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
After distributing pieces of chewing-tobacco to all present, which seemed
to please them much, I left the entertaining scene. In the afternoon we
arrived at a small kampong, Tevang Karangan, (tevang = inlet; karangan = a
bank of coarse sand or pebbles) where Upper Katingans appeared for the
first time. No Malays live here, but there is much intermixture with
Ot-Danums. The people were without rice, and edible roots from the jungle
were lying in the sun to dry. The cemetery was close at hand in the
outskirts of the jungle, where little houses could be seen consisting
simply of platforms on four poles with roofs of palm-leaf mats, each
containing one, two, or three coffins. It is impossible to buy skulls from
the Dayaks on account of their fear that the insult may be avenged by the
ghost of the original owner, through the infliction of misfortunes of
various kinds--illness, loss of crops, etc. According to their belief,
punishment would not descend upon the stranger who abstracted a human bone
from a coffin, but upon the natives who permitted the theft. Moreover,
they believe they have a right to kill the intruder; the bone must be
returned and a pig killed as a sacrifice to the wandering liao of the
corpse. But the case is somewhat different with slaves, who up to some
thirty years ago were commonly kept in these districts, and whose bodies
after death were disposed of separately from those of free people.
Kuala Samba is quite a large kampong situated at the junction of the Samba
with the Katingan River, and inhabited chiefly by the Bakompai, a branch
of the Malays. Our large boat had to remain here until we returned from
our expedition up the Samba, the main tributary of the river and inhabited
by Ot-Danums who are called Duhoi, their proper name in these parts. I
desired to start immediately and the "onder" of the place, as well as the
pumbakal, at once set to work chasing for prahus, but things moved slowly
and people seemed to take their own time about obeying the authorities.
Not until nine o'clock next day could we leave, and I was glad it was no
later. The prahus in these regions are large and comfortable, with a
bamboo covering in the bottom. They probably originated with the Bakompai,
but the Duhoi also make them. At five o'clock it was thought best to camp
at the lonely house of a Kahayan, recently immigrated here, whose wife was
a Duhoi woman. As usual I had to remove part of the wall to get air, the
family sleeping in the next room. In the small hours of the morning, by
moonlight, two curious heads appeared in the doorway, like silhouettes, to
observe me, and as the surveillance became annoyingly persistent I
shortened the exercises I usually take.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account