Books: The Pagan Tribes of Borneo

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

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46

When Kenyahs go on a journey into strange rivers or to the lower part
of the main river, they fear the crocodiles of these strange waters,
because they are unknown to them, and any one of them might easily
be mistaken by the crocodiles for some one who has done them an
injury. Some Kenyahs tie the red leaves of the DRACAENA below the
prow of their boat whenever they go far from home, believing that
this protects them from all danger of attack by crocodiles.

The Dog

In all Kenyah houses are large numbers of dogs, which vary a good
deal in size and colour, but roughly resemble large, mongrel-bred,
smooth-haired terriers. Each family owns several, and they are fed with
rice usually in the evening; but they seem to be always hungry. The
best of them are used for hunting; but besides these there is always
a number of quite useless, ill-fed, ill-tempered curs; for no Kenyah
dare kill a dog, however much he may wish to be rid of it. Still less,
of course, will he eat the flesh of a dog. The dogs prowl about, in
and around the house, much as they please, but are not treated with
any particular respect. When a dog intrudes where he is not wanted it
is usual to click with the tongue at him, and this is usually enough
to make him pass on; but blows with a stick follow quickly if the
animal does not obey. They display little affection for their dogs,
and they do not like children to touch or play with the dogs, but of
course cannot altogether prevent them.

One young Kenyah chief, on being questioned, said that the reason
they will not kill dogs is that they are like children, and eat and
sleep together with men in the same house; and he added that, if a
man should kill a dog, he would go mad.

If a dog dies in the house, the men push the carcase out of the
house and into the river with long poles, and will on no account
touch it with their hands. The spot on the floor on which the dog
died is fenced round with mats for some few days in order to prevent
the children walking over it.

It is usual for the Kenyah men to have one or more designs tatued on
their forearms and shoulders. Among the commonest of these designs
are those known as the prawn and the dog (see Chap. XII). They seem
to be conventionalised derivatives from these animal forms. It is
said that the dog's head design was formerly much more in fashion
than it is at the present time.

Deer and Cattle

Very few Kenyahs of the upper class will kill or eat deer and wild
cattle. They believe that if they should eat their flesh they would
vomit violently and spit out blood. They have no domestic cattle, and
the buffalo does not occur in their districts. Lower-class Kenyahs
and slaves, taken as war-captives from other tribes, may eat deer
and horned cattle, but they must take the flesh some little distance
from the house when they cook it. A woman who is pregnant, or for
any other reason is in the hands of a physician, has to observe the
restrictions with regard to deer and cattle more strictly than other
people, and she will not touch or allow to be brought near her any
article of leather or horn.

The war-coats of the men are often made of the skin of goats or deer,
and any man may wear such a war-coat. But when a man has a young son,
he is particularly careful to avoid contact with any part of a deer,
lest through such contact he should transmit to his son in any degree
the timidity of the deer. On one occasion when we had killed a deer,
a Kenyah chief resolutely refused to allow its skin to be carried in
his boat, alleging the above reason.

The cry or bark of the deer (CERVULUS MUNTJAC) is a warning of danger,
and the seeing or hearing of the mouse-deer or PLANDOK (TRAGULAS NAPU)
has a like significance.

The Tiger-cat

The only large species of the FELIDAAE that occurs in Borneo is the
tiger-cat (FELIS NEBULOSA). Kenyahs will not eat it, as men of some
tribes do, but will kill it; and they fashion its handsome spotted
skin into war-coats. Such coats are worn only by men who have been
on the war-path. The canine teeth of the tiger-cat are much prized
as ornaments; they are worn thrust through holes in the upper part
of the shell of the ear, but only by full-grown men. KULEH, the name
of this beast, is sometimes given to a boy.

The true tiger does not now occur in Borneo, and it is doubtful
whether it ever was a native of the island. Nevertheless the Kenyahs
know it by name (LINJAU) and by reputation, and a few skins are in
the possession of chiefs. No ordinary man, but only a distinguished
and elderly chief, will venture to wear such a skin as a war-coat,
or even to touch it. These skins have been brought from other lands
by Malay traders, and it is probable that whatever knowledge of the
tiger the Kenyahs possess has come from the same source.

A chief will sometimes name his son LINJAU, that is, the Tiger.

Other Animals

A carnivore (ARCTOGALE LEUCOTIS) allied to the civet-cat warns of
danger when seen or heard.

There is a certain large lizard (VARANUS) that is eaten freely by
other tribes, but Kenyahs may not eat it, though they will kill it.

They regard the seeing of any snake as an unfavourable omen, and will
not kill any snake gratuitously.

Kenyahs, like all, or almost all the other natives of Borneo, are more
or less afraid of the Maias (the orang-utan) and of the long-nosed
monkey, and they will not look one in the face or laugh at one.

In one Kenyah house a fantastic figure of the gibbon is carved on
the ends of all the main crossbeams of the house, and the chief said
that this has been their custom for many generations. He told us
that it is the custom, when these beams are being put up, to kill a
pig and divide its flesh among the men who are working, and no woman
is allowed to come into the house until this has been done. None of
his people will kill a gibbon, though other Kenyahs will kill and
probably eat it. They claim that he helps them as a friend, and the
carvings on the beams seem to symbolize his supporting of the house.

In other parts of the same house are carvings of the bangat,
SEMNOPITHECUS HOSEI, but the old chief regards these as much less
important and as recent innovations.

We do not know of any other animals to which especial respect or
attention is paid by the Kenyahs.

Animal Cults of the Kayans

The white-headed hawk (Bali Flaki) of the Kenyahs has its equivalent
among the Kayans in the large dark-brown hawk, which they call Laki
Neho. But as it is not possible to distinguish these two kinds of
hawks when seen flying at some distance, they address and accept all
large hawks seen in the distance as Laki Neho.

The function and powers of Laki Neho seem to be almost identical
with those of Bali Flaki. He is a giver of omens and a bringer of
messages from Laki Tenangan. The following notes of a conversation
with an intelligent Kayan chief will give some idea of his attitude
towards Laki Neho. It must be remembered that these people have no
priesthood and no dogmatic theologians to define and formulate beliefs,
so that their ideas as to the nature of their gods and their abodes and
powers are, though perhaps more concrete, at least as various in the
minds of different individuals as are the corresponding ideas among
the average adherents of more highly developed forms of religion;
and perhaps no two men will agree exactly on these matters, and any
one man will freely contradict his own statements.

Laki Tenangan is an old man with long white hair who speaks Kayan
and has a wife, Doh Tenangan. They sometimes see him in dreams, and
if fortunate they may then see his face,[137] but if unlucky they see
his back only. In olden times powerful men sometimes spoke with him,
but now this never occurs. He dwells in a house far away. Laki Neho
also has a house that is covered with palm leaves and frayed sticks. It
is in a tree-top, yet it is beside a river, and has a landing-place
before it like every Kayan house. This house is sometimes seen in
dreams. It is not so far away as the house of Laki Tenangan. At first
our informant said that help is asked directly of Laki Neho; but,
when pressed, he said that Laki Neho may carry the message to Laki
Tenangan. Some things Laki Neho does of his own will and power; for
example, if a branch were likely to fall on a Kayan boat he would
prevent it, for Laki Tenangan long ago taught him how to do such
things. When a man is sick, Kayans appeal to Laki Neho; but if he does
not make the patient well they then appeal to Laki Tenangan directly,
killing a pig, whose spirit goes first to the house of Laki Neho,
and then on to the more distant house of Laki Tenangan. For they
believe that in such a case the patient has somehow offended Laki
Neho by disregarding or misreading his omens. A man suffering from
chronic disease may himself pray to Laki Tenangan. He lights a fire
and kills a fowl, and perhaps a pig also, and calls upon Laki Neho to
be his witness and messenger. He holds an egg in one hand and says,
"This is for you to eat, carry my message direct to Laki Tenangan
that I may get well and live and bring up my children, who shall be
taught my occupations and the true customs." The fire is lighted to
make Laki Neho warm and energetic.

It will be seen from the above account that the Kayans have formed
a concept of the power of the hawks in general, and have given it a
semi-anthropomorphic character, and we shall see below that the Sea
Dayaks have carried this process still further.

Crocodiles

The Kayan's attitude towards the crocodile is practically the same as
the Kenyah's. We append the following notes of a conversation with a
young Kayan chief, Usong, and his cousin Wan:There are but very few
Kayans who will kill a crocodile except in revenge. But if one of their
people has been taken by a crocodile they go out together to kill the
criminal, and they begin by saying, "Don't run away, you've got to
be killed, why don't you come to the surface? You won't come out on
the land because you have done wrong and are afraid." After this he
will perhaps come on land; and if he does not, he will at least float
to the surface of the water, and is then killed with spears. In olden
days Kayans used to make a crocodile of clay and ask it to drive away
evil spirits; but now this is not done. A crocodile may become a man
just like themselves. Sometimes a man dreams that a crocodile calls
him to become his blood-brother, and after they have gone through
the regular ceremony and exchanged names (in the dream), the man
is quite safe from crocodiles. Usong's uncle has in this way become
blood-brother to a crocodile, and is now called "Baya" (the generic
name for the crocodile), while some crocodile unknown is called Jok,
and Usong considers himself the nephew of the crocodile Jok. Usong's
father has also become blood-brother to a crocodile, and Usong calls
himself a son of this particular unknown crocodile. Sometimes he
asks these two, his uncle- and his father-crocodiles, to give him
a pig when he is out hunting, and once they did give him one. After
relating this, Usong added, "But who knows if this be true?"

Wan's great-great-grandfather became blood-brother to a crocodile,
and was called "Klieng Baya." Wan has several times met this crocodile
in dreams. In one dream he fell into the river when there were many
crocodiles about. He climbed on to the head of one, which said to him,
"Don't be afraid," and carried him to the bank. Wan's father had
charms given him by a crocodile and would not on any account kill
one, and Wan clearly regards himself as being intimately related to
crocodiles in general.

The Kayans regard the pig and the fowl in much the same way as the
Kenyahs do, and put them to the same uses. The beliefs and customs
with regard to deer, horned cattle, dogs, and the tiger-cat, are
similar to those of the Kenyahs save that they will not kill the
last of these. They are perhaps more strict in the avoidance of
deer and cattle. One old chief, who had been ailing for a long time,
hesitated to enter the Resident's house because he saw a pair of horns
hanging up there. When he entered he asked for a piece of iron, and
on returning home he killed a fowl and a pig, and submitted to the
process of having his soul caught by a DAYONG, lest it should have
incurred some undefined injury in the neighbourhood of the horns.

The Kayans avoid the skin of the tiger even more strictly than the
Kenyahs or any other tribe; even a great chief will not touch a
tiger-skin, and we have known one refuse to enter a house because he
knew that it contained a tiger-skin war-coat.

Like the Kenyahs, the Kayans entertain a superstitious dread of the
Maias and the long-nosed monkey, but the DOK (MACACUS NEMESTRINUS),
the coco-nut monkey of the Malay States, has special relations to
them. It is very common in their district, but they will kill it only
when it is stealing their rice-crop; and they will never eat it as
other peoples do. There is a somewhat uncertain belief that it is a
blood-relative, and the following myth is told to account for this. A
Kayan woman of high class was reaping PADI with her daughter. Now it
is against custom to eat any of the rice during reaping; and when the
mother went away for a short time leaving the girl at work, she told
her on no account to eat any of the rice. But no sooner was the mother
gone than the girl began to husk some PADI and nibble at it. Then
at once her body began to itch, and hair began to grow on her arms
like the hair of a DOK. Soon the mother returned and the girl said,
"Why am I itching so?" The mother answered, "You have done some wicked
thing, you have eaten some rice." Then hair grew all over the girl's
body except her head and face, and the mother said, "Ah, this is what
I feared, now you must go into the jungle and eat only what has been
planted by human hands." So the girl went into the jungle and her
head became like a DOK'S, and she ceased to be able to speak.

The DOK does not help them in any way, but only spoils their crops. A
very popular dance is the DOK dance, in which a man imitates very
cleverly the behaviour of the DOK. It is a very ludicrous performance,
and excites boisterous mirth. They say it is done merely in fun.

In one Kayan house the ends of all the main crossbeams that support the
roof are ornamented with fretwork designs, which are clearly animal
derivatives and apparently all of the same animal. The form suggests
a crocodile, and some of the men agreed that that was its meaning,
while others asserted that it was a dog. No doubt it was originally
one or other of these, but has now become a conventional design merely,
and its true origin has been forgotten.

A pattern which seems to be derived from the outline of a dog,
and which goes by the name KALANG ASU ( = dog-pattern), occurs in a
great variety of forms in the decorative art of the Kayans, and also,
though to a less extent, in that of the Kenyahs. It is tatued on arm
and thigh, is reproduced in beadwork, and carved in low relief on
decorative panels.[138]

Neither Kayans nor Kenyahs make much use of snakes of any kind,
but there is one snake with red head and tail (BATANG LIMA) which,
when they see it in the course of a journey, they must kill, else
harm will befall them. Again, if they see a certain snake just as
they are about to enter a strange river or a strange village, they
will stop and light a fire on the bank in order to communicate with
Laki Neho. Kayans will not eat any species of turtle or tortoise.

Klemantans

The following notes of a conversation with the Orang Kaya Tumonggong,
the influential chief of the Long Pata people (one of the many groups
of Klemantans), show that these people regard the hawk in much the
same way as the Kenyahs do: The hawk, BALI FLAKI, is the messenger
of "Bali Utong," the Supreme Being. When a party is about to set
out on any expedition they explain their intentions to BALI FLAKI,
and then observe the movements of the hawks. If a hawk circles round
over their heads, some of the party will fall sick on the journey and
probably will die. If the hawk flies to the right when near at hand,
it is a good omen; but if it flies to the right when at a distance, or
to the left, whether near or far, that is a bad omen. The people then
light a fire and entreat the hawk to give a more favourable sign, and
if it persists in going to the left they give up the expedition. If,
while the omens are being read, the hawk flaps his wings, or screams,
or swoops down and settles on a tree, the omen is bad. But if it
swoops down and up again, that is good. If two or three hawks are
visible at the same time, and especially if they all fly to the right,
that is very good; but if many are visible, and especially if they fly
off in different directions, that is very bad, for it means that the
enemy will scatter the attacking force. If the hawk should capture a
small bird while it is under observation, that means that they will
be made captives if they persist in their undertaking. The hawk is
not claimed as a relative by Klemantans. They take omens from various
other birds in matters of minor importance.

Klemantans use the domestic pig and fowl as sacrificial animals just
as the Kenyahs and Kayans do, and they have the same superstitious
dread of killing a dog. One group of them, Malanaus, use a dog in
taking a very solemn oath, and sometimes the dog is killed in the
course of this ceremony. Or instead of the dog being killed, its tail
may be cut off, and the man taking the oath licks the blood from the
stump; this is considered a most binding and solemn form of oath. The
ceremony is spoken of as KOMAN ASU, I.E. "the eating of the dog."

Most Klemantans will kill and eat both deer and cattle freely. But
there are exceptions to this rule. Thus Damong, the chief of a
Malanau household, together with all his people, will not kill or
eat the deer CERVULUS MUNTJAC, alleging that an ancestor had become
a deer of this kind, and that, since they cannot distinguish this
incarnation of his ancestor from other deer, they must abstain from
killing all deer of this species. We know of one instance in which
one of these people refused to use again his cooking-pot, because
a Malay who had borrowed it had used it for cooking the flesh of
deer of this species. This superstition is still rigidly adhered to,
although these people have been converted to Islam of recent years.

On one occasion another chief resolutely refused to proceed on a
journey through the jungle when a mouse-deer, PLANDOK, crossed his
path; he will not eat this deer at any time.[139]

The people of Miri, who also are Mohammedan Malanaus, claim to be
related to the large deer, CERVUS EQUINUS, and some of them to the
muntjac deer also. Now, these people live in a country in which deer
of all kinds abound, and they always make a clearing in the jungle
around a tomb. On such a clearing grass grows up rapidly, and so the
spot becomes attractive to deer as a grazing ground; and it seems not
improbable that it is through frequently seeing deer about the tombs
that the people have come to entertain the belief that their dead
relatives become deer, or that they are in some other way closely
related to the deer.

The Bakongs, another group of Malanaus, hold a similar belief
with regard to the bear-cat (ARTICTIS) and the various species of
PARADOXURUS; in this case the origin of the belief is admitted by
them to be the fact that, on going to their graveyards, they often
see one of these beasts coming out of a tomb. These tombs are roughly
constructed wooden coffins raised a few feet only from the ground,
and it is probable that these carnivores make their way into them,
in the first place, to devour the corpse, and that they make use of
them as lairs.

The relations of the Klemantans to the crocodiles seem to be more
intimate than those of other tribes. One group, the Long Patas, claim
the crocodile as a relative. The story goes that a certain man named
Silau became a crocodile. First he became covered with itch, and he
scratched himself till he bled and became rough all over. Then his
feet began to look like a crocodile's tail; as the change crept up
from his feet to his body, he called out to his relatives that he was
becoming a crocodile, and made them swear that they would never kill
any crocodile. Many of the people in olden days knew that Silau became
a crocodile; they saw him at times and spoke to him, and his teeth
and tongue were always like those of a man. Many stories are told of
his meeting with people by the river-side. On one occasion a man sat
roasting a pig on the river-bank, and, when he left it for a moment,
Silau took it and divided it among the other crocodiles, who greatly
enjoyed it. Silau then arranged with them that he would give a sign
to his human relatives by which the crocodiles might always be able
to recognise them when travelling on the river. He told his human
friends that they must tie leaves of the DRACAENA below the bows of
their boats; this they always do when they go far from home, so that
the crocodiles may recognise them and so abstain from attacking them.

If a man of the Long Patas is taken by a crocodile, they attribute
this to the fact that they have intermarried to some extent with
Kayans. When they come upon a crocodile lying on the river-bank, they
say, "Be easy, grandfather, don't mind us, your are one of us." Some
of the Klemantans will not even eat anything that has been cooked in a
vessel previously used for cooking crocodile's flesh, and it is said
that if a man should do so unwittingly his body would become covered
with sores.

If a crocodile is seen on their left hand by Long Patas on a war
expedition, that is a bad omen; but if on their right hand, that is
the best possible omen.

The Orang Kaya Tumonggong tells us that in the olden times the
crocodiles used to speak to his people, warning them of danger, but
that now they never speak, and he supposes that their silence is due
to the fact that his people have intermarried with other tribes. The
Long Patas frequently carve a crocodile's head as the figurehead for
a war-canoe.

The Batu Blah people (Klemantans) on returning from the war-path make
a huge effigy of a crocodile with cooked rice, and they put fowl's
eggs in its head for eyes and bananas for teeth, and cover it with
scales made from the stem of the banana plant. When all is ready it
is transfixed with a wooden spear, and the chief cuts off its head
with a wooden sword. Then pigs and fowls are slaughtered and cooked,
and eaten with the rice from the rice-crocodile, the chiefs eating
the head and the common people the body. The chief of these people
could give us no explanation of the meaning of this ceremony; he
merely says they do it because it is custom.

One community of Klemantans, the Lelak people, lived recently on the
banks of a lake much infested with crocodiles. Their chief had the
reputation of being able to induce them to leave the lake. To achieve
this he would stand in his boat waving a bundle of charms, which
included among other things teeth of the real tiger and boars' tusks,
and then address the crocodiles politely in their own language. He
would then allow his boat to float out of the lake into the river,
and the crocodiles would follow him and pass on down the river.

Many, probably all, Klemantans put up wooden images of the crocodile
before their houses, and many of them carve the prow of their
war-canoes into the form of a crocodile's head with gaping jaw.

Some of the Muruts make an effigy of the crocodile from clay for use
on the celebration of a successful expedition.

The Punans

The Punans make use of all the omen-birds that are used by the Kenyahs,
and they regard them as in some degree sacred, and not to be killed or
eaten. They seem to read the omens in much the same way as the Kenyahs
do; but they are not so constant in their cult of the omen-birds, and
Punans of different districts differ a good deal from one another in
this respect. In fact, it is doubtful whether those that have mixed
least with the other peoples pay any attention to the omen-birds;
and it seems not unlikely that the cult of the omen-birds is in
process of being adopted by them.

With the exception of these birds there is probably no wild animal of
the jungle that the Punans do not kill and eat. They refuse to eat
the domestic pig, but this, they say, is because they know nothing
of it, it is strange to them. Having no domestic pigs and fowls,
they of course do not sacrifice them to their gods, nor do they seem
to practise the rite of sacrifice in any form.

They give the names of various animals to their children, and they
use these names in the ordinary way.

The crocodile seems to be regarded as a god by the Punans -- they speak
of it as Bali Penyalong. (This, as we have already said, is the name
of the Supreme Spirit of the Kenyahs.) They sometimes make a wooden
image of it, and hang it before the leaf shelter or hut in which they
may be living at any time; and if one of their party should fall ill,
they hang the blossom of the betel-nut tree on the figure, and the
medicine-man addresses it when he seeks to call back the wandering
soul of his patient.