When all is ready for a
start, a delay of from one to four days may be caused by unfavourable
interference of an omen bird. Should a bird chance to repeat the omen when
another start is made, the party must return to the kampong and wait a
long time. The Dayaks are very much guided in their actions by omens taken
not only from birds but also from incidents, and merely to hear a certain
bird is sufficient reason to change all plans.
When leaving their kampong to take part in an expedition to New Guinea the
Penihings heard the cry of a bird called tarratjan, and requested the
lieutenant in charge to wait four days. He replied, naturally, that the
Company (government) does not employ birds in making decisions, and while
the Dayaks offered no further objection they declared to him that one of
them would surely die. According to my informant it so happened that
before arriving at the island one man died. If at such a time a large tree
should be seen falling, he said, then they would like to give up the trip
to New Guinea entirely, but being afraid of the Company they go,
notwithstanding the warning.
If a head-hunting party sees a large tree fall, the expedition is
abandoned, and no young men who took part can ever join another venture of
the same kind. Old and experienced men, after the lapse of a year, may
resume operations. In case of meeting a centipede a head-hunting
expedition must return immediately to the kampong, and for four years no
such enterprise may be undertaken.
The purposes of head-hunting are manifold. The slain man is believed to
change into a servant and assistant in the next life. When a chief dies it
becomes an essential duty to provide him with heads, which are deposited
on his grave as sacrifices, and the souls of which serve him in the next
life. Heads taken for the benefit of kampong people are hung in the house
of the kapala to counteract misfortune and to confer all manner of
benefits. An important point is that the presence of the heads from other
tribes, or rather of the souls residing in them, compels evil antohs to
depart. A kampong thus becomes purified, free from disease. The killing of
a fowl is not sufficient to accomplish this; that of a pig helps a little,
a water-buffalo more, but to kill a man and bring the head makes the
kampong completely clean.
With the Katingans a head hanging in the house is considered a far better
guardian than the wooden figures called kapatongs, which play an important
part in the life of that tribe.
