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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As Soon As The Souls See That The Antoh Has Gone They
Return And The Victim Recovers.
The blian's remuneration is usually one
parang and a handful of rice.
If the person is very ill, a gong and a
handful of rice is the fee, but should the patient die the gong is
returned. The Duhoi (Ot-Danum) women occasionally put on men's costume,
and vice versa, to frighten the antoh that causes illness and keep it at a
distance. With the Katingans a good antoh is believed to reside in the
saliva applied by the blian for healing purposes to that part of a body
which is in pain. The saliva drives out the malevolent antoh, or, in other
words, cures the pain.
CHAPTER XXIV
HEAD-HUNTING, ITS PRACTICE AND PURPOSE
The Penihings still live in dread of the head-hunting raids of the Ibans
of Sarawak, and the probability of such attacks no doubt caused the recent
establishment of a garrison at Long Kai. The Long-Glats on the Merasi, a
northern tributary to the Mahakam, are also constantly on guard against
the Ibans. Until lately these inveterate head-hunters would cross the
mountains, make prahus, then travel down the Upper Mahakam, and commit
serious depredations among the kampongs, killing whomsoever they could,
the others fleeing to the mountains. As one Penihing chief expressed it to
me: "The river was full of their prahus from the Kasao River to Long Blu."
Their last visit was in 1912, when the Bukats reported that a number of
Ibans had arrived at the headwaters of the river, but the raid did not
materialise, and they retired without making prahus.
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