Books: The Pagan Tribes of Borneo

C >> Charles Hose and William McDougall >> The Pagan Tribes of Borneo

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Before going out to attack an enemy, omens are always sought in
the way we have described, and if the expedition is successful
the warriors bring home not only the heads of the slain enemy, but
also pieces of their flesh, which they fix upon poles before the
house, one for each family, as a thank-offering to Bali Flaki for
his guidance and protection. It seldom occurs that a hawk actually
takes or eats these pieces of flesh, and that does not seem to be
expected. Without favourable omens from the hawks Kenyahs will not
set out on any expedition, and even when they have secured them,
they still anxiously look out for further guidance, and may be
stopped or turned back at any time by unfavourable omens. Thus,
should a hawk fly over their boat going in the same direction as
themselves, this is a good omen; but if one should fly towards them
as they travel, and especially if it should scream as it does so,
this is a terribly bad omen, and only in case they can obtain other
very favourable omens to counteract the impression made by it will
they continue their journey. If one of a party dies on the journey,
they will stop for one whole day for fear of offending Bali Flaki. If
a hawk should scream just as they are about to deliver an attack,
that means that some of the elder men will be killed in the battle.

Bali Flaki is also consulted before sowing and harvesting the rice
crop, but besides being appealed to publicly on behalf of the whole
community, his aid may be sought privately by any man who wishes to
injure another. For this purpose a man makes a rough wooden image in
human form, and retires to some quiet spot on the river bank where
he sets up a TEGULUN, a horizontal pole supported about a yard above
the ground by a pair of vertical poles. He lights a small fire beside
the TEGULUN, and, taking a fowl in one hand, he sits on the ground
behind it so as to see through it a square patch of sky,[132] and so
waits until a hawk becomes visible upon this patch. As soon as a hawk
appears he kills the fowl, and with a frayed stick smears its blood on
the wooden image, saying, "Put fat in his mouth" (which means "Let his
head be taken and fed with fat in the usual way"), and he puts a bit
of fat in the mouth of the image. Then he strikes at the breast of the
image with a small wooden spear, and throws it into a pool of water
reddened with red earth, and then takes it out and buries it in the
ground. While the hawk is visible, he waves it towards the left; for
he knows that if it flies to the left he will prevail over his enemy,
but that if it goes to the right his enemy is too strong for him.

When a new house is built, a wooden image of Bali Flaki with wings
extended is put up before it, and an offering of mixed food is put on a
little shelf before the image, and at times, especially after getting
good omens from the hawks, it is offered bits of flesh and is smeared
with pig's blood. If the people have good luck in their new house,
they renew the image; but if not, they usually allow it to fall into
decay. If, when a man is sitting down to a meal, he espies a hawk in
the heavens, he will throw a morsel of food towards it, exclaiming,
"Bali Flaki!"

We have seen that during the formal consultation of the hawks the
women are sent to their rooms. Nevertheless many women keep in the
cupboards in which they sleep a wooden image of the hawk with a few
feathers stuck upon it. If the woman falls sick she will take one
of these feathers and, waving it to and fro, will say, "Tell the
bad spirit that is making me sick that I have a feather of Bali
Flaki." When she recovers her health Bali Flaki has the credit of it.

Although Kenyahs will not kill a hawk, they would-not prevent us from
shooting one if it stole their chickens; for they say that a hawk
who will do that is a low-class fellow, a cad, in fact, for there
are social grades among the hawks just as there are among themselves.

Although the Kenyahs thus look to Bali Flaki to guide them and help
them in many ways, and express gratitude towards him, we do not think
that they conceive of him as a single great spirit, as some of the
other tribes tend to do; they rather look upon the hawks as messengers
and intermediators between themselves and Bali Penyalong,[133] to
which a certain undefined amount of power is delegated. No doubt it is
a vulgar error with them, as in the case of professors of other forms
of belief, to forget in some degree the Supreme Being, and to direct
their prayers and thanks almost exclusively to the subordinate power,
which, having

concrete forms, they can more easily keep before their minds. They
regard favourable omens as given for their encouragement, and bad
omens as friendly warnings.[134] We were told by one very intelligent
Kenyah that he supposed that the hawks, having been so frequently
sent by Bali Penyalong to give them warnings, had learnt how to do
this of their own will, and that sometimes they probably do give them
warning or encouragement independently without being sent by him.

All Kenyahs hold Bali Flaki in the same peculiar regard, and no
individuals or sections of them claim to be especially favoured by
him or claim to be related to him by blood or descent.

Other Omen-birds

Kenyahs obtain omens of less importance from several other birds. When
favourable omens have been given by the hawks, some prominent man is
always sent out to sit on the river-bank beside a small fire and watch
and listen for these other birds. Their movements and cries are the
signs which he interprets as omens, confirming or weakening the import
of those given by the hawks. Of these other omens the most regarded are
those given by the three species of the spider-hunter (ARACHNOTHERA
CHRYSOGENYS, A. MODESTA, and A. LONGIROSTRIS). All three species are
known as "Sit" or "Isit." When travelling on the river, the Kenyahs
hope to see "Isit" fly across from left to right as they sit facing the
bow of the canoe. When this happens they call out loudly, saying, "O,
Isit on the left hand! Give us long life, help us in our undertaking,
help us to find what we are seeking, make our enemies feeble." They
usually stop their canoes, land on the bank, and, after making a
small fire, say to it, "Tell Isit to help us." Each man of the party
will light a cigarette in order that he may have his own small fire,
and will murmur some part at least of the usual formulas. After seeing
"Isit" on their left, they like to see him again on their right side.

Next in importance to the spider-hunters are the three varieties of
the trogan (HARPACTES DIARDI, H. DUVAUCELII, and H. KASUMBA). They
like to hear the trogan calling quietly while he sits on a tree to
their left; but if he is on their right, the omen is only a little
less favourable.[135] On hearing the trogan's cry, they own it, as
they say, by shouting to it and by stopping to light a fire just as
in the case of "Isit."

KIENG, the woodpecker (LEPOCESTES PORPHYROMELAS), has two notes,
one of which is of good, the other of had omen. If they have secured
good omens from the birds already mentioned, they will then try to
avoid hearing KIENG, lest he should utter the note of evil omen; so
they sing and talk and rattle their paddles on the sides of the boat.

Other omen-birds of less importance are ASI (CARCINEUTES MELANOPS),
whose note warns them of difficulties in their path, and UKANG (SASIA
ABNORMIS), whose note means good luck for them. TELAJAN, the crested
rain-bird (PLATYLOPHUS CORONATUS), announces good luck by its call
and warns of serious difficulties also.

KONG, the hornbill (ANORRHINUS COMATUS), gives omens of minor
importance by his strange deep cry. The handsome feathers of another
species of hornbill (BUCEROS RHINOCEROS), with bold bars of black and
white, are worn on war-coats and stuck in the war-caps by men who are
tried warriors, but may not be worn by mere youths. The substance of
the beak of the helmeted hornbill (RHINOFLAX VIGIL) is sometimes carved
into the form of the canine tooth of the tiger-cat, and a pair of these
is the most valued kind of ear-ornament for men. Only elderly men,
or men who have taken heads with their own hands, may wear them. One
of the popular dances consists in a comical imitation of the movements
of the hornbill, but no special significance attaches to the dance;
it seems to be done purely in a spirit of fun. Young hornbills are
occasionally kept in the house as pets.

We know of no other bird that plays any part in the religious life
of the Kenyahs or affects them in any peculiar manner.

The Pig

All Kenyahs keep numerous domestic pigs, which roam beneath and
about the house, picking up what garbage they can find to eke out
the scanty meals of rice-dust and chaff given them by the women. It
seems that they seldom or never take to the jungle and become feral,
although they are not confined in any way.

The domestic pig is not treated with any show of reverence, but rather
with the greatest contumely, and yet it plays a part in almost all
religious ceremonies, and before it is slaughtered explanations are
always offered to it, and it is assured that it is not to be eaten. We
have seen that, in the rites preparatory to an important and dangerous
expedition, the chief was washed with pig's blood and water, and
that young pigs were slain before the altar-post of Bali Penyalong,
and their blood sprinkled on the post and afterwards upon all or most
of the men of the household. It is probably true that Bali Penyalong
is never addressed without the slaughter of one or more pigs, and
also that no domestic pig is ever slaughtered without being charged
beforehand with some message or prayer to Bali Penyalong, which its
spirit may carry up to him. But the most important function of the
pig is the giving of information as to the future course of events
by means of the markings on its liver.[136]

Whenever it becomes specially interesting or important to ascertain the
future course of events, when, for example, a household proposes to
make war, or when two parties are about to go through a peace-making
ceremony, a pig is caught by the young men from among those beneath
the house, and is brought and laid, with its feet lashed together,
before the chief in the great gallery of the house. And it would seem
that the more important the ceremony the larger and the more numerous
should be the pigs selected as victims. An attendant hands a burning
brand to the chief, and he, stooping over the pig, singes a few of
its hairs, and then, addressing the pig as "Bali Bouin," and gently
punching it behind the shoulder, as we have already depicted him,
he pours out a rapid flood of words. The substance of his address
is a prayer to Bali Penyalong for guidance and knowledge as to the
future course of the business in hand, and an injunction to the soul
of the pig to carry the prayer to Bali Penyalong.

Sometimes more than one chief will address one pig in this way; and
then, as soon as these prayers are concluded, some follower plunges
a spear into the heart or throat of the pig, and rapidly opens its
belly in the middle line, drags out the liver and lays it on a leaf
or platter with the underside uppermost, and so carries it to the
chief or chiefs. Then all the elderly men crowd round and consult as
to the significance of the appearances presented by the underside of
the liver. The various lobes and lobules are taken to represent the
various districts concerned in the question on which light is desired,
and according to the strength and intimacy of the connections between
these lobes, the people of the districts represented are held to be
bound in more or less lasting friendship. While spots and nodules in
any part betoken future evils for the people of that part, a clean
healthy liver means good fortune and happiness for all concerned.

The underside of the liver, which alone is significant, varies
considerably from one specimen to another, and this must prevent
any very definite and consistent identification of the parts with
the different districts of the country. The rule generally observed
is to identify the under surface of the right lobe (ARTI TOH) with
the territory of the party that kills the pig and makes the enquiry;
the adjacent part of the left lobe (SUNAN) with the territory of any
party involved in the question which adjoins that of the first party;
and the under surface of the caudal extremity (ARTI ARKAT) with that
of any remoter third party (see Fig. 79). If the ridge that runs up
between the right and left lobes is sharp, it indicates that there
will still be some bad feeling (or, as they say, the swords are still
sharp). A gall-bladder which is long and overlapping indicates more
trouble between the parties to the right and left; but one which
is sunk almost out of sight in the substance of the liver is a sign
that no further trouble is to be expected. The grooves on the under
surface of the right lobe stand for the waterways and, if they are
strongly marked, imply freedom of intercourse. Notches at the free
edges stand for past injuries suffered (the scars of wounds received,
as it were); and if these are equally marked in the several parts they
indicate peace, because it is implied that no balance of old scores
remains to any one of the parties concerned. A sore or abscess in any
part foretells the speedy death of one of the chiefs of the people
of that part.

FIGURE 79

It is obvious that this system of interpretation, which is common
to nearly all the peoples, gives much scope for the operation of
prejudice, suggestion, and ingenuity. But the group of interpreting
chiefs and elder men generally achieves unanimity in giving its
verdict.

The omens thus obtained are held to be the answer vouchsafed by Bali
Penyalong to the prayers which have been carried to him by the spirit
of the pig.

If the answer obtained in this way from one pig is unsatisfactory,
they will often kill a second, and on important occasions even a
third or fourth, in order to obtain a favourable answer. Unless they
can thus obtain a satisfactory forecast, they will not set out upon
any undertaking of importance.

After any ceremony of this kind the body of the pig is usually
divided among the people, and by them cooked and eaten without further
ceremony. But we have seen that, after the ceremony in preparation
for an expedition, the bodies of the young pigs whose blood was
scattered on the altarpost of Bali Penyalong were fixed upon tall
poles beside this altar-post and there left; and this seems to be the
rule in ceremonies of this sort, though it is not clear whether the
carcases are left there as offerings to the hawks or to Bali Penyalong,
or because they are in some sense too holy to be used as food after
being used in such rites.

Probably Kenyahs never give to the spirits in this way the whole body
of a large pig, but only of quite small pigs, and in this they are
probably influenced by considerations of economy.

It may be said generally that Kenyahs do not kill domestic pigs simply
and solely for the sake of food. The killing of a pig is always the
occasion for, or occasioned by, some religious rite. It is true that
on the arrival of honoured guests a pig is usually killed and given to
them for food; but its spirit is then always charged with some message
to Bali Penyalong. It is said that, when the pig's spirit comes to
Bali Penyalong, he is offended if it brings no message from those
who killed the pig, and he sends it back to carry off their souls.

On many other occasions also pigs are killed; thus, on returning
from a successful attack on enemies, a pig is usually killed for
each family of the household, and a piece of its flesh is put up on
a pole before the house; and during the severe illness of any person
of high social standing, pigs are usually killed, and friendly chiefs
may come from distant parts, bringing with them pigs and fowls that
they may sacrifice them, and so aid in restoring the sick man to
health. On the death of a chief, too, a great feast is made, and
many pigs are slaughtered, and their jaw-bones are hung up on the
tomb. A pig is sometimes used in the ceremony by which a newly-made
peace is sealed between tribes hitherto at blood-feuds, but a fowl
is more commonly used.

The wild pig which abounds in the forest is hunted by the Kenyahs,
and when brought to bay by the dogs is killed with spears, and it
is eaten without ceremony or compunction by all classes. The wild
pig is never used as messenger to the gods, and its liver is not
consulted. The lower jaws of all wild pigs that are killed are cleaned
and hung up together in the house, and it is believed that if these
should be lost or in any way destroyed the dogs would cease to hunt.

The domestic fowls are seldom killed for food, and their eggs too can
hardly be reckoned as a regular article of diet, though the people
have no prejudice against eating them. And it would seem that the
fowls are kept in the main for ceremonial Purposes, and that their
table use is of very secondary importance.

Fowls are killed on many of the occasions on which pigs are sacrificed,
and, as we have seen in the description of the ceremony at Tama
Bulan's house, their blood may be poured upon the altarposts of
Bali Penyalong. It would seem that fowls and pigs are to some extent
interchangeable equivalents for sacrificial purposes. Perhaps the most
important occasion on which the fowl plays a part is the performance
of the rite by which a blood-feud is finally wiped away. The following
extract from the journal previously quoted describes an incident of
this kind: --

In the evening there was serious business on hand. Two chiefs, who
some years ago were burned out of their homes in the Rejang district
by the government, have settled themselves with their people in the
Baram district. They had made a provisional peace with the Kayans
some years ago, but the final ceremony was to be performed this
evening. The two chiefs of the immigrants, who had remained hitherto
in a remote part of the house, seated themselves at one side, and
the Kayan chiefs at the other, and Tama Bulan and ourselves between
the two parties. First, presents of iron were exchanged. In the old
days costly presents of metal-work used to be given; but, as this led
sometimes to renewed disputes, the government has forbidden the giving,
in such ceremony, of presents of a greater value than two dollars. So
now old sword-blades are given, and the other essential part of the
present has been proportionately reduced from a full-grown fowl to a
tiny chick. After much preliminary talking, two chicks were brought
and a bundle of old sword-blades, which Tama Bulan, in his character
of peace-maker, carries with him whenever he travels abroad. A chief
of either party took a chick and a sword and presented them to the
other. Then one led his men a little apart and began to rattle off
an invocation beginning, "O sacred (Bali) chick," snipped off its
head with the sword, and with the bloody blade smeared the right
arm of his followers as they crowded round him. The old fellow kept
up the stream of words until every man was smeared; and then they
all stamped together on the floor raising a great shout. Then the
other party went through a similar performance; and the peace being
thus formally ratified, we sat down to cement it still further by a
friendly drinking bout.

Another ceremony in which the fowl plays a prominent part is that by
which the wandering soul of a sick person is found and led back to
his body by the medicine-man. This is described in Chapter XIV.

It seems clear that the fowl, like the pig, is used on these occasions
as a messenger sent by man to the Supreme Spirit. In most cases when
a fowl is slaughtered in the course of a ceremony, it is first waved
over the heads of the people taking part in it, and its blood is
afterwards sprinkled upon them.

In the blood-brotherhood ceremony, when each of the two men drinks
or smokes in a cigarette a drop of the other's blood drawn with a
bambooknife, a fowl is in many cases waved over them and then killed,
and occasionally a pig also is killed. In such a case the man who
has killed the fowl will carry its carcase to the door of the house,
and there he will wave towards the heavens a frayed stick moistened
with its blood, while he announces the facts of the ceremony to Bali
Penyalong. So that here again the fowl seems to play the part of a
messenger. The carcase and the bloody stick are afterwards put up
together on a tall pole before the house. After going through this
ceremony a man is safe from all the members of the household to
which his blood-brother belongs; and in the case of two chiefs all
the members of either household are bound to those of the other by
a sacred tie.

Fowls' eggs are sometimes put on the cleft poles as sacrifices. In
one instance, when we were engaged in fishing a lake with a large
party in boats, we came upon a row of eight poles stuck upright at
the edge of the lake, each holding a fowl's egg in its cleft upper
end. These had just been put there by the crew of one of the canoes
as an offering to the crocodiles, which were regarded as the most
influential of the powers of the lake and able to ensure us good sport.

In such cases the eggs are probably economical substitutes for fowls,
as seems to be indicated by the following facts: When Kenyah boys enter
a strange branch of the river for the first time, they go, each one
taking a fowl's egg in his hand, into the jungle with some old man, who
takes the eggs, puts them into the cleft ends of poles fixed upright
in the earth, and thus addresses all the omen-birds collectively,
"Don't let any harm happen to these children who are coming for
the first time to this river; they give you these eggs." Sometimes
instead of eggs the feathers of a fowl are used; and both the eggs
and feathers would seem to be substituted for fowls, as being good
enough in the case of mere children performing a minor rite.

When the belly of a fowl is opened there are prominent two curved
portions of the gut. The state of these is examined in some cases
before the planting of PADI, and sometimes before attempting to catch
the soul of a sick man. If the parts are much curved, it is a good
omen; if straight or but slightly curved, it is a bad omen.

The Crocodile

Like all other races of Sarawak, the Kenyahs regard the crocodiles
that infest their rivers as more or less friendly creatures. They fear
the crocodile and do not like to mention it by name, especially if
one be in sight, and refer to it as "old grandfather." But the fear
is rather a superstitious fear than the fear of being seized by the
beast. They regard those of their own neighbourhood as more especially
friendly, in spite of the fact that members of their households are
occasionally taken by crocodiles, either while standing incautiously
on the bank of the river or while floating quietly at evening time
in a small canoe. When this happens, it is believed either that the
person taken has in some way offended or injured one or all of the
crocodiles, or that he has been taken by a stranger crocodile that has
come from a distant part of the river, and therefore did not share
in the friendly understanding usually subsisting between the people
and the local crocodiles. But in any case it is considered that the
crocodiles have committed an unjustifiable aggression and have set
up a blood-feud which can only be abolished by the slaying of one
or more of the aggressors. Now it is the habit of the crocodile to
hold the body of his victim for several days before devouring it,
and to drag it for this purpose into some muddy creek opening into
the main river. A party is therefore organised to search all the
neighbouring creeks, and the first measure taken is to prevent the
guilty crocodile escaping to some other part of the river. To achieve
this they take long poles, frayed with many cuts, and set them up on
the river-bank at some distance above and below the scene of the crime
and at the mouths of all the neighbouring creeks and streamlets; and
they kill fowls and pray that the guilty crocodile may be prevented
from passing the spots thus marked. They then search the creeks,
and if they find the criminal with the body of his victim they kill
him, and the feud is at an end. But, if they fail to find him thus,
they go out on the part of the river included between their charmed
poles, and, with their spears tied to long poles, prod all the bed of
this part of the river, and thus generally succeed in killing one or
more crocodiles. They then usually search its entrails for the bones
and hair of the victim so as to make sure that they have caught the
offending beast. But, even if they do not obtain conclusive evidence
of this kind, they seem to feel that justice is satisfied, and that
the beast killed is probably the guilty one.

Except in the meting out of a just vengeance in this way, no Kenyah
will kill a crocodile, and they will not eat its flesh under any
circumstances. But there is no evidence to show that they regard
themselves as related by blood or descent to the crocodiles or that
their ancestors ever did so.