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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Before Being Shown To
Visitors It Is Washed With Lemon (Djeruk) Juice.
When on exhibition it is
placed on top of rice which is contained in a brass dish more than
twenty-five centimetres in diameter.
After being exhibited it is again
cleaned with lemon-juice and then immersed in water which afterward is used
as an eye remedy. One must give some silver coin for the statue to "eat."
Its name is Demong (a Javanese word for chief) Akar. Originally there were
seven such Demongs in that country, but six have disappeared.
Hindu influence is evident among the Dayaks in the survival of such names
as Dewa and Sangiang for certain good spirits. In the belief of the
Katingans, the departed soul is guarded by a benevolent spirit, Dewa, and
it is reported from certain tribes that female blians are called by the
same name. A party of Malays caught a snake by the neck in a cleft of a
stick, carried it away and set it free on land instead of killing it, but
whether this and similar acts are reminiscent of Hindu teaching remains to
be proven.
At the end of August we arrived in Bandjermasin, where several days were
spent in packing my collections. For many months I had been in touch with
nature and natural people, and on my return to civilisation I could not
avoid reflective comparisons. Both men and women of the Mahakam have
superb physiques; many of them are like Greek statues and they move with
wonderful, inborn grace.
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