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
Next day at noon the funeral took place. First, with quick steps, came two
men and two women, parents of children who had died before, followed by
the father of the dead child and another man of the family who carried the
coffin. The procession embarked in three prahus. The relatives were all
attired in simple but becoming mourning garments, made from wood-fibre,
consisting of tunics, and wrappers around the loins, which as regards the
women covered practically the whole body, and on their heads they wore
pointed hats of the same material. In the first prahu the little coffin
was placed, and immediately behind it the mother lay with face down. Over
her breast was a broad band of fibre which passed around to the back where
it was tied in a large bow. The mourning garb worn in this and other Dayak
tribes by relatives of a deceased person is an attempt to elude the evil
spirit (antoh) who is regarded as the cause of death and whose wrath the
remaining relatives are anxious to evade by disguising themselves in this
way. The men poled fast, and ten minutes later the cortege ascended the
bank without following a path, and deposited the coffin in a small,
old-looking house. Once daily for three days food is deposited near a dead
child, while in the case of adults it is given for a long time.
The following day we all started up the river for the great catch. About
300 Dayaks had gathered, with 80 prahus. There were people from as far
east as Kaburau, but those of the kampongs west of Long Pangian did not
appear as expected. Some of the men carried spears specially devised for
fishing, and some had brought their shields. We passed seven traps, in
Kenyah called "bring," some in course of making, and others already
finished. These rapidly made structures were found at different points on
the river. Each consisted of a fence of slightly leaning poles, sometimes
fortified with mats, running across the river and interrupted in the
middle by a well-constructed trough, the bottom of which was made from
poles put closely together, which allowed the water to escape but left the
fish dry.
The poison which stupefies or even kills the fish, without making it unfit
for food, is secured from the root of a plant called tuba and described to
me as being a vine. The root, which is very long, had been cut up into
short pieces and made into about 1,800 small bundles, each kampong
contributing its share. The packages had been formed into a beautifully
arranged pile, in accordance with the artistic propensities of both Kenyah
and Kayan, whose wood-stacks inside the rooms are models of neatness. The
heap in this case was two and a half metres long and a metre high, a
surprisingly small amount for the poisoning of a whole river.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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