking a fowl's feather, sprinkles drops of water from the basin upon all the a.s.sembled mourners, pouring out the while a stream of words, the purport of which is -- may all evil things, all sickness and such things be kept away from you. Then the mourners return in a single file through the V formed by the cleft pole, each one again placing his foot on the fowl (which dies before the end of the ceremony), spitting as he goes through, and exclaiming, "Keep off evil" (BALI JAAT, I.E. literally, spiritual or supernatural evil). When all have pa.s.sed through, the upper ends of the two parts of the cleft pole are brought together and lashed round with rattans; and a small tree, pulled up by the roots, and having its branches cut away, is laid beside the pole with its roots turned towards the grave (this is called SELIKANG); and on the other side of the pole is put another vertical pole with a cross-piece tied at its upper end. Fire is left burning beside these structures. In this way the Kayans symbolically prevent any of the uncanny influences of the graveyard following the party back to the house; though they do not seem to be clear as to whether it is the ghosts of the dead, or the TOH of the neighbourhood, or those which may have contributed to his death, against whom these precautions are taken. This done, the whole party returns as quickly as possible to the village, halting only to bathe on the way.

The whole household of which the dead man was a member continues in mourning for a period which is long in proportion to his social standing; the mourning rules are observed most strictly by the nearest relatives. The signs of mourning are the wearing of bark-cloth or of clothes made yellow with clay, allowing the hair to grow on the parts of the head and face usually kept shaved,[113] and the putting aside of ornaments such as ear-rings, necklaces, or the subst.i.tution of wooden ear-rings for the metal ones commonly worn by the women. All music, feasts, and jollifications are avoided. The period of mourning can only be properly terminated by a ceremony in which a human head plays an essential part. Where the influence of the European governments has not made itself felt, the death of a chief necessitates the procuring of a fresh head, and a party may be sent out to cut off in the jungle, on the farms, or on the river, some small party of a hostile village. The common people must postpone the termination of their mourning until some such occasion presents itself. Nowadays in the districts in which head hunting has been suppressed, an old head, generally one surviving from an earlier period, is borrowed or begged for the purpose from another village, and is brought home with all the display properly belonging to a return from successful war (see Chap. X). As soon as the head is brought into the house the period of mourning terminates amid general rejoicing. The head, or a fragment of it, or the bundle of palm leaves (DAUN ISANG) with which it has been decorated, is hung upon the tomb.[114]

In case of any dispute regarding the division of the property of a dead man, his ghost may be called upon by a DAYONG and questioned as to the dead man's intentions; but this would not be done until after the harvest following upon the death. The ceremony is known as DAYONG JANOI. A small model of a house, perhaps a yard in width and length, is made and placed in the gallery beside the door of the dead man's chamber. Food and drink of various kinds as prepared for a feast are placed in this house, together with cigarettes. The DAYONG chants beside the house, calling upon the soul of the dead man to enter the soul-house, and mentioning the names of the members of his family. From time to time he looks in, and after some time announces that all the food and drink has been consumed. The people accept this statement as evidence that the ghost has entered the soul-house.[115]

The DAYONG acts as though listening to the whispering of the soul within the house, starting and clucking from time to time. Then he announces the will of the ghost in regard to the distribution of the property, speaking in the first person and reproducing the phraseology and peculiarities of the dead man.[116] The directions so obtained are usually followed, and the dispute is thus terminated. But in some cases the people apply a certain test to verify the alleged presence of the ghost. A shallow dish (often a gong) of water is placed near the soul-house, and a ring-shaped armlet of sh.e.l.l is placed vertically in this basin, the water covering its lower half. A few fine fibres of the cotton-seed are thrown on to the surface of the water, and by tapping on the planks the people keep these in movement. If the threads float through the ring, that is conclusive evidence of the presence of the ghost; but so long as the threads cannot be got to pa.s.s through the ring, the people are not satisfied that the ghost is present.

Ideas of Life After Death

The soul of the dead man is supposed to wander on foot through the jungle until he reaches the crest of a mountain ridge. From this point he looks down upon the basin of a great river, the LONG MALAN, in which five districts are a.s.signed as the dwelling-places of souls, the destination of each being determined by the mode of death. The ghosts of those who die through old age or disease go to APO LEGGAN, the largest of these districts, where they live very much as we do in this life. Those who die a violent death, whether in battle or or by accident, go to the basin of a tributary river, LONG JULAN, where is BAw.a.n.g DAHA (lake of blood); there they live in comfort, and become rich though they do no work: they have for wives the ghosts of women that have died in child-bed. Those that have been drowned find a home beneath the rivers, and are supposed to become possessed of all property lost in the water by their surviving friends; this place (or places) bears the name of LING YANG. The souls of still-born children dwell in TENYU LALU; they are believed to be very brave, owing to their having experienced no pain in this world. Finally, suicides[117] have a.s.signed to them a special district, TAN TEKKAN, where they live miserably, eating only roots, berries, and other jungle produce.

Other districts of this great country are vaguely a.s.signed to the souls of Malays and other peoples. It is generally said that the left bank of the river is the place of the tribes of Borneo, while the right bank is a.s.signed to all other peoples; and the soul is especially warned by the DAYONG to avoid the right bank lest it should find itself among foreigners. These beliefs seem to involve some faint rudiment of the doctrine of POST-MORTEM retribution or, at least, compensation, -- a rudiment which does not appear in the beliefs of the other peoples.

The departed soul standing on the mountain ridge surveys these regions; and it is not until he stops here to rest that he becomes aware that he is finally separated from his body. This fact is brought home to him by the arrival of the ghost-souls of the various articles hung upon his tomb, which hurry after him, but only overtake him at this his first resting-place; and he bewails his unhappy fate.

There are current among Kayans several versions of the further journey of the soul. The ghost descends the mountain to the banks of LONG MALAN, which river he must cross to reach his appointed place. The river must be crossed by means of a bridge consisting of a single large log suspended from bank to bank. This log, BITANG SEKOPA, is constantly agitated by a guardian, MALIGANG by name. If the ghost has during the earthly life taken a head, or even merely taken part in a successful head-hunting raid, a fact indicated by the tatuing of the hands, he crosses this bridge without difficulty; but if not, he falls below and is consumed by maggots or, according to another version, is devoured by a large fish, PATAN, and so is destroyed. When the ghost reaches the other bank, he is greeted by those of his friends who have gone before, and they lead him to their village. Some part of the journey is generally regarded as made by boat, though it is not possible to make this fit consistently into the general scheme. Another point on which opinion is very vague is the part played by LAKI JUP URIP, a deity or spirit whose function it is to guide the souls to their proper destinations.

In many Kayan villages stories are told of persons who are believed to have died and to have come to life again. This belief seems to have arisen in every case from the person having lain in a trance for some days, during which he was regarded as dead. The Kayans accept the cessation of respiration as evidence of death, and they a.s.sert that these persons cease to breathe.[118]

It seems that such persons usually give some account of their experiences during the period in which they have deserted their bodies. They usually allege that they have traversed a part of the road to the land of shades, and describe it in terms agreeing more or less closely with the traditional account of it current among the Kayans. Since in these cases the person is thought to be dead, no efforts are made by the DAYONG to lead back his departing soul, and its return has to be explained in some other way. In some cases the returned soul describes how he was turned back by MALIGANG, the awful being who guards the bridge across the river of death.[119]

Mr. R. S. Douglas, Resident of Baram, has recently reported a similar belief held by the Muriks, a Klemantan tribe, where it is supported by the following legend. The soul or spirit of a certain man, UKU PANDAH by name, left his body two years before the time appointed as the term of its incorporate life, and gained admittance to the land of shades in the shape of a pig. It was, however, recognised by the ruler of that land, and ordered by him to return to its mortal body. The command was obeyed, and UKU PANDAH, having been dead for two days, came to life again and lived for two years, during which he described to his friends the country of the dead of which he had thus obtained a glimpse; and this knowledge has been preserved by the tribe.

The beliefs and traditions of the various tribes in regard to the other world seem to have been confused through the intercourse between them, so that it is not possible to mark off clearly what features properly belong to each of the tribes. The general features are. similar with all the peoples. The Kenyah story is very similar to that of the Kayans, though the names of the various places are different, and they usually conceive the first part of the soul's journey as being made by boat on the river.

TAMA KAJAN ODOH, the MADANG chief whose line of descent from BALINGO is given on p. 12, vol. ii., made us a rough map of the land of the shades (Fig. 78) and of the country traversed by the ghost on its journey thither. This was done in the way maps of their own country are always made by the Borneans, namely, he laid upon the floor bits of stick and other small objects to represent the princ.i.p.al topographical features and relations. We tested the trustworthiness of his account by asking him to repeat it on a subsequent occasion; when he did so without any noteworthy departure from the former description. A point of special interest is the appearance in the land of shades of the house of BALI PENYALONG and of OKO PERBUNGAN (which seems to be the MADANG name for the wife of the Supreme Being). This map brings out clearly what seems to be the essential feature of all these schemes, namely, that the land of shades is the basin of a river divided by a mountain ridge from that from which the ghost departs.

The Punans add some picturesque incidents. According to their version, a huge helmeted hornbill[120] (RHINOFLAX VIGIL) sits by the far end of the bridge across the river of death, and with its screams tries to terrify the ghost, so that it shall fall from the bridge into the jaws of the great fish which is in league with the bird. On the other side of the river IS UNGAP, a woman with a cauldron and spear. UNGAP, if appeased with a gift, aids the ghost to escape from the monstrous bird and fish. Pebbles or beads are put in the nostrils of the Punan corpse in order that they may be presented to UNGAP.

The Punans recite or sing a story in blank verse descriptive of this pa.s.sage of the soul. It is sometimes sung in very dramatic fashion, the performer acting the princ.i.p.al incidents and pitching his voice in a doleful, though musical, minor key. Such a recitation of the pa.s.sage of the soul, delivered by a wild and tragic figure before an intently listening group of squatting men and women illuminated by flickering torchlight, is by no means unimpressive to the European observer. The following lines are a rough literal translation of a fragment of the story which describes the meeting with UNGAP of BATANG MIJONG, a departed soul: --

UNGAP SPEAKS --

BATANG MIJONG stands waving his shield.

The helmsman SARAMIN with body of bra.s.s will carry over BATANG MIJONG.

BATANG MIJONG seeks the place of the Punans.

Good journey to you, BATANG MIJONG.

BATANG MIJONG, O, why are you called?

BATANG MIJONG SPEAKS: --

Why do you question me, why do you stare at me?

UNGAP ANSWERS --

Your limbs are shapely, smooth is your skin and slender your body.

My eyes are dazzled by your bodily perfections.

Some of the Malanaus, one of the many branches of the Klemantan people, hold peculiar views about the soul. Each man is credited with two souls. After his death one of these goes to some region in the heavens where it becomes a good spirit that a.s.sists at the BAYOH ceremonies.[121] The other makes a journey to a world of the dead much like APO LEGGAN of the Kayans; and the journey involves the crossing of the river on a single log, the pa.s.sage of which is disputed by a malign being, who tries to shake the nerve of the ghost by flinging ashes at him as he traverses the bridge. Other Malanaus (of Muka) describe this opposing power as a twoheaded dog, MAIWIANG by name, whom it is necessary to propitiate with the gift of a valuable bead. For this reason a bead of some value is fastened to the right arm of the corpse before the coffin is closed. It is said of the Malanaus that they were formerly in the habit of killing several slaves at the tomb of a chief; and, since it was believed that, if the victims died a violent death, their souls would not go to the same place as the dead chief, and would thus be of no service, they were allowed to die from exposure to the sun while bound to the tomb. Now that homicide is prohibited, these people arrange a great c.o.c.k-fight; and there can be little doubt that the death of many of the birds is felt to compensate in some degree for the enforced abstention from homicide.

The last case on record of the killing of a slave at the entombment of a chief occurred about fifteen years ago among the Orang Bukits (Klemantans) in Bruni territory. The son of the dead chief (Datu Gunong) went to Bruni city, and there bought an aged slave from one of the princ.i.p.al officers of state. The slave was kept in a bamboo cage until the day of entombment, when he was killed, each of the funeral guests inflicting a small wound with a spear. His head was hung on the tomb. From circ.u.mstantial accounts of this incident which reached one of us, we infer that those who took part in this brutal act were moved only by a sense of duty and that the co-operation was repugnant to all of them.[122]