Here They Store Their Wealth,
Chiefly Huge Jars And Brass Gongs.
The house was raised on piles fully
ten to twelve feet from the ground, the space underneath being fenced
in for the accommodation of their pigs and chickens.
The smells that
came up through the half-open bamboo and "bilian"-wood flooring were
the reverse of pleasant. The entrance at each end was by means of
a very steep and slippery sort of ladder made out of one piece of
wood with notches cut in it, the steps being only a few inches in
width. One of these ladders had a rough bamboo hand-rail on each side,
and the top part of the steps was roughly carved into the semblance
of a human face.
In the rafters over my head I noticed a great quantity of spears,
shields, "sumpitans" or blowpipes, paddles, fish-traps, baskets and
rolls of mats piled up indiscriminately, while just over my head where
I slept was a rattan basket containing two human heads, though Dubi
told me he thought the Dayaks had hidden most of their heads on my
arrival. This description of the house I resided in for some time,
applies more or less to all the Dayak houses I saw in Borneo.
This house or village was called Menus, and the old chief's name
was Usit. In spelling these names one has to be entirely guided by
the sounds and write them after the fashion of the English method
of spelling Malay.
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