"To proceed with my journal. My principal object in coming up the hill
was, to appoint the Orang Kaya Steer Rajah as the chief, beside Pagise
as Panglima, or head warrior, and Pa Bobot as Pangeran, or revenue
officer. It was deemed by these worthy personages quite unfit that
this ceremony should take place in the public hall or circular house,
as that was the place wherein the heads are deposited, and where they
hold councils of war.
"With the Dyaks, all council is divided into hot and cold; peace,
friendship, good intentions, are all included under the latter
head--war, &c., are under the former. Hot is represented by red, and
cold by white. So in everything they make this distinction; and as the
public hall is the place for war-councils and war-trophies, it is hot
in the extreme, unfit for friendly conference. A shed was therefore
erected close to the Orang Kaya's house, wherein the ceremony was to
take place. About nine in the evening we repaired to the scene; loud
music, barbarous but not unpleasing, resounded, and we took our seats
on mats in the midst of our Dyak friends. A feast was in preparation;
and each guest (if I may call them such) brought his share of rice
in bamboos, and laid it on the general stock. As one party came up
after another, carrying their burning logs, the effect was very good;
and they kept arriving until the place and its vicinity was literally
crammed with human beings. A large antique sirih-box was placed in
the midst; and I contributed that greatest of luxuries, tobacco.
"The feast, in the mean time, was in preparation, some of the
principal people being employed in counting the number who were to
eat, and dividing the bamboos into exactly equal portions for each
person. About six inches were allotted to every man; and it took a
very long time to divide it, for they are remarkably particular as
to the proper size and quantity to each share. The bamboos of rice
being, however, at length satisfactorily disposed, the Orang Kaya
produced as his share a large basin full of sauce, composed of salt
and chilis, and a small stock of sweetmeats; and then the ceremony
of his installation commenced as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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