As many infants die, it is the custom to wait eight or ten days after birth before naming a child, when a similar sacrifice is made, and a leaf prepared in like manner is passed down the arms of the infant by the blian. In selecting a name he resorts to an omen, cutting two pieces of a banana leaf into the shape of smaller leaves. According to the way these fall to the ground the matter is decided. If after two trials the same result is obtained the proposed name is considered appropriate. Also on the occasion of marriage, a similar sacrifice and the same curative practice are used.
When couples tire of each other they do not quarrel. The husband seeks another wife and she another husband, the children remaining with the mother. 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.