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
Fire is extinguished for the night. These natives sleep on a single mat,
made from either bamboo or rattan, and usually nothing is placed under the
head, but sometimes small wooden blocks are used. In the morning when they
arise they roll the mats, and the chamber-work is done. A young girl whom
I measured had her hair fastened up with the quill of a porcupine; when
asked to undo her hair, she put the quill under the top of her skirt. The
Bukits possess one musical instrument, sarunai, a kind of clarinet, which
does not sound badly. There are many blians, nearly all men. Several
prominent members of the tribe asserted that head-hunting was never
practised--at least there is no tradition concerning it.
A man may have one, two, or three wives. When a young man is poor, he pays
two ringits or two sarongs to his bride's father, but half that amount is
sufficient for a woman no longer youthful. The usual payment appears to be
twelve ringits or twelve sarongs, which the blian at the wedding places on
top of his head, while with his right hand he shakes two metal rings
provided with rattles. On the Barito I noted the same kind of rattles used
on a similar occasion. He asks Dewa not to make them ill, and a hen as
well as boiled rice is sacrificed to this antobu. The dead are buried in
the ground as deep as the height of a man. Formerly the corpse was placed
in a small bamboo house which rested on six upright poles, and on the
floor a mat was spread.
I was pleasantly surprised one day when a Dayak arrived at our kampong
bringing a number of attractive new bamboo baskets which he had bought on
the Tappin River, near by to the west. He was going to finish them off by
doing additional work on the rims and then carry them to Kandangan, where
they would fetch about one guilder each. All were of the same shape, but
had different designs, and he knew the meaning of these--there was no
doubt about it--so I bought his entire stock, thirteen in number. I
learned that most of the people were able to interpret the basket designs,
but the art of basket-making is limited, most of them being made by one or
two women on the Tappin. A very good one, large and with a cover, came
from the neighbouring lower kampong. An old blian sold it to me, and his
wife softly reproved him for so doing, but when I gave her ten cents as a
present she seemed very well satisfied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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