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
When Seragunting and his father woke up next morning, they saw that the
road leading up to the house had sharpened pieces of bamboo planted close
together to prevent their walking up to it. As they were wondering what
they were to do next, a fly came to Seragunting, and said:
“Do not be afraid to walk up. Tread on the spikes that I alight on; they
will not hurt you. When you come to the house you will find swords with
blades turned upwards fastened to the ladder. Tread on the blades that I
alight on, and walk boldly up into the house.”
They did as the fly advised them, and were not hurt. The bamboo spikes
crumbled under their feet, and the sword-blades they trod on were blunt
and harmless.
The people of the house took no notice of them, and they sat down in the
veranda of the house. Then the fly came to Seragunting, and whispered to
him: “You must now follow me into the room. Your mother is there, lying
in her mosquito curtain. I will point out to you which it is, and you
must wake her up and tell her who you are. She will be very pleased to
see you. Then when you come out into the veranda and see the sons-in-law
of Singalang Burong, you must greet them as your uncles. They will disown
you, and pretend that you are no relation of theirs. But do not be
afraid. You will be victorious in the end.”
Seragunting followed the fly into the room, and went to the curtain on
which it alighted. He called out to his mother, and she awoke and saw
with joy her son. She embraced him, and he said to her:
“How is it you went away and left us? We missed you so much, and were so
sorry to lose you, that my father and I have been travelling for many
days and nights in search of you. Now our troubles are over, for I have
found you.”
“My dear son,” she said as she caressed him, “though I left you I did not
forget you. It was I who placed the food by you every night. I left your
father because he broke the promise he made to me. But you are my own
son, and I have been wishing to see you ever since I left your house.
It was I who sent the Spider to help you and show you your way here. My
love for you is as great as it ever was. We will go out now into the
veranda, and I will introduce you to your uncles and aunts, and to your
grandfather. They may not welcome you, because they were opposed to my
marriage to your father. But do not fear them. We will be more than a
match for them all.”
Then she spoke to her husband Siu, whom she was glad to meet again. All
three then went out into the veranda, which was now full of people.
Seragunting called the sons-in-law of Singalang Burong his uncles, but
they refused to acknowledge him as their nephew.
They proposed several ordeals to prove the truth of his words, that he
was indeed the grandson of Singalang Burong. In all of these Seragunting
came off victorious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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