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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There Are Several Varieties Of These Blangas, Some Of Which
Are Many Hundred Years Old And Come From China Or Siam.
This man possessed
five of the expensive kind, estimated by the "onder" at a value of six
thousand florins each.
He consented to have one of the ordinary kind,
called gutshi, taken outside to be photographed; to remove the real
blanga, he said, would necessitate the sacrifice of a fowl. To the casual
observer no great difference between them is apparent, their worth being
enhanced by age. In 1880 Controleur Michielsen saw thirty blangas in one
house on the Upper Katingan, among them several that in his estimation
were priceless. Over them hung forty gongs, of which the biggest,
unquestionably, had a diameter of one metre. Without exaggeration it
represented, he says, a value of f. 15,000, and he was informed that the
most valuable blangas were buried in the wilds at places known only to the
owner. No European had been there since Schwaner, over thirty years
previously, passed the river.
In front of another house was a group of very old-looking stones which are
considered to be alive, though such is not the belief with reference to
all stones, information in that regard being derived from dreams. Those on
view here are regarded as slaves (or soldiers) of a raja, who is
represented by a small kapatong which presides in a diminutive,
half-tumbled-down house, and who is possessed by a good antoh that may
appear in human shape at night.
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