Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917Lumholtz, Carl
History
Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917
Lumholtz, Carl
Borneo -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Borneo; Natural history -- Borneo
The Oma-Sulings are pleasant to deal with, being bashful and unspoiled.
The usual repulsive skin diseases are seldom seen, and the women are
attractive. There appears to have been, and still is, much intercourse
between the Oma-Sulings and their equally pleasant neighbours to the east,
the Long-Glats. Many of the latter came to the feast and there is much
intermarrying among the nobles of the two tribes. Lidju, my assistant and
friend here, was a noble of the Long-Glats with the title of raja and
married a sister of the great chief of the Oma-Sulings. She was the
principal of the numerous female blians of the kampong, slender of figure,
active both in her profession and in domestic affairs, and always very
courteous. They had no children. Although he did not speak Malay very
well, still, owing to his earnestness of purpose, Lidju was of
considerable assistance to me.
The kampong consists of several long houses of the usual Dayak style,
lying in a row and following the river course, but here they were
separated into two groups with a brook winding its way to the river
between them. Very large drums, nearly four metres long, hung on the wall
of the galleries, six in one house, with the head somewhat higher than the
other end. This instrument, slightly conical in shape, is formed from a
log of fine-grained wood, light in colour, with a cover made from wild ox
hide. An especially constructed iron tool driven by blows from a small
club is used to hollow out the log, and the drum is usually completed in a
single night, many men taking turns. In one part of the house lying
furthest west lived Dayaks called Oma-Palo, who were reported to have been
in this tribe a hundred years. They occupied "eight doors," while further
on, in quarters comprising "five doors," dwelt Oma-Tepe, more recent
arrivals; and both clans have married Oma-Suling women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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