They
seem darker in colour than the other Bahau people, most of them showing
twenty-six on the von Luschan colour scale.
Pregnant women and their husbands are subject to restrictions similar to
those already described in regard to other tribes. In addition may be
mentioned that they must not eat two bananas that have grown together, nor
sugar-cane which the wind has blown to the ground, nor rice if it has
boiled over the kettle, nor fish which in being caught has fallen to the
ground or in the boat. The afterbirth drops through the floor and is eaten
by dogs or pigs. The still-born child is wrapped in a mat and placed in a
hollow tree. The mother may work in five days. Two to four weeks elapse
before the child is named by the blian and this ceremony is accompanied by
the sacrifice of a pig. In cases of divorce the children may follow either
parent according to agreement.
The coffin is a log hollowed out, and provided with a cover. At one end is
carved the head of Panli, an antoh, and at the other his tail. Many
vestments are put on the corpse, and for a man a parang is placed by his
side within the coffin. The house is then made and the coffin placed
inside.
DUHOI (Ot-Danums)
(Notes from the Samba River, Southwestern Borneo)
The new-born child is washed with water of that which is brought to the
mother, and the afterbirth is thrown into the river. Most of the women,
after bearing a child in the morning, walk about in the afternoon, though
some have to wait a few days. Their food for some time is rice and fish,
abstaining from salt, lombok (red pepper), fat, acid, and bitter food,
also meat.
Seven days after birth the child is taken to the river to be bathed. On
its return blood from a fowl or, if people are well to do, from a pig that
has been sacrificed, is smeared on its forehead and chest, and a name is
given. The presence of the blian not being required, the parents give the
name, which is taken from a plant, tree, flower, animal, or fish. A
wristlet is placed around each wrist and the name is not changed later in
life. There are no puberty nor menstruation ceremonies. No sexual
intercourse is permissible while a woman is pregnant, nor during
menstruation, nor during the first three months after childbirth. Cousins
may marry.
Evidence of polyandry is found among the Duhoi. Eight years previous to my
visit on the river Braui lived for six years a woman blian about thirty
years old, who had three young husbands. She practised her profession and
the husbands gathered rattan and rubber. She was known to have had
thirty-three husbands, keeping a man a couple of weeks, or as many months,
then taking others.
