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
In the belief of the Long-Glats, people should not laugh at animals, lest
some misfortune result. For instance, when dogs fight among themselves or
with cats, one should not indulge in mirth, else the thunder, which is an
antoh, becomes angry and makes somebody ill. In this kampong was a young
hornbill which was quite domesticated and frequently came to rest on the
top of my tent. It often fought the hens and even the dogs, which was an
amusing sight, but would carry disquieting significance to the Dayak who
allowed himself to laugh. The lieutenant from Long Kai possessed a very
tame wah-wah which had accompanied him on a visit here. The natives told
me that a child had become ill because she could not help laughing at the
ape when it ran after the lieutenant and climbed one of his legs.
According to the blian, the little girl was very warm and feverish, but he
sang in the night, and next day she was well.
Considerable similarity is evident in customs, manners, and beliefs of the
Long-Glats and the Oma-Sulings, though the limited time at my disposal did
not permit me fully to investigate this subject. Bear-meat is not eaten by
either, and rusa (deer) and kidyang are not killed, the latter especially
being avoided. Sumpitans are bought, and blians' shields such as the
Penihings have are not made. Both these tribes pray for many children,
which to them means larger ladangs and much food. The wish of these
peoples is to have ten children each. In view of the fact that in Long
Pahangei the number of women was disproportionately small, the desire for
large families seemed unlikely to be gratified. Many men, some of them
old, were unmarried, but no women were single. Twins sometimes occur, but
not triplets. The mother nourishes her offspring for about five years, the
two youngest suckling at the same time. A raja may marry ten women, or
more, and has a great marriage-feast of more than a week's duration.
Lidju, my Long-Glat assistant, said that his father had fifteen wives, his
grandfather thirty, but it was no longer the fashion to have so many. The
common man (orang kampong) is allowed only one wife. Divorces are easily
obtained, and neither suicide nor abortion is known.
July is supposed to be the dry season, but rarely a day passed without
showers. One evening occurred the heaviest thunder-storm I experienced in
Borneo. It came from the west and was accompanied by a great downpour,
straining my tent to the utmost. The sergeant one day brought in a large
lizard (_varanus_) which he shot from the prahu just as it was about to
enter the river. Its length was 2.30 metres; the circumference back of the
fore legs 44 centimetres.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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