At childbirth no man is permitted to be present. For
three days the mother eats boiled rice, red pepper, and barks of certain
trees, and she may work on the third day. Twins are known to occur. As
soon as the navel is healed a name is given to the child. Both Penihing
and Saputan, if asked, are allowed to give their own names. Marriages are
contracted while the woman is still a child. There are no marriage
ceremonies and divorces are easily obtained. If a married woman is at
fault with another man the two must pay the injured husband one gong, as
well as one gong for each child. In case the husband is at fault, the same
payment is exacted by the injured wife.
The Penihings have a game called ot-tjin which I also observed in other
Bornean tribes, and which to some extent is practised by the Malays. This
game, generally known among scientific men by the name mancala, is of the
widest distribution. Every country that the Arabs have touched has it, and
it is found practically in every African tribe. It is very common in the
coffee houses of Jerusalem and Damascus. A comprehensive account of the
game mancala is given by Mr. Stewart Culin, the eminent authority on
games, in the Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1894, pages 595-607.
With the Penihings the complete name is aw-li on-nam ot-tjin, meaning:
playon-nam fish. An essential of the game is an oblong block of heavy wood
which on its upper surface is provided with two rows of shallow holes, ten
in each row, also a larger one at each end. The implement is called
tu-tung ot-tjin, as is also both of the large single holes at the ends.
There are two players who sit opposite each other, each controlling ten
holes. The stake may be ten or twenty wristlets, or perhaps a fowl, or the
black rings that are tied about the upper part of the calf of the leg, but
not money, because usually there is none about. The game is played in the
evenings.
Two, three, four, or five stones of a small fruit may be put in each hole;
I noticed they generally had three; pebbles may be used instead. Let us
suppose two have been placed in each hole; the first player takes up two
from any hole on his side. He then deposits one in the hole next
following. Thus we have three in each of these two holes. He takes all
three from the last hole and deposits one in each of the next three holes;
from the last hole he again takes all three, depositing one in each of the
next three holes. His endeavour is to get two stones in a hole and thus
make a "fish." He proceeds until he reaches an empty hole, when a
situation has arisen which is called gok - that is to say, he must stop,
leaving his stone there.
His adversary now begins on his side wherever he likes, proceeding in the
same way, from right to left, until he reaches an empty hole, which makes
him gok, and he has to stop.
[Illustration: THE GAME MANCALA AS USED BY THE PENIHINGS.]
To bring together two stones in one hole makes a "fish," but if three
stones were originally placed in each hole, then three make a "fish"; if
four were originally placed, then four make a "fish," etc., up to five.
The player deposits the "fish" he gains to the right in the single hole at
the end.
The two men proceed alternately in this manner, trying to make "fish" (ara
ot-tjin). The player is stopped in his quest by an empty hole; there he
deposits his last stone and his adversary begins. During the process of
taking up and laying down the stones no hole is omitted; in some of them
the stones will accumulate. On the occasion of the game described I saw
two with eight in them.
When one of the players has no stones left in his holes he has lost. If
stones are left on either side, but not enough to proceed, then there is
an impasse, and the game must be played over again.
OMA-SULINGS
(On the Mahakam River)
To marry the daughter of a noble the man must pay her father twenty to
thirty gongs (each costing twenty to forty florins). The price of the
daughter of a pangawa is from one to three gongs, and to obtain a wife
from the family of a pangin costs a parang, a knife, or some beads. Women
assist at childbirth, which takes place within the room, near the door,
but generally no blian is present.
When a girl has her first menstruation a hen or a pig is killed, and in
the evening the blood thus obtained is applied to the inside of a folded
leaf which the blian wafts down her arms - "throwing away illness," the
meat of the sacrifice being eaten as usual. The same treatment is bestowed
upon any one who desires good health.
As many infants die, it is the custom to wait eight or ten days after
birth before naming a child, when a similar sacrifice is made, and a leaf
prepared in like manner is passed down the arms of the infant by the
blian. In selecting a name he resorts to an omen, cutting two pieces of a
banana leaf into the shape of smaller leaves. According to the way these
fall to the ground the matter is decided. If after two trials the same
result is obtained the proposed name is considered appropriate. Also on
the occasion of marriage, a similar sacrifice and the same curative
practice are used.
