There are no restrictions in diet for a pregnant woman beyond the
prohibition of eating of other people's food.
Only when the chief has a wedding is there any festival, which consists in
eating. There is no marriage ceremony, but having secured the girl's
consent and paid her father and mother the young man simply goes to her
mat. They then remain two days in the house, because they are afraid of
the omen birds. On the third day both go to fetch water from the river and
she begins to husk rice. Monogamy is practised, only the chief being
allowed to have five or more wives. The very enterprising kapala of Data
Laong, to the displeasure of his first wife, recently had acquired a
second, the daughter of a Penihing chief. While the payment of a parang
may be sufficient to secure a wife from among the kampong people, a chiefs
daughter is worth ten gongs, and in order to raise the money necessary to
obtain the gongs he set all the men of the kampong to work, gathering
rattan, for one month. Though each of them received something for his
labour, it was less than one-fourth of the amount accruing from the sale
of the product, leaving him sufficient to pay the price demanded for the
new bride. In Long Iram a gong may be bought for f. 30-80, and for
purposes of comparison the fact is mentioned that a Malay usually is
required to pay f. 60 to the girl's father to insure his consent to the
marriage.
April was rainy, with frequent showers day and night, and thunder was
heard every evening. Life there was the same as in most Dayak kampongs,
nearly all the people being absent during the day at the ladangs, and in
the evening they bring home the roots of the calladium, or other edible
roots and plants, which are cooked for food. The paddi had been harvested,
but the crop was poor, and therefore they had made no feast. There is no
dancing here except war dances. For a generation they have been gathering
rubber, taking it far down the Mahakam to be sold. Of late years rubber
has nearly disappeared in these parts, so they have turned their attention
to rattan.
One day a man was seen running with a sumpitan after a dog that had
hydrophobia, and which repeatedly passed my tent. The apparent attempt to
kill the animal was not genuine. He was vainly trying to catch it that he
might tie its legs and throw it into the river, because the people believe
that the shedding of a dog's blood would surely result in misfortune to
their health or crops. After three days the dog disappeared.
In Data Laong few were those men, women, and children who had not some
form of the skin diseases usual among the Dayaks, which were rendered
still more repugnant by their habit of scratching until the skin bleeds.
