“The Orang Kaya now advanced and there was strict attention to hear what he was about to say. He walked to the window and threw some grains out, and then commenced a kind of prayer asking for good harvests, for fertility for the women, and for health to them all. During the whole invocation he kept scattering rice about. The people were very attentive at first, but soon the murmur of many voices almost drowned the old man’s tones. He did not appear very much in earnest, but repeated what he had to say as if he were going over a well-remembered but little understood lesson; in fact, it is said these invocations are in words not comprehended even by the Dayaks themselves--perhaps they are in some Indian language. Then a space was cleared for dancing; the old Orang Kaya and the elders commenced and were followed by the priestesses. They walked up to us in succession, passed their hands over our arms, pressed our palms, and then uttering a yell or a prolonged screech, went off in a slow measured tread, moving their arms and hands in unison with their feet, until they reached the end of the house and came back to where we sat; then another pressure of the palm, a few more passes to draw virtue out of us, another yell, and off they went again; at one time there were at least a hundred dancing. Few of the young people joined in what appeared in this case a sacred dance. “For three nights we had had little sleep on account of these ceremonies; but at length, notwithstanding clash of gong and beat of drum, we sank back in our beds and were soon fast asleep. In perhaps a couple of hours I awoke; my companion was still sleeping uneasily; the din was deafening, and I sat up to look around. Unfortunate movement! I was instantly seized by the hands of two priests and led up to the Orang Kaya who was leisurely cutting a fowl’s throat. He wanted Captain Brooke to perform the following ceremony, but I objected to his being awakened, and offered to do it for him. I was taken to the very end of the house and the bleeding fowl put in my hands; holding him by his legs I had to strike the lintels of the doors, sprinkling a little blood over each. When this was over I had to waive the fowl over the heads of the women and wish them fertility, over the children and wish them health, over all the people and wish them prosperity; out of the window and invoke good crops for them. At last I reached my mats and sat down preparatory to another sleep, when that horrid old woman led another detachment of her sex forward to recommence the physicking: fortunately but few came, and after setting them off dancing again I fell asleep and in spite of all the noises remained so till morning.”