The sit is always the first bird to look for when undertaking anything. Fortunately an individual of one of the three species is almost always to be seen crossing the river. It is one of the least important omen birds with the Iban. When Kayans, Punans, and Mĕlanaus go in search of camphor it is first necessary to see a sit fly from right to left, and then from left to right. A Mĕlanau who is intending to start on such an expedition sits in the bow of his boat and chants—
O Sit, Sit, ta-au, Kripan murip, Sit.
Ano senigo akau, ano napan akau.
(“O Sit, Sit, on the right, give me a long life, Sit.
Help me to obtain what I require, make me plenty of that for which I am looking.”)
An allied bird, Anthreptes malaccensis, is commonly mistaken by Kayans, but by them only, for Arachnothera longirostris, who then use it as an omen bird, but it is not so used by the Kenyahs, by whom it is called manok obah.
All the snake aman are bad omens, and in the case of a Kayan seeing batang lima (Simotes octolineatus) he will endeavour to kill it, and if successful no evil will follow; should he fail to kill it then “look out”!
I believe that the Sea Dayaks pay some regard to sawa, a large python (Python reticulatus), and to tuchok, a kind of gecko or house lizard (Ptychozoon homalocephalum), and to brinkian, another kind of gecko; but I do not know whether these are, strictly speaking, burong.
The omen padi bug, turok parai (Chrysocoris eques), is of importance to the Kenyahs alone, and that only because it injures the crops.
The bee manyi is an Iban burong only. If a swarm of bees settled underneath a house that had recently been built it would be considered a bad sign, and probably it would be necessary to destroy that particular section of the house or to leave the house altogether.