Through Central Borneo An Account Of Two Years' Travel In The Land Of The Head-Hunters Between The Years 1913 And 1917 By Carl Lumholtz
- Page 217 of 253 - First - Home
It Slipped Through A
Hole In The Floor To The Ground Underneath.
Looking through the hole she
saw a small male child instead of the leg, and she told Mae of this.
"Go and take this child up and bring it here. It is good luck," he said.
"It is my child too." It was brought up to the room and washed and laid to
the wife's breast, but the child would not suckle. Mae said: "It is best
to give him a name now. Perhaps he will suckle then." He then asked the
child if it wanted to be called Nonjang Dahonghavon, and the child did
not. Neither did it want Anyang Mokathimman, nor Samoling, nor Samolang.
It struck him that perhaps he might like to be called Sapit (leg) Tehotong
which means "Porcupine Leg," and the child began to suckle at once. The
child of the woman was given a name two months later, Lakin Kudyang.
For two years the mother suckled the two, and then they were old enough to
play behind the houses of the kampong. They saw many birds about, and they
asked their father to give each of them a sumpitan. When they went out
hunting the human boy got one bird, but the other boy got two. Next time
the woman's son killed a plandok (mouse-deer), but the other one secured a
pig. Their father was angry over this and said to "Porcupine Leg": "Go and
kill the two old bears and bring the young ones here." He had recently
seen two bears, with one cub each, under the roots of a tree in the
neighbourhood. The boy went, and the bears attacked him and tried to bite
him, but with his parang he killed both of them, and brought the cubs
along to the kampong, bringing besides the two dead bears. The father
again sent him out, this time to a cave where he knew there were a pair of
tiger-cats and one cub. "Go and kill the pair and bring the cub here," he
said. Again the boy was successful. Laki Mae did not like this and was
angry.
In the evening "Porcupine Leg" said to his brother: "I have a long time
understood that father is angry with me. Tomorrow morning I am going away.
I am not eating, and I will look for a place to die." His brother began to
weep, and said he would go with him. Next morning they told their father
they were going to hunt for animals and birds. But when they did not
return in the evening, nor later, the mother said: "I think they will not
come back." Half a month later many men attacked the kampong. Laki Mae
fought much and was tired. "If the boys had remained this would not have
happened," the people said angrily to him. In the meantime the human son
began to long to return, and he persuaded "Porcupine Leg" to accompany
him. They both came back and helped to fight the enemy, who lost many dead
and retired.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 217 of 253
Words from 111821 to 112335
of 132281