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
Much refreshed from my bath, I felt ready for further action. In the
morning I had requested the captain not to wait for me, and he had already
left. At 12 o'clock the _Otto_ departed, and a few minutes later our
flotilla was under way. We stayed over night at Biha, a small but clean
Dayak kampong. The Murungs, as seen here for the first time, are rather
shy, dark-complexioned, somewhat short and strongly set people. They are
not ugly, though their mouths always seem ungainly. The next day we
arrived at a Malay kampong, Muara Topu, which is less attractive on
account of its lack of cleanliness and its pretense of being civilised.
I soon realised that it would not be possible to overtake the captain,
still less to proceed overland, as our men from Puruk Tjahu were rather a
poor lot. They were Malays with the exception of three Dayaks, and one of
these, an Ot-Danum, had accepted Islam and therefore had imbibed many
Malay ideas. The majority of them were personally amiable, but physically,
with few exceptions, they were even below the Malay average, having weak,
ill-balanced bodies. I saw one man, when pushing his prahu, fall into the
water twice, and the men in my prahu often nearly upset it. In view of
these conditions I decided to stop over at the large kampong Tumbang
Marowei. Something might be gained by a stay among the Murungs, and
meantime the overdue photographic supplies, much needed for our inland
expedition, would possibly arrive.
The kampong created a pleasant impression, the space in front toward the
river, which the Dayaks are compelled to clear and keep clean, being
unusually extensive--almost approaching a boulevard on the river bank.
Along this are four communal houses arranged lengthwise, in two pairs, and
elevated on upright posts. Between the groups and farther back is a
smaller house. There are areca-palms and other trees planted in front, and
at the back the vast jungle begins immediately. Most of the people were
absent, burning trees and bushes that had been cut down to make new fields
for rice-planting, the so-called ladangs, but about sunset they returned,
and all were quite friendly in their manners.
We asked the kapala if he could have the people dance in order that we
might photograph them, but he said that would not be possible unless a
feast were made, a necessary part of which would be the sacrifice of a
babi (pig), whereupon an agreement was easily reached that I should pay
for the babi six florins, and that the Murungs should perform. The feast
was held one day later and was more interesting than I had expected. It
took place in front of the house where the kapala resided, and here a
sacred pillar stood, by the Katingans and others called kapatong, erected
on the occasion of a death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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