The sacred numbers of the Oma-Sulings are four, eight, and
sixteen. Contact with a woman's garment is believed to make a man weak,
therefore is avoided.
The interpretation of designs in basketwork, etc., is identical with the
Oma-Sulings and the Penihings, though the women of the last-named tribe
are better informed on the subject.
The antoh usually recognised by the name nagah, is called aso (dog) lidjau
by the Oma-Sulings and Long-Glats, while among the Penihings and Punans it
is known as tjingiru, but nagah is the name used also in Southern Borneo,
where I frequently noticed it in designs. On the Mahakam few are the
Oma-Suling and Long-Glat houses which are not decorated with an artistic
representation of this antoh. Among the Penihings in Long Tjehan I never
saw a sword hilt carved with any other motif. On the knife-handle it is
also very popular.
There are three modes of disposing of the dead: by burying in the ground a
metre deep; by depositing the coffin in a cave, or by making a house,
called bila, inside of which the coffin is placed. A raja is disposed of
according to either the second or third method, but the ordinary people of
the kampong are placed in the ground.
LONG-GLATS
(Notes from Long Tujo, Mahakam River)
Before they emigrated from Apo Kayan the name of the Long-Glats was
Hu-van-ke-raw. Attached to Long Tujo is a small kampong occupied by the
Oma-Tapi, who speak a different language, and almost opposite, scarcely a
kilometre down the river, is another inhabited by the Oma-Lokvi, who speak
a dialect other than Long-Glat. Not far west of here is a kampong,
Nahamerang, where the Bato-Pola live, said to be Kayan. The Long-Glats
appear to be powerful, but their measurements are very irregular. They
seem darker in colour than the other Bahau people, most of them showing
twenty-six on the von Luschan colour scale.
Pregnant women and their husbands are subject to restrictions similar to
those already described in regard to other tribes. In addition may be
mentioned that they must not eat two bananas that have grown together, nor
sugar-cane which the wind has blown to the ground, nor rice if it has
boiled over the kettle, nor fish which in being caught has fallen to the
ground or in the boat. The afterbirth drops through the floor and is eaten
by dogs or pigs. The still-born child is wrapped in a mat and placed in a
hollow tree. The mother may work in five days. Two to four weeks elapse
before the child is named by the blian and this ceremony is accompanied by
the sacrifice of a pig. In cases of divorce the children may follow either
parent according to agreement.
The coffin is a log hollowed out, and provided with a cover. At one end is
carved the head of Panli, an antoh, and at the other his tail. Many
vestments are put on the corpse, and for a man a parang is placed by his
side within the coffin. The house is then made and the coffin placed
inside.
DUHOI (Ot-Danums)
(Notes from the Samba River, Southwestern Borneo)
The new-born child is washed with water of that which is brought to the
mother, and the afterbirth is thrown into the river. Most of the women,
after bearing a child in the morning, walk about in the afternoon, though
some have to wait a few days. Their food for some time is rice and fish,
abstaining from salt, lombok (red pepper), fat, acid, and bitter food,
also meat.
Seven days after birth the child is taken to the river to be bathed. On
its return blood from a fowl or, if people are well to do, from a pig that
has been sacrificed, is smeared on its forehead and chest, and a name is
given. The presence of the blian not being required, the parents give the
name, which is taken from a plant, tree, flower, animal, or fish. A
wristlet is placed around each wrist and the name is not changed later in
life. There are no puberty nor menstruation ceremonies. No sexual
intercourse is permissible while a woman is pregnant, nor during
menstruation, nor during the first three months after childbirth. Cousins
may marry.
Evidence of polyandry is found among the Duhoi. Eight years previous to my
visit on the river Braui lived for six years a woman blian about thirty
years old, who had three young husbands. She practised her profession and
the husbands gathered rattan and rubber. She was known to have had
thirty-three husbands, keeping a man a couple of weeks, or as many months,
then taking others. She had no children.
A design representing the flying prahu, described in Chapter XXXI, is also
occasionally seen in Kahayan mats, the idea being that it may be of
assistance to some beneficent antoh. In this connection it is of interest
to note how the Kahayans use the flying prahu as a feature of the great
tiwah festival. Drawings of the craft are made in colours on boards which
are placed in the house of ceremonies, and are intended to serve as a
conveyance for the liao. Such drawings are also presented to the good
antoh, Sangiang, as a reward for his assistance in making the feast
successful, thus enabling him to fly home.
UPPER AND LOWER KATINGANS
(Southwestern Borneo)
Of the Dayaks living about the headwaters of the Katingan River Controleur
Michielsen, in his report quoted before, says: "I cannot omit here to
mention that the Dayaks of these regions in language and habits show the
closest agreement with the Alfurs in Central Celebes, whom I visited in
1869, and that most of the words of the Alfur language (which I at once
understood because it resembles the low Java language) also here in the
Dayak language were observed by me.
