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
Having told them to bring all the articles they wanted to sell, I quickly
bought some good masks and a number of tail feathers from the rhinoceros
hornbill, which are regarded as very valuable, being worn by the warriors
in their rattan caps. All were "in the market," prices were not at all
exorbitant, and business progressed very briskly until nine o'clock, when
I had made valuable additions, especially of masks, to my collections. The
evening passed pleasantly and profitably to all concerned. I acquired a
shield which, besides the conventionalised representation of a dog,
exhibited a wild-looking picture of an antoh, a very common feature on
Dayak shields. The first idea it suggests to civilised man is that its
purpose is to terrify the enemy, but my informant laughed at this
suggestion. It represents a good antoh who keeps the owner of the shield
in vigorous health.
The kapala's house had at once attracted attention on account of the
unusually beautiful carvings that extended from each gable, and which on a
later occasion I photographed. These were long boards carved in artistic
semblance of the powerful antoh called nagah, a benevolent spirit, but
also a vindictive one. The two carvings together portrayed the same
monster, the one showing its head and body, the other its tail. Before
being placed on the gables a sacrifice had been offered and the carvings
had been smeared with blood--in other words, to express the thought of the
Dayak, as this antoh is very fierce when aroused to ire, it had first been
given blood to eat, in order that it should not be angry with the owner of
the house, but disposed to protect him from his enemies. While malevolent
spirits do not associate with good ones, some which usually are beneficent
at times may do harm, and among these is one, the nagah, that dominates
the imagination of many Dayak tribes. It appears to be about the size of a
rusa, and in form is a combination of the body of that animal and a
serpent, the horned head having a disproportionately large dog's mouth.
Being an antoh, and the greatest of all, it is invisible under ordinary
conditions, but lives in rivers and underground caves, and it eats human
beings.
Lidju, who accompanied me as interpreter and to be generally useful, had
aroused the men early in the morning to cook their rice, so that we could
start at seven o'clock, arriving in good time at the Kayan kampong, Long
Blu. Here, on the north side of the river, was formerly a small military
establishment, inhabited at present by a few Malay families, the only ones
on the Mahakam River above the great kihams. Accompanied by Lidju I
crossed the river to see the great kampong of the Kayans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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