The Pagan Tribes of Borneo Part 43

[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 pa.s.sed 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. BAw.a.n.g 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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.e.x 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.

[161] -- Cf. an Iban story given in Perham's "Sea-Dayak G.o.ds,"

J.S.B.R.A. SOC. ix. 236.

[162] -- This greeting of the pa.s.ser-by and the charging him with some commission is very characteristic of the Ibans.

[163] -- A form of trial by ordeal occasionally practised by Ibans and other tribes.

[164] -- This refers to the difference of colour between the carapace and the plastron.

[165] -- Refers to the flat under surface contrasting with the rounded back.

[166] -- See vol. i. p. 139.

[167] -- This is the only mention of rain-making that has come to our notice among any of the Borneans.

[168] -- This notion of an atmosphere or "odour" of virtue attaching to material objects pervades the thought and practice of Kayans. As another ill.u.s.tration of it, we may remark that a Kayan will wear for a long time, and will often refuse to wash, a garment which has been worn and afterwards given to him by a European whom he respects.

[169] -- We give the original and translation of one such lullaby: --

"Megiong ujong bayoh Mansip anak yap -- cheep, cheep.

Lematei telayap, Telayap abing, Lematei Laki Laying oban, Lematei Laki Punan oban."

The translation runs: --

"The branches of the bayoh tree are swaying With the sound of little chicks-cheep, cheep, The lizards are dead, There are no lizards any more, Gray-haired Laki Laying is dead, The old jungle man is dead."

The reference to the Punan in this lullaby may be explained by saying that the children are frightened sometimes by being told that the jungle man will take them.

[170] -- The PENGHULU is the leading chief of a district; cf. Chap. XXII.

[171] -- Even when in tatuing blood is drawn, as almost inevitably occurs, beads are given the tatuer to indemnify her and make it clear that the deed was not intended.

[172] -- It came into use, no doubt, through the hospitable offering of cigarettes by the women of the household.

[173] -- The omen birds are not consulted in the hope of obtaining favourable omens; but rather special events are regarded as of evil omen; such are any outbreak of fire in the house, any fatal accident to any member of the house, the repeated crying of the muntjac (the barking deer) about the house. In one instance known to us the attractive daughter of a Kenyah chief had three times been compelled by series of bad omens to break off the betrothals.

[174] -- Some few communities of Punans live in the large caves of the limestone mountains; it seems possible that this is a survival of a very ancient custom that preceded the making of shelters, however rude; but we know of no facts which can be regarded as supporting this view, save that we have found human bones of uncertain age in several caves. Some of these caves have undoubtedly been used as burial-places, possibly during epidemics of cholera or smallpox.

[175] -- See Chap. XXI.

[176] -- Perhaps the most commonly used is a double-ended spatula. With this the head of the family stirs the boiled sago, and then conveys it to his own mouth on one end and to his wife's mouth on the other.

[177] -- Formerly, they say, they cooked in green bamboos; and this is still done occasionally. They also occasionally boil their sago in the large cups of the pitcher-plant (NEPENTHES).

[178] -- This occurrence of incest between couples brought up in the same household is, of course, difficult to reconcile with Prof. Westermarck's well-known theory of the ground of the almost universal feeling against incest, namely that it depends upon s.e.xual aversion or indifference engendered by close proximity during childhood. But medical men who have experience of slum practice in European towns can supply similar evidence in large quant.i.ty. And the medical psychologists of the school of Freud could cite much evidence against this theory.

We cannot refrain from throwing out here a speculative suggestion towards the explanation of the feeling against incest which seems to find support in certain of the facts of this area. It seems to us that the feeling with which incest is regarded is an example of a feeling or sentiment engendered in each generation by law and tradition, rather than a spontaneous reaction of individuals, based on some special instinct or innate tendency. The occurrence of incest between brothers and sisters, and the strong feeling of the Sea Dayaks against incest between nephew and aunt (who often are members of distinct communities), are facts which seem to us fatal to Prof. Westermarck's theory, as well as to point strongly to the view that the sentiment has a purely conventional or customary source. Now, if we accept some such view of the const.i.tution of primitive society as has been suggested by Messrs. Atkinson and Lang (PRIMAL LAW), namely, that the social group consisted of a single patriarch and a group of wives and daughters, over all of whom he exercised unrestricted power or rights; we shall see that the first step towards the const.i.tution of a higher form of society must have been the strict limitation of his rights over certain of the women, in order that younger males might be incorporated in the society and enjoy the undisputed possession of them. The patriarch, having accepted this limitation of his rights over his daughters for the sake of the greater security and strength of the band given by the inclusion of a certain number of young males, would enforce all the more strictly upon them his prohibition against any tampering with the females of the senior generation. Thus very strict prohibitions and severe penalties against the consorting of the patriarch with the younger generation of females, I.E. his daughters, and against intercourse between the young males admitted to membership of the group and the wives of the patriarch, would be the essential conditions of advance of social organisation. The enforcement of these penalties would engender a traditional sentiment against such unions, and these would be the unions primitively regarded as incestuous. The persistence of the tendency of the patriarch's jealousy to drive his sons out of the family group as they attained p.u.b.erty would render the extension of this sentiment to brother-and-sister unions easy and almost inevitable. For the young male admitted to the group would be one who came with a price in his hand to offer in return for the bride he sought. Such a price could only be exacted by the patriarch on the condition that he maintained an absolute prohibition on s.e.xual relations between his offspring so long as the young sons remained under his roof.

It is not impossible that a trace of the primitive state of society imagined by Messrs. Atkinson and Lang survives in the fact that a Kayan chief may, if he is so inclined, temporarily possess himself of the wife of any of his men without raising the strong resentment and incurring the penalties which would attend adultery on the part of any other man of the house; but the law against incest with his daughters, whether natural or adopted, would be enforced against him by the co-operation of the chiefs of neighbouring houses and villages.

[179] -- A limestone cliff whose foot is washed by the Baram river and which contains a number of caves (known as Batu Gading, or the ivory rock) is said by a Kayan legend to have been formed by a Kayan house being turned into Stone owing to incestuous conduct within it.

[180] -- This would not be always true of similar cases among Sea Dayaks.

[181] -- See vol. ii. p. 296 for a striking example of self-control displayed by this great man under most trying circ.u.mstances.

[182] -- Only one evil effect of the success of these efforts for the spread of peace has come under our notice, namely, a tendency in some communities to economise labour by building flimsy houses in place of the ma.s.sive and roomy structures which were fortresses as well as dwelling-places.

[183] -- The desire of the people inhabiting a branch of the river to shut themselves off from all intercourse with the areas in which an epidemic disease is raging, is sometimes disregarded by Malay or Chinese traders; such disregard has sometimes led to trouble.

This desire for seclusion as a safeguard against epidemics is by no means peculiar to the tribes of the interior of Borneo, but seems to be shared by many savage and barbarous peoples. It is one that ought to be strictly respected by all travellers; and we have no doubt that the disregard of this desire by European explorers, ignorant, no doubt, of its existence or of the practical and rational grounds on which it is based, has been the cause in many cases of their hostile reception by native tribes and potentates, and has led to bloodshed and punitive expeditions which might have been wholly avoided if the explorers had been equipped with some general knowledge of, and some respect for, the principles of conduct of savage peoples.

[184] -- In view of the valuable properties now attributed to spermin in some scientific quarters, it would be rash to a.s.sert that this treatment can have no therapeutic value. It is of interest to note that prolonged working of camphor in the jungle is said to produce impotence and that, in order to avoid this, the workers make frequent breaks and will not prolong a camphor-gathering expedition beyond a limited period. For impotence is regarded by a young Kayan as a very great calamity.

[185] -- It seems possible that the Punans acquire some degree of immunity to the effects of the IPOH poison through constantly handling it and applying it in the ways mentioned above. The only evidence in support of this that we can offer is the fact that the Punans handle their poisoned darts much more recklessly than the other peoples.

[186] -- There is current among the Klemantans a larger number of such myths than among the Kayans.

[187] -- The second occurred during the residence of one of us (C. H.) in the Baram, and the alarm of the people was largely prevented by the issue to all the chiefs of TEBUKU (tallies) foretelling the date of its incidence. Nevertheless one woman, at least, was so much frightened by the spectacle that she ran into her house and dropped down dead.

[188] -- See vol. ii. p. 272.