We were seated at three tables, twenty-eight guests.
The natives were given viands in addition to the menu provided, because
they must have rice. Their women had helped to cook - no small undertaking
for so many in an out-of-the-way place like Sampit. It was an excellent
dinner; such tender, well-prepared beef I had not enjoyed for a long time.
Claret, apollinaris, and beer were offered, the latter appearing to be the
favourite. Women were served in another room after the men had dined.
FOLKLORE OF SOME OF THE TRIBES IN DUTCH BORNEO VISITED BY THE AUTHOR
1. THE MOTHERLESS BOY
(From the Penyahbongs, kampong Tamaloe)
Ulung Tiung was left at home by his father who went out hunting. Borro,
the cocoanut-monkey, came and asked for food, but when Ulung gave him a
little he refused to eat it and demanded more. The boy, who was afraid of
him, then gave more, and Borro ate until very little remained in the
house. The monkey then said, "I am afraid of your father, and want to go
home." "Go," replied the boy, "but return again." When the father came
home in the evening he was angry that the food had been taken.
The following day when the father went out hunting, Borro again came
asking for food. The boy, at first unwilling, finally yielded; the monkey
ate with much gusto and as before wanted to go home. "Do not go," said the
boy, "my father is far away." "I smell that he is near," said Borro, and
went.
When the father returned in the evening and saw that the food again had
been eaten he was very angry with the boy, who replied: "Borro ate it - I
did not take any." Whereupon the father said: "We will be cunning; next
time he comes tell him I have gone far away. Make a swing for him near
your mat, and when he is in it tie rattan around him and swing him."
The father went away and the monkey came again and asked for food, and got
it. When he had eaten the boy said: "You had better get into the swing
near my mat." Borro liked to do that and seated himself in it, while the
boy tied rattan around him and swung him. After a little while the monkey,
fearing that the father might come back, said he wanted to get out, but
the boy replied, "Father is not coming before the evening," at the same
time tying more rattan around him, and strongly, too.
The father came home and fiercely said: "You have been eating my food for
two days." Thereupon he cut off Borro's head, and ordered his son to take
him to the river, clean him, and prepare the flesh to be cooked.
