I have just finished
pounding and am going to cook fish. This case we will settle tomorrow. I
am hungry now." She went away and so did Bird and Otter. She cooked rice
in one bamboo and the fish in another. Then she ate, after which she went
to the river as the sun was setting, to take her bath. She soon went to
sleep.
Early the next morning she made her usual tour to the river to bring water
and take her bath, and when she had eaten, Bird and Otter arrived. Otter
wanted damages from Bird, and Bird insisted that the woman should pay. She
repeated that she knew nothing of Bird and had not asked him to come. As
they were arguing, to her great relief her husband arrived. He brought
many prisoners and many heads. "It is well you have come," she said. "Bird
and Otter have made a case against me. I was husking paddi, and Bird liked
to look at me. I did not know he was there in the tree for a long time. A
branch fell down and wounded Otter's child, making her very angry, and she
asks damages from me." "This case is difficult," the husband answered. "I
must think it over." After a while he said: "The best thing to do is to
give food to both." Bird was given fruit to eat and Otter fish, and they
went home satisfied. All the people of the kampong gathered and rejoiced
at the successful head-hunting. They killed pigs and hens, and for seven
nights they ate and danced.
NOTE. - When an attack on men is decided upon the sumpitan is hidden and
left behind after the spear-head has been detached from it and tied to a
long stick. This improvised spear is the principal weapon on head-hunting
raids, as well as on the chase after big game. The bird, called by the
Saputans teong, is common, of medium size, black with yellow beak, and
yellow around the eyes, also a little red on the head. It learns easily to
talk, and is also common in Java.
16. LAKI MAE
(From the Saputans; kampong Data Laong)
The wife of Laki Mae was pregnant and wanted to eat meat, so she asked her
husband to go out hunting. He brought in a porcupine, wild hens, kidyang,
pig, and deer, and he placed all the meat on the tehi, to smoke it over
fire, that it should keep. But the right hind leg of the porcupine was
hung up by itself unsmoked, to be eaten next day. They had their evening
meal and then went to sleep. In the night she bore an infant son, and,
therefore, next morning another woman came to do the cooking. She took the
hind leg and before proceeding to cook it, washed it.
