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 we stopped to photograph a beautiful funeral house on the bank of
the river, in which rest the remains of a dead chief and his wife. This
operation finished, the Dayaks prepared their midday meal consisting of
rice alone, which they had brought in wicker bottles. A number of bamboo
sticks were procured, which were filled with rice and water and placed in
a row against a horizontal pole and a fire was kindled underneath. As soon
as this cooking was finished the bamboos were handed to the chief, Amban
Klesau, who in the usual way split one open with his parang to get at the
contents. Having eaten, he distributed the rest of the bamboos. I was
given one, and upon breaking it open a delicious smell met my olfactory
sense. The rice, having been cooked with little water, clung together in a
gelatinous mass which had a fine sweet taste, entirely lacking when cooked
in the white man's way.
During my travels in Borneo I often procured such rice from the Dayaks. It
is a very clean and convenient way of carrying one's lunch, inside of a
bamboo, the open end closed with a bunch of leaves. Fish and meat are
prepared in the same manner. With fish no water is used, nevertheless,
when cooked it yields much juice, with no suggestion of the usual
mud-flavoured varieties of Borneo. It will remain wholesome three days, and
whenever necessary the bamboo is heated at the bottom. One who has tasted
meat or cereals cooked between hot stones in earth mounds knows that, as
regards palatable cooking, there is something to learn from the savages.
It is a fact that Indians and Mexicans prepare green corn in a way
superior to that employed by the best hotels in New York. There is no
necessity of returning to the bamboo and hot stones as cooking utensils,
but why not accept to a greater extent the underlying principle of these
methods?
In the evening we arrived at Long Pelaban, a large Kenyah kampong, where
for some time I made my headquarters. On the opposite bank of the river we
cut the tall grass and jungle and made camp. Soon we were visited by many
small boys who afterward came every day to look for tin cans. With few
exceptions they were not prepossessing in appearance; nearly all were
thin, and one was deaf and dumb, but they were inoffensive and
well-behaved. During my travels among Dayaks I never saw boys or girls
quarrel among themselves--in fact their customary behaviour is better than
that of most white children. Both parents treat the child affectionately,
the mother often kissing it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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