Books: The Pagan Tribes of Borneo

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

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It may seem difficult to reconcile the form of the marriage ceremony
(involving as it does a blending of symbolical capture with actual
purchase) with the fact that, in accordance with the custom almost
universally followed among Kayans, the bridegroom becomes a member
of the room of his father-in-law and remains there for some years
before carrying off his wife to his own house. But we think this latter
practice, which in some quarters has been regarded as a survival from a
matriarchal organisation of society, is a recently introduced custom,
which has come rapidly into favour as a means by which the bridegroom
and his friends avoid a part of the expense involved in the older form
of marriage. For the residence for a period of years of the young
couple in the house and room of the wife's parents is made a part
of the marriage contract. If the bride is the only child of a chief,
her husband may remain permanently in her home and succeed her father
as chief. But in most cases the couple migrates to the husband's house
after a few years, generally on the occasion of the building of a new
house or on the death of his father, both of which events afford him
the opportunity of becoming head of a room and thus taking rank as,
and assuming the full responsibilities of, a PATER FAMILIAS.

The marriage ceremonies of the Kenyahs and Klemantans are similar
but less elaborate. But the Sea Dayak ceremony is different. A feast
is made in the house of the girl's parents. The bridegroom makes no
considerable gifts to the parents of the bride, though he is generally
expected to become a member of their household for the first few years
of his married life. The principal feature of the ceremony is the
splitting open of a PINANG (the seed of the areca palm) during the
feast, in the presence of the young couple and their relatives. The
two halves are examined for signs of decay or imperfection; and if
there are none, the marriage is regarded as approved. A live fowl is
waved over the couple by the chief of the house as he says, "Make
them prosperous, make them happy, give them long life, make them
wealthy, etc. etc." The phrases conform to a conventional pattern,
but each orator modifies and adapts them freely. The words seemed to
be addressed to the fowl, and it seems impossible to discover in the
Iban mind any conception of a higher power behind or beyond the fowl,
though we may suspect that in a vague way the live fowl symbolises
or represents Life in general or the power behind Nature (Pl. 173).

Few or no Kayans can state their age without going through some
preliminary calculations, and even then their statements are apt to
be vague and uncertain. A Kayan mother can generally work out the
age of each of her children on request. She puts down in a row bits
of leaf or stick, one for each year, working back from the present,
and recalling each year by the name of the place where the PADI crop
of that year was raised. When she reaches back to, the year of the
birth of any one of her children, she says that the child was born
about or before or soon after this particular harvest, and by counting
the pieces of stuff laid down she then arrives at the child's age.

An elderly man can generally make no more accurate statement regarding
his age than that at the time of the great eclipse he had just
begun to wear a waist-cloth, or that when the great guns were heard
(I.E. the sound of the eruption of Krakatoa) he was just beginning
"to look for tobacco."

We mention here a statement commonly made by Kayans, which, if true,
is of some interest as reporting a curious exception to a world-wide
custom commonly regarded as directly determined by the difference of
nature between the sexes, the report, namely, that among the Kalabits
the initiative in all love-making is taken by the women. We have
no detailed information in regard to their courtship and marriage
procedures.

CHAPTER 19

The Nomad Hunters

In almost all parts of Borneo there are to be found hidden in
the remotest recesses of the jungles small bands of homeless nomad
hunters. All these closely resemble one another in physical characters
and in mode of life; but differences of language mark them as belonging
to several groups, of which the Punans, the Ukits, the Sians, the
Bukitans, the Lugats, and the Lisums are the best known. Hitherto we
have designated all these groups by the name Punan, which properly
belongs to the largest group only. These groups inhabit different
areas, though there is considerable overlapping; and it seems probable
that they are merely local varieties of one stock, and that their
differences are mainly the results of geographical separation and
of intercourse with, and probably some mingling of blood with, the
settled tribes of the regions inhabited by the several groups. For
their languages seem to be closely allied; but in each region the
nomads seem to have adopted many words from their settled neighbours,
with whom they trade; and instances are known to us in which the
men of the settled tribes have married women of the nomads and have
adopted their mode of life, and others in which children of nomad
women, married into Kenyah, Kayan, or other villages, have gone back
to their mothers' people.

The Punans proper are found in the central highlands wandering through
the upper parts of the basins of all the large rivers; here and there
they range into the lowlands, and in rare instances they even reach
the coast. The Ukits, on the other hand, confine themselves to the
interior, and are found chiefly in the upper parts of the basins of the
Kotei, the Rejang, the Kapuas, and Banjermasin rivers. The Bukitans
inhabit chiefly the upper basins of the rivers of Sarawak. Although
these nomads wander perpetually in the forests, moving their camp every
few weeks or months, any one group attaches itself to a particular
area, partly because they become familiar with its natural resources,
partly because they establish friendly relations with the villagers
of the region, with whom they barter jungle-produce to the advantage
of both parties. The settled tribesmen of any region find this trade
so profitable that they regard the harmless nomads with friendly
feelings, learn their language, and avoid and reprobate any harsh
treatment of them that might drive them to leave their district. In
fact they look upon them with a certain sense of proprietorship and
are jealous of their intercourse with other tribes; the nomads, in
fact, rank high among the many natural products of the jungle that
render any particular region attractive to the tribesmen.

Of all these nomad groups the Punans are the most numerous and we have
seen more of them than of any others. We therefore describe their
peculiar mode of life; but it may be understood that what we say of
them holds good in the main of the other groups of nomads with but
little modification.

From the point of view of physical development the Punans are among
the finest of the peoples of Borneo. They resemble the Kenyahs more
closely than any other tribe; that is to say, they are of very pale
yellow colour, of short stature with long body and short legs, but
otherwise well proportioned and very sturdily built with well-rounded
limbs and large muscular development. Their heads are subbrachycephalic
and inclining to be square; their features are more regular than those
of most other tribes; their most distinctive physical characters are
a relatively well-developed nasal bridge, nostrils directed so much
forward that one seems to look right into their heads through them,
and the slight greenish tinge and fine silky texture of their pale
yellow skins. The greenish tinge may be noticed in all nomad Punans,
and it is possible that the ruddier darker tint of the agricultural
peoples is largely or wholly due to their greater exposure to the sun;
for the Punan fears the broad daylight and rarely or never leaves
the deep shade of the jungle.

In fineness of texture of the skin they surpass all the other tribes,
and they seldom or never suffer from the disfiguring scaly affections
of the skin so common among the others.

The Punans are more uniform as regards their physical characters than
the other peoples; there are no distinctions of upper and lower social
strata as among the other tribes, and thus the mixture of blood,
which in the Kayan and Kenyah communities results from the adoption
of war captives into the lower class, does not occur with them;
and they present none of the wide diversities of type such as are
common in the other tribes, especially between the upper and lower
social classes. They correspond, in fact, to the relatively pure bred
upper classes of the other tribes, and present the same high standard
of physical development and vigour. It is not improbable that the
severer conditions of their mode of life contribute to maintain this
high standard.

The facial expression and the bodily attitudes of the Punans are also
characteristic. When gathered in friendly talk with strangers, even
those whom they have every reason to trust, they prefer to remain
squatting on their heels, rather than to sit down on a mat; and the
tension of their muscles, combined with the still alert watchfulness
of their faces, conveys the impression that they are ready to leap
up and flee away or to struggle for their lives at any moment. It
is doubtless this alertness of facial expression and bodily attitude
that gives the Punan something of the air of an untameable wild animal.

In spite of his distrustful expression the Punan is a likeable person,
rich in good qualities and innocent of vices. He never slays or attacks
men of other tribes wantonly; he never seeks or takes a head, for his
customs do not demand it; and he never goes upon the warpath, except
when occasionally he joins a war-party of some other tribe in order to
facilitate the avenging of blood. But he will defend himself and his
family pluckily, if he is attacked and has no choice of flight; and,
if any one has killed one of his relatives, he will seek an opportunity
of planting a poisoned dart in his body. In a case of this kind all
the Punans of a large area will aid one another in obtaining certain
information as to the identity of the offender; and any one of them
will avenge the injury to his people, if the opportunity presents
itself. They do not avenge themselves indiscriminately on all or any
member of the offender's village or family, but they will postpone
their vengeance for years, if the actual offender cannot be reached
more promptly. It seems worth while to recount a particular instance
of Punan vengeance. The Punans of the Tinjar basin were claimed by
a Sebop chief; that is to say, the chief, Jangan by name, regarded
them as under his protection and as therefore under an obligation
to trade with him and his people only. But the Pokun people in the
basin of a neighbouring river, the Balaga, a tributary of the Rejang,
also claimed similar rights over the Punans of the district. One of
these Pokuns, a man of the upper class, being angered by the adhesion
of the Punans to the chief Jangan and by their refusal to trade with
him, cut down one of them during an altercation in the jungle, leaving
him dead on the spot. The companions of the murdered man retired, and
all the Punans deserted the neighbourhood of the Pokuns. Some four
years later the Pokun community migrated to the Tinjar; and shortly
afterwards the murderer, thinking the whole matter was forgotten, set
out through the jungle with a small party to seek to trade with another
group of Punans. While on the march he was struck in the cheek (the
favourite spot for the aim of the Punan marksman) by a poisoned dart
from an unseen assailant and died within ten minutes. His companions,
remembering the incident of four years before, suspected the Punans,
but saw no trace of any.

The Punans confessed the act of vengeance to Jangan, and he
communicated the facts to the Resident of the Baram district (C. H.),
who happened to be in the neighbourhood at the time. The Pokuns
wished to take vengeance on the Punans, and they would undoubtedly
have turned out in force to hunt down and kill all the Punan men
they could find, but that the Resident forbade them to take action,
and enforced his command by threatening to burn down their houses in
their absence. It is only fair to add that the Pokun chief recognised
the justice of this prohibition and showed no resentment.

That the Punans will not allow the slaying of any one of their number
to go unavenged on the person of the slayer is well known to all
the people of the country, and this knowledge does much to give them
immunity from attack.

The Punans cultivate no crops and have no domestic animals. They live
entirely upon the wild produce of the jungle, vegetable and animal. Of
the former, sago and a form of vegetable tallow found in the seed
of a tree (SHOREA) are the most important. Animals of all kinds are
eaten, and are secured principally by the aid of the blow-pipe and
poisoned darts, in the use of which the Punans are very expert. The
Punan dwelling is merely a rude low shelter of palm leaves, supported
on sticks to form a sloping roof which keeps off the rain but very
imperfectly, and leaves the interior open on every side.[174]

A Punan community consists generally of some twenty to thirty adult men
and women, and, about the same number of children. One of the older men
is recognised as the leader or chief. He has little formally defined
authority, but rather the authority only that is naturally accorded to
age and experience and to the fuller knowledge of the tribal history
and traditions that comes with age. His sway is a very mild one; he
dispenses no substantial punishments; public opinion and tradition
seem to be the sole and sufficient sanctions of conduct among these
Arcadian bands of gentle wary wanderers. Decisions as to the movements
of the band are arrived at by open discussion, in which the leader will
exercise an influence proportioned to his reputation for knowledge
and judgment. He is mainly responsible for the reading of the omens,
and has charge of the few and simple household gods -- if that lofty
title may be given to the wooden image of a crocodile and the bundle
of charms attached to it which are always to be seen in a Punan camp.

If, in case of disagreement, one or more of the members of a band
refuses to accept the judgment of the leader and of the majority,
he, or they, will withdraw from the community together with wife and
children, to form a band which, though in the main independent of
the parent group, will usually remain in its near neighbourhood and
maintain some intercourse. Fighting between Punans, whether of the
same or of different communities, is very rare; the only instances
known to us are a few in which Punans have been incited by men of
other tribes to join in an attack on their fellows.

The members of the band are for the most part the near relatives
of the leader, brothers and sons and nephews with their wives and
children. Each man has usually one wife. We know of no instances of
polygyny amongst them; though we know of cases in which a Punan woman
has become the second wife of a man of some other tribe. On the other
hand, polyandry occurs, generally in cases in which a woman married
to an elderly man has no children by him. They desire many children,
and large families are the rule; a family with as many as eight or
nine children is no rarity.

Marriage is for life, though separation by the advice and direction
of the chief, or by desertion of the man to another community,
occurs. Sexual restraint is probably maintained at about the same
level as among the other peoples, the women being more strictly chaste
after than before marriage. The ceremony of marriage is less elaborate
than among the settled tribes. A young man will become the lover of a
girl generally of some other group than his own, and when she becomes
pregnant the marriage is celebrated. There is little or no formal
arrangement of marriages by the elders on behalf of the young people.

The ceremony of marriage consists merely in a feast in which all,
or most of, the members of the two communities take part. Speeches
are made, and the leaders exhort the young couple to industry and
to obedience to themselves, making specific mention of the principal
duties of either sex, such as collecting camphor and procuring animal
food for the man, the preparing of sago, cooking, and tending the
children for the woman.

After the ceremony, the husband joins the wife's community and
generally remains a member of it; unlike the Kayans, among whom a
husband, though he may live for some years with his wife's people,
eventually brings her to his father's village. No definite payment
is made to the parents of the bride, but some small gift, perhaps
two or three pounds of tobacco, is usually presented to them by
the bridegroom.

Adverse omens may cause the postponement of a marriage; but beyond this
there seems to be no regular method of obtaining or seeking divine
sanction for the marriage; an offering of cooked food may be made
to Bali-Penyalong, by placing it on a stake beneath the image of the
crocodile (which seems to serve as an altar) with some dedicatory words
-- for like the other peoples the Punans are voluble in speech, both
in human intercourse and in appealing to the supernatural powers. On
such occasions the words uttered usually take in part the form of a
prayer for protection from danger.

Those who are accustomed to all the complex comforts and resources of
civilisation, and to whom all these resources hardly suffice to make
tolerable the responsibility and labour of the rearing of a family,
can hardly fail to be filled with wonder at the thought of these gentle
savages bearing and rearing large families of healthy well-mannered
children in the damp jungle, without so much as a permanent shelter
above their heads. The rude shelter of boughs and leaves, which is
their only house, is perhaps made a little more private than usual for
the benefit of the labouring woman. The pregnant woman goes on with
her work up to the moment of labour and resumes it almost immediately
afterwards. She at once becomes responsible for the care of the
infant. The only special treatment after childbirth is to sit with the
back close to a fire, so as to heat it as much as can be borne. The
delivery is sometimes aided by tightly binding the body above the
gravid uterus in order, it would seem, to prevent any retrogression of
the process. While the mother goes about her work in camp, the infant
is usually suspended in a sling of bark-cloth from a bent sapling or
branch, an arrangement which enables the mother to rock and so soothe
the child by means of an occasional push. When travelling or working
in the jungle the mother carries the infant slung upon her back,
either in a bark-cloth or a specially constructed cradle of plaited
rattan such as is used by the Kayans. The infant is suckled from one
to two years, and then takes to the ordinary diet of boiled wild sago,
varied with other animal and vegetable products of the jungle.

The children begin to help in the family work at a very early age. They
are disciplined largely by frequent warnings against dangers, actual
and suppositious, of which they remain acutely conscious throughout
life. This discipline no doubt contributes largely to induce the air
and the attitude of timid alertness which are so characteristic of the
Punan. Harmony and mutual help are the rule within the family circle,
as well as throughout the larger community; the men generally treat
their wives and children with all kindness, and the women perform
their duties cheerfully and faithfully.

The religious beliefs and practices of the Punans are similar to
those of the Kayans, but are less elaborated. They observe a simpler
system of omens, of which the behaviour and calls of lizards and
grasshoppers and of the civet cat (ARCTOGALE) are the chief. They
pray to Bali Penyalong, who seems to be the principal object of
their trust. This being is probably conceived anthropomorphically,
but his human qualities are not so clearly marked as in the case of
the gods of the settled tribes. They make no images in human form,
and we do not know that Bali Penyalong is supposed by them to have
a wife. The only image used in rites is the wooden image of the
crocodile, which is carried from place to place with every change of
camp. In communicating with the omen-creatures, fire and the frayed
sticks are used in much the same way as by the Kayans. Their rites
involve no animal sacrifices, and they do not look for guidance or
answer to prayer in the entrails of animals. It seems probable that
the Punans in each region have absorbed some of their religious and
superstitious notions from the settled tribes of the same region;
for in each region the Punan beliefs are different, showing more
or less affinity to those of the settled tribes. It is an obscure
question whether all their religious belief has been thus absorbed
from more cultured neighbours, or whether the Punans represent in this
and other respects the perpetuation (perhaps with some degeneration
or impoverishment) of a more primitive culture once common to the
ancestors of all, or the greater part of, the tribes of Borneo.[175]
The fact that the principal divinity recognised by them bears the same
name (Bali Penyalong) as the chief god of the Kenyahs is compatible
with either view.

Beside Bali Penyalong the Punans are aware of the existence of other
divinities, which, however, are very obscurely conceived and seldom
approached with prayer or rite. As regards the land of shades and
the journey thither, Punan beliefs are closely similar to those of
Kenyahs and some of the Klemantans. Their account of the journey of
the dead includes the passage of a river guarded by a great fish and a
hornbill (see Chap. XIV.). But they practice no burial and no funeral
rites. As soon as a man dies in any camp, the whole community moves
on to a new camp, leaving his body under one of their rude shelters,
covered only with a few leaves and branches.

Their view of the life after death seems to involve no system of
retribution and to be wellnigh devoid of moral significance. Their
religious beliefs probably influence their conduct less strongly than
do those of the Kayans; for among the latter such beliefs certainly
make strongly for social conduct, I.E. for obedience to the chiefs
and for observance of custom and public opinion; but in the Punan
community the conditions of life are so simple and so nearly in harmony
with the impulses of the natural man that temptations to wrong-doing
are few and weak; external sanctions of conduct, therefore, are but
little needed and but little operative.

Danger assails the Punan on every side and at all times, hence
alertness, energy, and courage are the prime virtues; courage
is rated highest, and a woman looks especially for courage in her
husband. But though courageous and active, Punans are not pugnacious;
as was said above, they rarely or never fight against one another,
and the nomadic groups of each region maintain friendly relations
with one another. Within each group harmony and mutual helpfulness
is the rule; each shares with all members of the group whatever
food, whether vegetable or animal, he may procure by skill or good
fortune. On returning to camp with a piece of game, a Punan throws
it down in the midst and it is treated as common property. If he has
slain a large pig or deer, too heavy for him to bring in unaided, he
returns to camp and modestly keeps silence over his achievement until
some question as to his luck is put to him; then he remarks that he
has left some small piece of game in the jungle, a mere trifle. Three
or four men will then set out and, following the path he has marked
by bending down twigs on his way back to camp, will find the game
and bring it in. If a present of tobacco is made to one member of
a group of Punans, the whole mass is divided by one of them into as
many heaps as there are members of the band present; and then each
of them, men and women alike, takes one heap for his or her own use,
the one who divided the mass taking the heap left by the rest.

In spite of their shyness and timidity, they respond readily to
kind treatment. They are never seen on the rivers, as they have
no boats and cannot easily be persuaded to venture a trip in a
boat. It is possible to make many expeditions through the jungle
without getting any glimpse of them. One of us (C. H.) had lived in
the Baram district six years before succeeding in seeing a single
Punan. The history of his first meeting with Punans may serve to
illustrate their timidity, caution, and good feeling. On making a
long hunting trip on the slopes of Mount Dulit, he took with him a
Sebop who was familiar with Punans and their language. For some days
no trace of them was seen; but one morning freshly made footprints
were observed round about the camp. The following night a cleft stick
was set up at some twenty paces from the camp with a large cake of
tobacco in the cleft, and on the stick a mark was carved which would
be understood by the Punans as implying that they were at liberty to
take the tobacco. This is a method of opening communications and trade
with them well known to the Klemantans. In the morning the tobacco had
disappeared, and fresh foot prints showed that its disappearance was
due to human agency. The following night this procedure was repeated,
and in the course of the day Punan shouts were heard, coming from a
distance of some hundreds of yards. The interpreter was sent out with
instructions to parley and, if possible, to persuade the Punans to come
into camp. Presently he returned with two shy but curious strangers,
who squatted at some distance and were gradually encouraged to come to
close quarters. After staying a few minutes and accepting presents of
tobacco and cloth, they made off. On the following day they returned
with eight male companions, bringing a monkey, a hornbill, and a rare
bird, all killed with their poisoned darts; and they enquired how
much rubber they should bring in return for the tobacco. They were
told that no return was expected, but, understanding that animals of
all sorts were being collected, they attached themselves to the party,
lent their unmatched skill to adding to the collections, and brought
in many rare specimens that now repose safely in the Natural History
Museum at South Kensington. They soon gained confidence and took up
their sleeping quarters under the raised floor of the rough hut; and,
when after some weeks the time for parting came, they voluntarily
took a prominent part in carrying down the collections to the boats,
and went away well satisfied with the simple presents they received.