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
There was a diminutive pasang-grahan here, neatly made from nipah palm
leaves, where I repaired, while Chonggat and Ah Sewey put up tents near
by. The presence of two easy chairs which had been brought from
Bandjermasin seemed incongruous to the surroundings, and had an irritating
rather than restful effect on me. Both Malays and Dayaks are very desirous
of securing European furniture for the house of the kapala, and will carry
a chair or table for hundreds of miles. On the occasion of my visit to the
Kenyah chief of Long Pelaban, in the Bulungan, he immediately went to a
heap of baskets and other articles occupying one side of the big room, dug
out a heavy table with marble top, which was lying overturned there, and
proudly placed it upright before me to be admired. That this piece of
furniture had been brought so great a distance over the kihams was almost
incomprehensible.
I had a talk with the kapala and a large number of people who soon
gathered in front of the pasang-grahan. The Dayaks who originally lived
here have disappeared or amalgamated with the Malay intruders, who in this
case are largely composed of less desirable elements. It soon became
evident that no information could be gained from these people in regard to
the traditions of the place. One man said that if I would wait four or
five days (in which to be exploited by the wily Malay) he would undertake
to bring me three old men of the place, whereupon the kapala, who was more
obliging than the rest, went to fetch one of these, who pretended to have
no knowledge in such matters.
In order to get relief from the increasing throng of men and boys, I went
for a walk, in which I was joined by the kapala and the mantri, a small
native police authority whom the controleur had sent with me to be of
assistance in making arrangements with the Malays. An old-looking wooden
mosque, twenty years old according to reports, stands at the turn of the
road. Near by is a cemetery covered with a large growth of ferns and
grass, which hides the ugly small monuments of the graves. The houses lie
along a single street in the shade of cocoanut-palms and other trees. On
account of the white sand that forms the ground everything looks clean,
and the green foliage of handsome trees was superb. Everywhere silence
reigned, for the women, being Mohammedans, remain as much as possible
inside the houses, and no voice of playing or crying child was heard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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