I Give A List Of Subtribes With Reserve:

Oma-Bakkah, Oma-Lisan, Oma-Kulit, Oma-Lim, Oma-Puah, Oma-Yalan, Oma-Tokkung, Oma-Bakkung, Oma-Bam, Oma-Lung, Oma-Badang, Lepo-Tepo, Lepo-Tao, Lepo-Maot, Lepo-Ke Anda Pah, Lepo-Ke Ang Lung, Lepo-Ke Oma-Lasang.

Most of the Lepo are on the Bahau. My informant, who had travelled in the interior, said there was little difference in the languages of these subtribes.

The Kenyahs, a few Kayans, and the Katingans mutilate the membrum virile by transpiercing the glans and the urethra, and a piece of brass wire is inserted. A Kenyah tribe (Oma-Badang) in Podjungan, makes two perforations so directed that the wires are crossed.

The kapala of the Penihing kampong Long Kai, on the Mahakam, told me that Kayan and Kenyah are the same people. He probably knew the Kayans only by personal experience, but his opinion is curious in view of the fact that the two tribes have been bracketed by Dr. A.C. Haddon and Dr. J.H.F. Kohlbrugge.

MURUNGS

(Notes from kampong Tumbang Marowei, on the Laong, a tributary to the Barito River, in Central Borneo)

At the time of childbirth two to four women and one blian attend the prospective mother, who assumes a recumbent position with the upper portion of the body slightly raised. The blian blows upon a cupful of water which the woman drinks in order to make delivery easy. The umbilical cord is cut with a knife or a sharp piece of ironwood, and the afterbirth is buried. Death in labor is not unknown, and twins are born occasionally. The mother is confined for a week, and she is forbidden to eat pork, eggs, new rice, cocoanut oil, or any acid substance. She may partake of ordinary rice, lombok (red pepper), as well as sugar, and all kinds of fruit except bananas. She bathes three times a day, as is her usual custom. In one week, as soon as the navel is healed, two or three fowls are killed, or a pig, and a small feast is held at which rice brandy is served. The child is suckled for one year.

No name is given the infant until it can eat rice, which is about five months after birth. At the age of six years, or when it begins to take part in the work of the paddi fields, fishing, etc., the name is changed. In both cases the father gives the name. The kapala, my informant, changed his name a third time about ten years previously, when he entered the service of the government. Names are altered for the purpose of misleading evil spirits.

Children were few here, one reason being that abortion is a common practice, as is instanced in the case of the kapala's wife who prided herself on her success in this regard on ten occasions. Massage as well as abortifacient herbs are employed for the purpose. The root of a plant in general use is soaked in water before administering. I was also shown a vine which was about two centimetres in diameter and was told that if a portion of this was cut off and the end inserted into a pint bottle the vine would yield sufficient juice to fill it in a night. In case children are not wanted both husband and wife drink of this liquid after the morning meal, and both abstain from water for the remainder of the day. It is believed that afterward it would be possible for the man to have offspring only by marrying a new wife. There are also several specifics to prevent conception, but none for producing fertility. The kapala gave as reasons for this practice scarcity of food and woman's fear of dying. Both seem incongruous to fact and primitive ideas, and perhaps his view would better be accepted only as an indication of his ignorance in the matter. The young people are taught to dance by the blian before they are married, and take lessons for a year or two.

The Murung blian possesses three small wooden statues of human beings which he employs in recovering brua (souls) and bringing them back to persons who are ill, thus making them well. These images are called jurong, two being males, the other female, and carrying a child on its back. While performing his rites over either sex the blian holds the female jurong in his right hand, the other two being inserted under his girdle, one in front, the other at the back, to protect him against his enemies. In the case of a child being ill its brua is brought back by means of the infant carved on the back of the effigy. Undoubtedly the images are similar in character to the kapatongs I have described as occupying an important place in the lives of the Duhoi (Ot-Danum), the Katingan, and other tribes of Southwestern Borneo.

PENYAHBONGS

(Notes from the Upper Busang River, Central Borneo)

The Dutch officials give this tribe the name of Punan-Penyahbongs; the Malays call them Punans, seldom Penyahbongs. The Saputans, a neighbouring tribe, told me that the Penyahbongs and the Punans make themselves mutually understood. Whether they really are Punans or have been called so because of their recent nomadic habits is difficult to determine. However, since they declare themselves to be Punans, in view of all related circumstances it is safe to conclude that they are allied to that great nomadic tribe.

According to the Penihing chief in Long Kai the name Penyahbong was applied formerly not only to the people, but also to the mountain range in which they were living, the Muller mountains, around the headwaters of the Kapuas River in the Western Division. The western sides of the Muller mountains seem to have been their headquarters, and most of them still live west of the mountains. To one of the tributaries of this river the tribe owes the name by which they are known among Punans, Saputans, and Bukats, who call the Penyahbongs simply Kreho.

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