Would be a failure for
the others; nor should the dogs, on a pig hunt, be called in while on a
ladang lest monkeys and deer eat the paddi. When about to undertake a
journey of more than four or five days' duration one must abstain from
eating snake or turtle, and if a pregnant woman eats these reptiles the
child will look like them. Should she eat fruit that has fallen to the
ground, the child will be still-born. The same prohibition applies to
lizards.
Up to twenty years ago the Duhoi and the Katingans made head-hunting raids
on each other. It was the custom to take a little flesh from the arm or
leg of the victim, which was roasted and eaten. Before starting on such an
expedition the man must sleep separate from his wife seven days; when
going pig-hunting the separation is limited to one day. On the Upper Samba
the custom still prevails of drinking tuak from human skulls. This was
related to me by the "onder" of Kasungan, a trustworthy man who had
himself seen it done.
A wide-awake kapala from one of the kampongs above was of excellent
service in explaining the purposes of the ethnological objects I
purchased. About articles used by women he was less certain, but he gave
me much valuable information, though it was impossible to keep him as long
as I desired because he felt anxious about the havoc rusa and monkeys
might make with his paddi fields. At five o'clock of an afternoon I had
finished, and in spite of a heavy shower the kapala left to look after his
paddi, with a night journey of six hours before him. These people are
satisfied with little, and he was happy to receive, besides rice and
money, a quantity of cocoanut oil and some empty tin cans thrown in.
During this busy day the thought occurred to me that the night was
Christmas eve, the great festival in Scandinavian countries, and I had
made no preparation for a better meal, having neither time nor means. In
fact, it so happened that I had rather less than usual. Nevertheless, the
day had passed happily, as I accomplished much and acquired interesting
information, for instance, about the flying prahu which I had secured. It
was about half a metre long, and this and similar models seem to be quite
an institution in the southern parts of Borneo. The Duhoi and the
Katingans use the contrivance for curing disease, though not in the way we
should expect, by carrying away the disorder, but by making a present of
the prahu to a good antoh to facilitate his journey.
The name of the flying prahu is menama, in.
