Sketches of Our Life at SarawakMcDougall, Henriette
History
Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak
McDougall, Henriette
McDougall, Henriette, 1817-1886 -- Travel -- Malaysia -- Sarawak; Sarawak (Malaysia) -- Description and travel
the boat, covered with a mat, and hung all round with weapons and
trophies of war--Kyan fighting-coats of bear and buffalo hides, having
head-pieces adorned with beads or shells, shields and spears all gaily
decked with Argus' feathers, or human hair dyed red.
"On Sunday we moved from the boats into Palabun's house, and settled
ourselves in part of the verandah. After breakfast I doctored the sick,
and then we had the morning service, much to the surprise of the
natives, who, however, did not disturb us. They sit round us all day,
hearing and asking us questions.... Meanwhile the seven hundred men who
came in the flotilla of twenty boats, were busy building the fort. First
they pulled down a temporary fort already set up by the Kenowits, and
then cut wood to erect a substantial building. Four guns were mounted on
the parapet, and there was a house inside for the Malay commandant, and
a powder magazine. All the chiefs near Kenowit were assembled when the
fort was finished, and had the same kind of address made them as at
Sakarran, praising the benefits of peaceful trade instead of the
miseries of wasteful war. They all listened with respect. That same
afternoon, dismal howlings issued from Palabun's house. His brother, who
had left him two years ago with a party of fourteen, to visit a friendly
tribe at a distance, had been treacherously murdered. He and his party
had been kindly received by their friends, and they had all gone out
together on the war-path to seek heads. It is supposed that when they
met no one, the hosts had turned on their visitors and taken their
heads, rather than return home without any. Palabun vowed vengeance, and
the whole tribe go into mourning for three months." (Bishop's Journal.)
A Dyak mourning is not a becoming black costume, made "cheerful," as the
dressmakers say, by jet ornaments and bugle trimmings. It consists in
the abandonment of all ornament and their usual clothing, and the
substitution of a kind of a brown cloth made of the inside bark of
trees, which must be as rough and uncomfortable as it is ugly. These
people, being Milanows, have peculiar burial customs. They lay the dead
in a boat, with all his property and belongings, and send it out to sea;
for they imagine that in some way a man's possessions may be of use to
him in another world, if no one claims them on earth.
"In this case there was no corpse to bury. The clothes were so disposed
on the bier as to represent a figure, and laid beside it were handsome
gold cloths and ornaments, gold buttons, krises,[5] and breastplates,
and weapons of Javanese manufacture, representing some hundreds of
dollars. There were also gongs and two brass guns. Of course the fate of
such boat-loads, sent adrift in a tidal river, is generally to be
capsized and lost in the water. But if Malays encounter them they do not
hesitate to appropriate the effects. Palabun knew this, so he did not
send his brother's boat away until our fleet had departed." (Bishop's
Journal.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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