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
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To Encourage Them
I Had Promised Every Victor Twenty Cents, Which Added Much To The
Interest.
Having concluded their task of feeding the antohs the blians climbed down
the ladder and began a march in single file round the dangei hut, each
carrying one of the implements of daily life:
A spear, a small parang, an
axe, an empty rattan bag in which the bamboos are enclosed when the woman
fetches water, or in which vegetables, etc., are conveyed, and another bag
of the same material suitable for transporting babi. Four of the women
carried the small knife which is woman's special instrument, though also
employed by the men. When the eight blians on this, the eighth day, had
marched sixteen times around the dangei they ascended the ladder again.
Shortly afterward a man standing on the gallery pushed over the flimsy
place of worship - a signal that the end of the feast had come. On the
previous day a few visitors had departed and others left daily.
The feast had brought together from other parts about 200 Oma-Sulings and
Long-Glats. The women of both tribes showed strikingly fine manners,
especially those belonging to the higher class, which was well
represented. Some were expensively dressed, though in genuine barbaric
fashion as indicated by the ornaments sewn upon their skirts, which
consisted of hundreds of florins and ringits. It should be conceded,
however, that with the innate artistic sense of the Dayaks, the coins, all
scrupulously clean, had been employed to best advantage in pretty designs,
and the damsels were strong enough to carry the extra burden.
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