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
Mats are made either with split cane or from the outer bark of reeds.
The women are very clever at plaiting, and some of their mats have
beautiful designs.
They also make baskets of different sizes and shapes, some of which have
coloured designs worked into them.
Hunting is with the Dyaks an occasional pursuit. They live upon a
vegetable rather than upon an animal diet. But in a Dyak house there are
generally to be found one or two men who go out hunting for wild pig
or deer on any days when they are free from their usual farm work. The
Dyak dogs are small and tawny in colour, and sagacious and clever in the
jungle.
Native hunting with good dogs is easy work. The master loiters about, and
the dogs beat the jungle for themselves. When they have found a scent,
they give tongue, and soon run the animal to bay. The master knows from
the peculiar bark of the dogs if they are keeping some animal at bay, and
follows them and spears the game. The boars are fierce and dangerous when
wounded, and turn furiously on the hunter, who often has to climb a tree
to escape from their tusks. The dogs are very useful, and by attacking
the hind legs of the animal keep making it turn round.
Deer are more easily run down than pigs, because they have not the
strength to go any great distance, especially in the hot weather.
A favourite way of catching deer is to send a man to follow the spoor of
a deer, and to find out where it lies to rest during the heat of the day.
Then large nets made of fine cane are hung around, and the deer is driven
into these by a large number of men, women, and boys making a noise. When
the deer is caught in the net, he is soon killed.
A variety of traps are made by the Dyaks to catch birds and wild
animals. One of these traps (_peti_) set for killing wild pig is a
dangerous contrivance by which many Dyaks have lost their lives. It
consists of a spring formed by a stick being tied to the end of a post
and pulled apart from it. The end of this stick is armed with a sharp
bamboo spear. I have known of several men being killed by this trap, and
in Sarawak this particular trap is forbidden by the Government to be set.
The Sea Dyaks are very expert with the rod and line, and with them
fishing is a favourite occupation. They begin fishing at an early age.
For bait they use worms or certain berries. Their hooks are made of brass
wire.
Another method of fishing is by wooden floats (_pelampong_), generally
cut in the form of a duck. Each has a baited hook fastened to it, and is
set swimming down the stream. The owner of these floats drifts slowly in
his canoe after them, watching, till the peculiar motions of any of these
ducks shows that a fish has been hooked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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