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.
When couples tire of each other they do not quarrel. The husband seeks
another wife and she another husband, the children remaining with the
mother. The sacred numbers of the Oma-Sulings are four, eight, and
sixteen. Contact with a woman's garment is believed to make a man weak,
therefore is avoided.
The interpretation of designs in basketwork, etc., is identical with the
Oma-Sulings and the Penihings, though the women of the last-named tribe
are better informed on the subject.
The antoh usually recognised by the name nagah, is called aso (dog) lidjau
by the Oma-Sulings and Long-Glats, while among the Penihings and Punans it
is known as tjingiru, but nagah is the name used also in Southern Borneo,
where I frequently noticed it in designs. On the Mahakam few are the
Oma-Suling and Long-Glat houses which are not decorated with an artistic
representation of this antoh. Among the Penihings in Long Tjehan I never
saw a sword hilt carved with any other motif. On the knife-handle it is
also very popular.
There are three modes of disposing of the dead: by burying in the ground a
metre deep; by depositing the coffin in a cave, or by making a house,
called bila, inside of which the coffin is placed. A raja is disposed of
according to either the second or third method, but the ordinary people of
the kampong are placed in the ground.
LONG-GLATS
(Notes from Long Tujo, Mahakam River)
Before they emigrated from Apo Kayan the name of the Long-Glats was
Hu-van-ke-raw. Attached to Long Tujo is a small kampong occupied by the
Oma-Tapi, who speak a different language, and almost opposite, scarcely a
kilometre down the river, is another inhabited by the Oma-Lokvi, who speak
a dialect other than Long-Glat.
