The chief's room, which is usually about twice as long as others, is usually in the middle of the house; and those of the other upper-class families, which also may be larger than the other rooms, adjoin it on either side.
In all social gatherings, and in the performance of public rites and ceremonies, the men of the upper class are accorded leading parts, and they usually group themselves about the chief. Social intercourse is freer and more intimate among the people of the upper class than between them and the rest of the household.
The upper class is relatively more numerous in the Kenyah than in the
Kayan houses, and more clearly distinguishable by address and bearing.
The middle class comprises the majority of the people of a house in most cases. They may enjoy all the forms of property, though generally their possessions are of smaller extent and value, and they seldom possess slaves. Their voices carry less weight in public affairs; but among this class are generally a few men of exceptional capacity or experience whose advice and co-operation are specially valued by the chief. Among this class, too, are usually a few men in each house on whom devolve, often hereditarily, special duties implying special skill or knowledge, E.G. the working of iron at the forge, the making of boats, the catching of souls, the finding of camphor, the observation and determination of the seasons. All such special occupations are sources of profit, though only the last of these enables a man to dispense with the cultivation of PADI.
The lower class is made up of slaves captured in war and of their descendants, and for this reason its members are of very varied physical type. An unmarried slave of either sex lives with, and is treated almost as a member of, the family of his or her master, eating and in some cases sleeping in the family room. Slaves are allowed to marry, their children becoming the property of their masters. Some slave-families are allowed to acquire a room in the house, and they then begin to acquire a less dependent position; and though they still retain the status of slaves, and are spoken of as "slaves-outside-the-room," the master generally finds it impossible to command their services beyond a very limited extent, and in some cases will voluntarily resign his rights over the family. But in this case the family continues to belong to the lower class.
The members of each of these classes marry in nearly all cases within their own class. The marriages of the young people of the upper class are carefully regulated. Although they are allowed to choose their partners according to the inscrutable dictates of personal affinities, their choice is limited by their elders and the authority of the chief. Many of them marry members of neighbouring villages, while the other classes marry within their own village.
A youth of the upper class, becoming fond of some girl of the middle class, and not being allowed to marry her (although this is occasionally permitted), will live with her for a year or two. Then, when the time for his marriage arrives (it having perhaps been postponed for some years after being arranged, owing to evil omens, or to lack of means or of house accommodation), he may separate from his mistress, leaving in her care any children born of their union, and perhaps making over to her some property — as public opinion demands in such cases. She may and usually will marry subsequently a man of her own class, but the children born of her irregular union may claim and may be accorded some of the privileges of their father's class. In this way there is formed in most villages a class of persons of ambiguous status, debarred from full membership in the upper class by the bar-sinister. Such persons tend to become wholly identified with the upper or middle class according to the degrees of their personal merits.
Marriages are sometimes contracted between persons of the middle and slave classes. In the case of a young man marrying a slave woman, the owners of the woman will endeavour to persuade him to live with her in their room, when he becomes a subordinate member of their household. If they succeed in this they will claim as their property half the children born to the couple. On the other hand, if the man insists on establishing himself in possession of a room, he may succeed in practically emancipating his wife, perhaps making some compensation to her owners in the shape of personal services or brass ware. In this case the children of the couple would be regarded as freeborn. It is generally possible for an energetic slave to buy his freedom.
Less frequent is the marriage of a slave man with a free woman of the middle class. In this case the man will generally manage to secure his emancipation and to establish himself as master of a room, and to merge himself in the middle class. In the case of marriage between two slaves, they continue to live in the rooms of their owners, spending by arrangement periods of two or three years alternately as members of the two households. The children born of such a slave-couple are divided as they grow up between the owners of their parents.
On the whole the slaves are treated with so much kindness and consideration that they have little to complain of, and most of them seem to have little desire to be freed. A capable slave may become the confidant and companion of his master, and in this way may attain a position of considerable influence in the village. A young slave is commonly addressed by his master and mistress as "My Child." A slave is seldom beaten or subjected to any punishment save scolding, and he bears his part freely in the life of the family, sharing in its labours and its recreations, its ill or its good fortunes. Nothing in the dress or appearance of the slave distinguishes him from the other members of the village.