LONG, a species of CALADIUM, is commonly hung, both root and leaves, upon the door of a room to mark that it is LALI (tabu) owing to sickness, harvesting, or any other circumstance.
OROBONG, a weed (not unlike the foxglove in appearance) which always grows freely among the young PADI, is gathered by the female friends of any woman passing through the ordeal of childbirth. They boil the leaves and wash her body with the decoction on several days following the delivery. It is held that, if this is not done, the woman's abdomen will not regain its normal state. This usage also is common to the Kayans with many other tribes.
The leaves of the DRACAENA are sometimes tied beneath the prow of a boat during journeys to distant parts (as mentioned on p. 70, vol. ii.); they are also hung upon the tombs and, with the ISANG, upon altar posts, when the rites are performed.
The Ibans and some of the Klemantans will not make the first stroke in cutting down the TAPANG tree (ARBOURIA), alleging that, if they do so, great troubles will befall them.
Supplementary Note on the NGARONG
Since correcting the proofs of this chapter we have come upon a brief account of the guardian spirits of the Iban, which corroborates our account of the Ngarong. It is contained in a series of papers entitled RELIGIOUS RITES AND CUSTOMS OF THE IBANS OR DYAKS OF SARAWAK, BORNEO, written by Leo Nyuak (an Iban educated in a mission school), and translated by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn (ANTHROPOS, vol. i. p. 182, 1905). In this account the guardian spirit is called TUA, and we are told that ,The TUA or guardian spirit of an Iban has its external manifestation in a snake, a leopard, or some other denizen of the forest. It is supposed to be the spirit of some ancestor renowned for bravery, or some other virtue, who at death has taken an animal form … it is revealed in a dream what animal form the honoured dead has taken."
CHAPTER 16
Magic, Spells, and Charms
Magic is in a comparatively neglected and backward condition among the
Kayans and Kenyahs, Punans, Ibans, and the more warlike up-country
Klemantans. On the other hand, some of the coastwise tribes of
Klemantans, especially the Malanaus and Kadayans, cultivate magic
with some assiduity.
The Kayans dislike and discourage all magical practices, with the exception of those which are publicly practised for beneficent purposes and have the sanction of custom.