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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The sumpitan (blow-pipe) has a spear
point lashed to one end, and thus also may serve as a spear.
8. THE FATHERLESS BOY
(From the Saputans; kampong Data Laong)
A woman was going to the ladang in the morning, and she said to her young
son, Amon Amang, whose father was dead: "When the sun comes over the tree
there you must begin to husk paddi." She then went away to the ladang
while the boy remained at home. He carried the paddi, as well as the
oblong wooden mortar, up into a tree. There he began to work, and the
mortar and the paddi and the boy all tumbled down because the branch
broke. A man helped the half-dead boy to come to his senses again,
throwing water on him, and when the mother returned she was very angry to
see the mortar broken and the paddi strewed all about. "I told you to husk
paddi in the house when the sun came over the tree," she said. "Better
that you now go and hunt birds."
The boy then decided to hunt. He climbed a tree and put up snares to catch
birds. He caught a great many big hornbills, which he fastened alive to
his loin cloth, and they began to fly, carrying the boy with them to a big
tree, where they loosened themselves from him, left him in a cleft, and
all flew away. The tree was very tall, but he climbed down a fig tree
which grew beside it, descended to the ground, and went home.
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