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
The Dyaks are also very truthful. So disgraceful indeed do the Dyaks
consider the deceiving of others by an untruth that such conduct is
handed down to posterity by a curious custom. They heap up a pile of the
branches of trees in memory of the man who has uttered a great lie, so
that future generations may know of his wickedness and take warning from
it. The persons deceived start the _tugong bula_—“the liar’s mound”—by
heaping up a large number of branches in some conspicuous spot by the
side of the path from one village to another. Every passer-by contributes
to it, and at the same time curses the man in memory of whom it is. The
Dyaks consider the adding to any _tugong bula_ they may pass a sacred
duty, the omission of which will meet with supernatural punishment, and
so, however pressed for time a Dyak may be, he stops to throw on the pile
some branches or twigs.
A few branches, a few dry twigs and leaves—that is what the _tugong
bula_ is at first. But day by day it increases in size. Every passer-by
adds something to it, and in a few years’ time it becomes an imposing
memorial of one who was a liar. Once started, there seems to be no means
of destroying a _tugong bula_. There used to be one by the side of the
path between Seratok and Sebetan. As the branches and twigs that composed
it often came over the path, on a hot day in the dry weather I have more
than once applied a match to it and burnt it down. In a very short time a
new heap of branches and twigs was piled on the ashes of the old _tugong
bula_.
It has often been remarked by Dyaks that any other punishment would, if
a man had his choice, be much preferred to having a _tugong bula_ put up
in his memory. Other punishments are soon forgotten, but this remains
as a testimony to a man’s untruthfulness for succeeding generations
to witness, and is a standing disgrace to his children’s children.
Believing, as the Dyaks do, in the efficacy of curses, it is easy to
understand how a Dyak would dread the accumulation of curses which would
necessarily accompany the formation of a _tugong bula_.
The Dyaks are very hospitable. They are always ready to receive and
entertain strangers. A man travelling on foot through the Dyak country
need never trouble about food. He would be fed at the Dyak houses he
passed on his journey, as part of their crops is reserved to feed
visitors. When the family meal is ready, visitors are invited to partake
of it. If many visitors come to a house at the same time, some have their
meal with one family and some with another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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