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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Except For A Few Cases Of Malaria, Among The Penyahbongs There Is No
Disease.
In 1911 the cholera epidemic reached them, as well as the
Saputans.
Of remedies they have none. At the sight of either of the two
species of venomous snakes of the king cobra family this native takes to
his heels, and if bitten the wound is not treated with ipoh. Until
recently they had no blians; there were, at this time, two in Tamaloe, one
Saputan and one Malay, and the one in the other kampong learned his art
from the Saputans. One man does not kill another, though he may kill a
member of the Bukat tribe, neighbouring nomads who live in the northeast
of the western division, in the mountains toward Sarawak. Suicide is
unknown. It was asserted to me that the Penyahbongs do not steal nor lie,
though I found the Saputans untrustworthy in these respects.
There is no marriage ceremony, but the young man must pay the parents of
the bride one gong (f. 30), and if the girl is the daughter of a chief her
price is six gongs. About half of the men select very youthful wives, from
eight years up. There are boys of ten married to girls of a similar age.
One boy of fourteen was married to a girl of twenty. Children of the chief
being much sought, one of Pisha's daughters, twenty-three years old, had
been disposed of when she was at her mother's breast, her future husband
being twenty at that time.
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