Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean JunglesGomes, Edwin Herbert
History
Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean Jungles
Gomes, Edwin Herbert
Iban (Bornean people); Sarawak (Malaysia) -- Description and travel
“As I have said, the good mats of the household, as is usual when it
is intended to show respect to a visitor, had been taken down for our
accommodation from the place where they are stored. But we now saw that
the most valued of them all had been held in reserve. This, which was
made of fine and very flexible _rotan_, the latest triumph of the skill
and industry of our courteous hostess, Ipah, Brok’s wife, was now handed
down and spread in front of us for the reception of the great man and the
mysterious implements of his profession. After some considerable delay,
probably intended to excite our curiosity the more, he appeared, and
sat down on the mat prepared for him, a subdued murmur of applause and
satisfaction greeting him as he took his seat.
“A _manang’s lupong_, or case for holding his charms, may be almost
anything. Sometimes it is a box, sometimes a basket, sometimes a bag.
In this instance it was an open-mouthed basket made of thin shavings of
bamboo hung round the neck of the owner by a strip of bark.
“Before beginning the exhibition, Dasu made a little formal speech,
in which, with much show of humility, he spoke in depreciation of his
own powers and knowledge and of his collection of remedial charms, as
compared with those of other members of the profession elsewhere. These
remarks were of course received with complimentary expressions of dissent
from the audience; and then at last the contents of the basket were
displayed before us. They were tied up together in a cloth bag, the most
highly-prized being further enclosed in special receptacles of their own,
such as a second cloth covering, a little bamboo box with a lid, or a
match-box. They were ceremoniously brought out, and placed side by side
on the mat of honour. I was then invited to handle and examine them, and
the name and use of each were told me without any fresh indication of
unwillingness. This is a list of them:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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