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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She And Her Husband Both Bring Wood To The House And She Does The
Cooking.
No man has ever been known to beat or kill his wife.
If
dissatisfied, either may leave the other. The daughter of the chief at
Long Mahan had had three husbands. Abortive plants are used, but the men
do not know what they are.
Every day I went to the kampong, and it was a pleasure to visit these
still primitive natives. Women, as usual, were timid about being
photographed, for it is a universal belief that such an operation prevents
women from bearing children. However, by giving money, cloth, sugar, or
the like, which would enable them to offer some little sacrifice to
protecting spirits, I usually succeeded. But if a woman is pregnant or has
care of a small child, no inducements are of any avail, as an exposure to
the camera would give the child bad luck or a disease that might kill it.
The women here had the teeth of the upper jaw in front filed off, but not
the men, who make plugs from yellow metal wire, procured in Tandjong
Selor, with which they adorn their front teeth, drilling holes in them for
the purpose. The plug is made with a round flat head, which is the
ornamental part of it, and without apparent rule appears in one, two, or
three incisors, usually in the upper jaw, sometimes in both. One of my men
took his out to show to me.
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