Books: The Pagan Tribes of Borneo

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

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About the end of its first year the infant begins to crawl and toddle
about the room and gallery, to sprawl into the hearth and eat charcoal,
and to get into all sorts of mischief in the usual way. During the
first year he lives chiefly on his mother's milk, but takes also
thick rice-water from an early age.

Towards the end of the first year the lobes of the ears are perforated,
and a ring (or, in the case of a girl, several small rings) is inserted
in each. Of childish affections of health, the commonest at this age
is yaws (FRAMBOESIA) about the mouth. Kayan mothers believe that every
child must go through this, and that one attack protects against its
recurrence; and the rareness of the disease in adults seems to bear
out this belief. Most of the children are weaned about the end of
their second year.

During the next years, until the boy is five or six years of age,
he remains always under the care of his mother. He spends the day
running about within and around the house and among the boats at
the landing-place, playing with his fellows, chasing the pigs and
fowls, and bathing in the river. The children are in the main what is
commonly called good, they cry but little, and quarrels and outbreaks
of temper are few. During the boy's third year a hole is punched
in the shell of each ear. A single blow with a bamboo punch takes
out a circular piece; into this a circular plug of wax or wood is
inserted. The girl, on the other hand, has more rings added to the
lobes of her cars, which gradually yield to the weight, and begin to
assume the desired character of slender loops. During these years the
boy normally takes the first step of his initiation as a warrior by
striking a blow at a freshly taken head, or, if need be, at an old one
(see vol. ii. p. 169).

It is at some time in the course of these years, usually not earlier
than the beginning of the child's third year, that he first receives
a name. The occasion of the rite is a general naming of all the
children of the house of suitable age; and the time is determined by
the conclusion of a successful harvest; for a general feast is made
for which much rice and BURAK are required, and these cannot be spared
in a year of poor harvest. For each child who is to be named a small
human image in soft wood is prepared. This is an effigy of Laki Pesong,
the god whose special function it is to care for the welfare of the
children. A small mat is woven and a few strips of rattan provided
for each child. Each child sits with his (or her) mother in the
gallery beside the door of their room, and the parents announce the
name they propose for the child. Then the father, or some other man,
after killing a chick or young pig, lays the image on the mat before
the child, passes one of the rattan strips beneath it, and, holding
the image firmly with a big toe on each end of it, pulls the strip
rapidly to and fro, until it is made hot by its friction against the
image, and smoke begins to rise. While this goes on, the same man,
or another, pours out a stream of words addressed to Laki Pesong,
the sense of which is a supplication for an answer to the question,
"Is this a suitable name? Will he be prosperous under it? Will he
enjoy a long life?" etc. He continues the sawing movement until the
strip breaks in two. The two pieces are then compared; if they are of
unequal length, this result is regarded as expressing the approval of
the proposed name by Laki Pesong; if they are of approximately equal
length, the god is held to have expressed his disapproval, and another
name is proposed and submitted to the same test. If disapproval is
thus expressed several times, the naming of the child is postponed
to another occasion (Pls. 53, 168).

If a name has been approved, the image, together with the knife used
in killing the pig or chicken, is wrapped up in the small mat; the
bundle, which, as well as the ceremony, is called PUSA, is thrust
behind the rafters of the gallery opposite the door of the child's
room, to remain there as a memento of the naming.

When the naming is accomplished a general feast begins, the parents
of the newly named children contributing the chief part of the good
things; and a number of specially invited guests may participate.

The name so given at this ceremony is borne until the child becomes a
parent; when he resigns it in favour of the name given to his child
with the title Taman (= father) prefixed (or Tinan in the case of
a woman).

Among the Kayans of the upper Rejang the naming ceremonies differ
widely from those described above, and are even more elaborate. The
following description was given us by Laki Bo, a Kayan PENGHULU.[170]
A child is named sometime between its third month and the end of
its second year, the date depending partly on the father's capacity
to afford the expenses incidental to the ceremony. The father and
his friends obtain specimens of all the edible animals and fish,
and after drying them over the fire, set them up in his room in
attitudes as lifelike as possible. He procures also the leaves of a
species of banana tree which bears very large horn-like fruit, known
as PUTI ORAN; and having procured the services of a female DAYONG,
who has a reputation for skill in naming, he calls all the friends and
relatives of the family to the feast. The DAYONG enters the room where
the child is, bearing a fowl's egg, while gongs and drums are beaten
and guns discharged. She strokes the child from forehead to navel
with the egg, calling out some name at each stroke, until she feels
that she has found a suitable name. The whole company then pretends
to fall asleep; and presently some go out into the gallery. The
DAYONG then calls upon sixteen of the women to enter the room; they
enter led by a woman who, pretending to be a fowl, clucks and crows,
and says, "Why are you all asleep here? It has been daylight for a
long time. Don't you hear me crowing? Wake up, wake up." The child,
which has been kept in its parents' cubicle during this first part
of the ceremony, is then brought into the large room, and a fowl and
small pig are slaughtered and their entrails examined. If these yield
favourable omens, the DAYONG begins to chant, invoking the protection
of good spirits for the child. Then sixteen men and sixteen women,
whose parents are still living, are sent to fetch water for the use
of the child and its mother. The feasting then begins, some person
eating on behalf of the child, if it is too young to partake of the
feast. Eight days later the DAYONG again invokes the protection of
the beneficent spirits, and the child is taken out into the gallery
and shown to all the household. Some near relative makes a cross upon
its right foot with a piece of charcoal, and the child is taken to the
door of each room to receive some small present from each roomhold. The
child must then return to its parents' room and remain there eight
days. After the next harvest a similar feast of pigs' flesh and dried
animals is made, and the name is confirmed. But if in the meantime
the child has been ill, or any other untoward event has happened,
a new name is given to it. In this case it would be usual to choose
the well-tried name of some prosperous uncle or aunt. Again the child
must be confined to its parents' room for eight days following the
feast; and after that time it is free to go where it will, or rather
wherever children are allowed to go.

From five or six years onwards the boy more and more accompanies
the men in their excursions on the river and in the jungle, and is
taught to make himself useful on these occasions, and also on the PADI
farm, where he helps in scaring pests and in other odd jobs. But he
still has much leisure, which is chiefly devoted to playing with his
fellows. Among the principal boys' games the following deserve mention:
-- Spinning of peg-tops of hard wood, usually thrown overhand, but
sometimes underhand, in a manner very similar to that of English boys,
each boy in turn striving to strike the tops of the others with his
own; this game is played about the time of PADI harvest. Simple kites
are flown. A roughly made bow with unfeathered arrow is a somewhat
rare toy. Most of the out-door games are of the nature of practice
for the chase and war, and of trials of strength and of endurance of
pain. Wrestling is perhaps the most popular sport with the older boys
and with men. Each grips his antagonist's waist-cloth at its lower edge
behind, and strives to lay him on his back (Pl. 169). Throwing mock
spears at the domestic pigs or goats, and thrusting a spear through a
bounding hoop, afford practice for sport and war. Running games like
prisoner's base, and diving and swimming games, are also played. All
these boys' games are but little organised, and the competitive
motive is not very strongly operative; there are few set rules,
and but little scope for, training in leadership and subordination
is afforded by them.

In the house less active games are played. In one of the most popular
of these a number of children squat in a ring upon the floor; one
takes a glowing ember from a hearth, and passes it on to his neighbour,
who in turn passes it on as quickly as possible. In this way it goes
round and round the ring until the last spark of fire goes out. He or
she who holds it at that moment is then dubbed ABAN LALU or BALU DOH
(=widower Lalu or widow Doh).

Pets, in the form of birds and the smaller mammals, especially
hornbills, parrokeets, squirrels, porcupines, are kept in wicker cages.

About the age of ten years the Kayan boy begins to wear a waist-cloth
-- his first garment -- his sister having assumed the apron some two or
three years earlier; we are not aware of any ceremony connected with
this. From this time onward the boy begins to accompany his father on
the longer excursions of the men, especially on the long expeditions
in search of jungle produce; and on these occasions he is expected
to take an active part in the labours of the party. Participation
in such expeditions affords, perhaps, the most important part of his
education. There is little or no attempt made to impart instruction to
the children, whether moral or other, but they fall naturally under the
spell of custom and public opinion; and they absorb the lore, legends,
myths, and traditions of their tribe, while listening to their elders
as they discuss the affairs of the household and of their neighbours
in the long evening talks. They learn also the prohibitions and
tabus by being constantly checked; a sharp word generally suffices to
secure obedience. Punishments are almost unknown, especially physical
punishments; though in extreme cases of disobedience the child's ear
may be tweaked, while it is asked if it is deaf. A sound scolding also
is not infrequent, and an incorrigible offender, especially if his
conduct has been offensive to persons outside his family, may be haled
before the chief, who rates him soundly, and who may, in a more serious
case, award compensation to be paid by the delinquent's father. But in
the main the Spencerian method of training is followed. A parent warns
his child of the ill effects that may be expected from the line of
behaviour he is taking, and when those effects are realised, he says,
"Well, what did I tell you?" and adds a grunt of withering contempt.

The growth of the children in wisdom and morality is aided also by the
hearing from the lips of their elders wise saws and ancient maxims that
embody the experience of their forefathers, many of which are possibly
of Malay origin. A few of these seem worthy of citation here: --

"Never mind a drop or two so long as you don't spill the whole."

"Better white bones than white eyes" (which means -- that death is
preferable to shame).

"If you haven't a rattan do the best you can with a creeper."

It is difficult to say exactly at what age puberty begins with the
youths. The girls mostly begin their courses in the fourteenth or
fifteenth year. By this time the girl of the better class has the lobes
of her ears distended to form loops, which allow her heavy ear-rings
to reach to her collar-bone or even lower, and she is far advanced
towards completion of her tatu on thighs, feet, hands, and forearms
(see Chap. XII.). The process is begun at about the tenth year, and is
continued from time to time, only a small area being covered at each
bout, owing to the pain of the operation and the ensuing inflammation
and discomfort.

The boys begin at about fifteen years, or rather earlier, to assert
their independence, by clubbing together with those of their own
age, and taking up their sleeping quarters with the bachelors in the
gallery. At an earlier age the children have picked up a number of
songs and spontaneously sing them in groups, but now they begin to
develop their powers of musical. expression by practising with the
KELURI, Jew's harp, drum and TAWAK.

Of these instruments the first is the most used, especially by the
youths. It is a rude form of the bagpipes. The KELURI consists of
a dried gourd which has the shape of an oval flask with a long neck
(Fig. 85). The closed ends of a bundle of six narrow bamboo pipes are
inserted in the body of the gourd through a hole cut in its wall,
and are fixed hermetically with wax. Their free ends are open, and
each pipe has a small lateral hole or stop at a carefully determined
distance from the open end. The artist blows through the neck of
the gourd, and the air enters the base of each pipe by an oblong
aperture which is filled by a vibrating tongue or reed; this is
formed by shaving away the wall of the bamboo till it is very thin,
and then cutting through it round three sides of the oblong; it is
weighted with a piece of wax. The holes are stopped by the fingers,
3ach pipe emitting its note only when its hole is stopped. The physical
principles involved are obscure to us. Varieties of this instrument
are made by all the tribes of Borneo as well as by many other peoples
of the far East (Pl. 70).

The bamboo harp is similar to that made and used by the Punans (see
Fig. 86); the SAPEH is a two-stringed instrument of the banjo order;
the strings are thin strips of rattan; the whole stem and body are
carved out of a single block of hard wood (see Pl. 170 and Fig. 20).

Some of the girls learn to execute a solo dance, which consists largely
in slow graceful movements of the arms and hands (Pl. 170). The bigger
boys are taught to take part in the dance in which the return from
the warpath is dramatically represented. This is a musical march
rather than a dance. A party of young men in full war-dress form up
in single line; the leader, and perhaps two or three others, play the
battle march on the KELURI. The line advances slowly up the gallery,
each man turning half about at every third step, the even numbers
turning to the one hand, the odd to the other hand, alternately,
and all stamping together as they complete the turn at each third
step. The turning to right and left symbolises the alert guarding of
the heads which are supposed to be carried by the victorious warriors.

A more violent display of warlike feeling is given in the war-dance
which is executed by one or two warriors only. The youth, in full
panoply of war, and brandishing a PARANG and shield, goes through
the movements of a single combat with some fanciful exaggeration
(Pl. 171). He crouches beneath his shield, and springs violently hither
and thither, emitting piercing yells of defiance and rage, cutting and
striking at his imaginary foe or his partner in the dance. But it is
characteristic of the Kayans that neither in this dance nor in actual
practice in fencing do they attempt to strike one another. The boy,
besides watching these martial displays, is instructed in the arts
of striking, parrying, and shielding by the older men, who strike
at him with a stick but arrest the blow before it goes home. And we
have found it impossible to introduce among them a more realistic
mode of playful fencing. The ground of this reluctance actually to
strike one another in fencing is probably their strong feeling for
symbolism and the prevailing tendency to believe that the symbolical
art brings about that which it symbolises. In part also it is due
to the fact that to draw the blood of any member of the household is
LALI and involves the penalty of a fine.[171]

The youth goes through no elaborate rite of initiation to manhood;
and, to the best of our knowledge, there exists no body of secret
knowledge or of tradition or rites shared in only by the adult men,
to participation in which he might be admitted in the course of such
a rite. The only rite that is required to qualify him for taking
his place as a full-fledged member of the community is the second
occasion on which he strikes at the heads taken in battle. We have
seen that he performs this ceremonial act for the first time when
still of tender age. The age at which he repeats it depends in part
upon the occurrence of an opportunity; it commonly falls between his
eighth and fifteenth year. If in a house there is a number of big
lads who have not performed this rite, owing to no heads having been
taken for some years, a head may be borrowed for the purpose from
a friendly household; and in this case the borrowed head is brought
into the house with all the pomp and ceremony of successful war.

As the returning war-party approaches the village, the boys who are to
take part in the rite are marshalled before the house by a master of
the ceremonies. He kills a fowl and thrusts a sharpened stake right
through it, so that the point projects from its beak, and slashes
the carcase into three pieces, one for the adults of the house, one
for the boys, and one for the infants. He then takes a short bamboo
knife, and a bunch of ISANG leaves, and, after making a short address
to the boys, ties a band of ISANG round the wrist of each of them,
and, diluting the blood of the fowl with water, smears some of the
mixture on each boy's wrist-band. He puts a handful of rice on a
burning log and gives a grain of it to each of the boys to eat.

Some old man of the house goes down to the river to meet the returning
war-party and brings up the head (or one of the heads) and holds
it out, while the master of ceremonies, holding the portion of the
fowl's carcase assigned to the boys, leads up each boy in turn to
strike at the head with a sword. The boys then go down to the river;
and, while they bathe, a bunch of ISANG with which the head has been
decorated is waved over them. During the feasting which follows the
boys may eat only twice a day. No youth may join a war-party until he
has taken part in this rite. The boys are with few or no exceptions
keen to go out to war and therefore they like to go through this
ceremony at the earliest permissible opportunity.

When the youth begins to feel strongly the attraction of the other
sex, he finds opportunities of paying visits, with a few companions,
in friendly houses. It is then said in his own house that he has gone
"to seek tobacco," a phrase which is well understood to mean that he
has gone to seek female companionship.[172]

We must not pass over without mention a peculiar mutilation which
is practised by most of the Kayan youths as they approach manhood,
namely, the transverse perforation of the GLANS PENIS and the insertion
of a short rod of polished bone or hard wood.

A youth of average presentability will usually succeed in becoming the
accepted lover of some girl in his own or another house (cp. Chap. V.);
and though he may engage himself in this way with two or three girls
in turn before deciding to "settle down," he is usually not much over
twenty years of age when he becomes accepted as the future husband
of a girl some years his junior. A Kayan youth who has rendered
pregnant a girl with whom he has kept company can be relied upon
to acknowledge his responsibility and to marry her before her time
comes. In general it may be said that the rite of marriage does not
mark so complete a change in the recognised relations of the young
couple as with ourselves, except perhaps in those parts of this country
where "handfasting" is recognised as customary and regular. A time is
appointed for the wedding, generally shortly after the completion of
the padi-harvest; but this date is liable to be repeatedly postponed
to the following year by the occurrence of various events which are
regarded as of evil omen and as foretelling the early death of one of
the couple if they should persist in going through the ceremony. Such
omens are hardly ever disregarded; not even if the girl is far advanced
in pregnancy.[173] In the latter case the girl does not incur the odium
that attaches to the production of bastard offspring (see Chap. XX.);
she is treated as a married woman would be, and her child is regarded
as legitimate.

We describe in the following paragraphs the wedding of the son of an
influential Kayan chief to the daughter of the chief of another house
of the same village, such as we have had occasion to assist at. The
weddings of couples of less exalted station are correspondingly less
elaborate in all particulars.

When the appointed time draws near, the bridegroom sends a trusted
friend (his "best man") to open negotiations with the bride's
parents. The emissary carries with him a number of presents whose value
accords with the status and wealth of the bridegroom's parents. For
some time the fiction is maintained that the object of his visit is
not even suspected by the family, who make enquiries into the nature
of his business. After some fencing he comes to the point and asks
on behalf of his friend for a definite date at which he may marry the
daughter. The parents raise objections and difficulties of all sorts,
and perhaps nothing is settled until a second or third visit. If the
parents accept the proposal, the best man hands to them five sets
each of sixteen beads, the beads of each set being of uniform shape
and colour, namely (1) small yellow beads (UTEH); (2) black beads
(MEDAK); (3) a set known as HABARANI which may not be worn by the bride
before the naming of her first child; (4) light blue beads (KRUTANG);
(5) dark blue beads (TOBI). Each of these sets of beads is held to
ensure to the bride the enjoyment of some moral good. The girl also
sends a string of beads to her lover by the hand of his best man,
and at last the date is fixed, due regard being paid to the phases
of the moon; new moon is considered the most favourable time of the
month. The importance ascribed to the phase of the moon seems to arise
from the fact that the shape of the half-moon suggests the state of
pregnancy. Tally is kept by both parties of the date agreed upon. On
two long strips of rattan an equal number of knots is tied. Each party
keeps one of these tallies (often it is carried tied below the knee)
and cuts off one knot each morning; when the last knot alone remains,
the appointed day is at hand.

The parties on both sides invite the attendance of their friends
and relatives, who crowd the gallery of the bride's house. Early in
the morning the bridegroom arrives with his best man and a party of
young friends in full war-dress; they land from a boat even though
they have come but a few yards by water. They march up to the house,
some of them carrying large brass gongs; ascending the ladder, they
lay the gongs down the gallery from the head of the ladder towards
the door of the bride's room at such intervals that the bride can
step from one to another. It is understood that these gongs become the
property of the bride and her parents. Others of the bridegroom's band
carry other articles of value, and when the party reaches the door
of the bride's room, they parley with her parents and friends who
are gathered in the room, displaying and offering these objects to
the defenders of the room as inducements to admit them. They strive
also to push open the door. Presently the men of the defending party
make a sortie from the room fully armed, and repel the attackers
with much show of violence, but without bloodshed. After this sham
fight has been repeated, perhaps several times, the bridegroom and
his supporters are at last admitted to the room, and they rush in,
only to find, perhaps, that the coy maiden has slipped away through
the small door which generally gives access to a neighbouring room. The
impatient bridegroom cannot obtain information as to her whereabouts,
and so he and his men sit down in the room and accept the proffered
cigarettes. Presently the bride relents and returns to her parents'
room accompanied by a bevy of her girl friends. But the bridegroom
takes no notice of her entry. The inevitable pig meanwhile has been
laid in the gallery, together with a few gifts for the DAYONG who is
to read its liver. Here the final steps of the bargaining are conducted
by the friends of the bridegroom. (It is impossible to say in each case
how far this bargaining is genuine and how far the terms of the bargain
have been arranged beforehand.) More gongs are added to the row upon
the floor, chiefly by the friends invited by the bridegroom, who thus
make their wedding gifts, perhaps until the row extends to the door of
the bride's room. The pig is then killed and its liver examined; and,
if necessary, this is repeated with another and another pig, until one
whose liver permits of favourable interpretation is found. (A series
of bad livers would lead to postponement.) The DAYONG then sprinkles
pig's blood and water from a gong upon all the assembly, invoking the
blessing of the gods upon the young couple, asking for them long life
and many children. Then the bride and bridegroom walk up and down
the row of gongs eight times, stepping only upon the metal. In some
cases the bridegroom descends to his boat at the landing-stage on
each of these eight excursions, thus showing that he is free to come
and go as he pleases and has no entanglements. In this degenerate
age the ceremony terminates with this act, but for the feasting and
speech-making which fill up the evening hours. But in the old days,
as we are credibly informed by those who have been eye-witnesses,
the bride descended with the groom and his party to his boat and was
then carried off at full speed, pursued by several boat-loads of her
friends. The fleeing party would then check the pursuit by throwing
out on to the bank every article of value still remaining among them;
each article in turn would be snapped up by the pursuers, who then,
having thus resisted to the last and extorted the highest possible
price from the bridegroom, would allow the happy pair to console each
other in peace for the many trials they had had to endure.