The Pagan Tribes of Borneo / A Description of Their Physical Moral and Intellectual Condition, with Some Discussion of Their Ethnic Relations

by Charles Hose; William McDougall

If, as is usually the case on the return of a war-party, mourning for a chief is to be terminated, one of the heads is carried down river to his tomb, followed by most of the men, while the women wail in the house. The head is first brought before the house, but not into it. An old man shoots a dart into the air in the direction of the enemy, and then, pattering out a long formula in the usual way, he slaughters a fowl and puts a part of the carcase upon a short stick thrust into the earth. The men of the party then march past, each touching the carcase with his knee, and saying as he does so, "Cast out sickness, make me strong and healthy, exalt me above my enemies, etc. etc." Beside the tomb a tall pole is set up, and the head dressed in leaves is suspended by a cord from its upper end. A number of pigs will already have been slain in preparation for the feast, and their lower jaws are hung about the tomb on poles. The deep war-chorus is shouted by the party as it travels to and from the tomb. In returning the whole party bathes in the river, and while they are in the water an old man waves over them some of the ISANG leaves with which the head has been decorated, wishing them health and long life.

A few days (not less than four) after the return of the war-party, the heads are brought into the house with much rejoicing and ceremony. Every family kills a pig and roasts its flesh,[61] brings out stores of rice-spirit, and prepares cakes of rice-flour. The pigs' livers are examined, and their blood is smeared upon the altar-post of the war-god with a sort of brush (PLA) made by fraying the end of a stick in a more than usually elaborate manner. Each head, adorned with a large bunch of DAUN ISANG, is carried by an elderly man or woman into the house, followed by all the people of the house — men, women, and children — in long procession. The procession marches up and down the whole length of the gallery many times, the people shouting, singing, stamping, and pounding on the floor with PADI pestles, or playing the KELURI. This is followed by a general feast and drinking bout, each family preparing its feast in its own chamber, and entertaining friends and neighbours who come to take part in the general rejoicing. In the course of the feasting the women usually take temporary possession of the heads, and perform with them a wild, uncouth dance, waving the heads to and fro, and chanting in imitation of the men's war-song (Pl. 102). The procession may be resumed at intervals until the heads are finally suspended beside the old ones over the principal hearth of the gallery. The heads have usually been prepared by removal of the brain through the great foramen, by drying over a fire, and by lashing on the lower jaw with strips of rattan. The suspension of the head is effected by piercing a round hole in the crown, and passing through it from below, by way of the great foramen, a rattan knotted at the end. The free end of the rattan is passed through and tied in a hole in the lower edge of a long beam suspended parallel to the length of the gallery from the beams of the roof (Pl. 68). The Kenyahs suspend the heads in the same way as the Kayans, but most of the Klemantans and Ibans use in place of the long beam a strong basket-work in the shape of a cone, the apex being attached to the roof beams, and the heads tied in two or three tiers in the wall of the cone. In either case the heads hang some five or six feet above the floor, where they are out of reach of the dogs.

Defence

Since every Bornean long-house is, or until recently was, liable at almost any time to a night attack of the kind described above, the situation of the house is chosen with an eye to defence. The site chosen is in nearly all cases on the bank of a river or stream large enough for the navigation of small boats; a high and steep river-bank is commonly preferred; and spits of land between two converging streams or peninsulas formed by sharp bends of the rivers are favoured spots.

Beside the natural situation, the prime defence of the house is its elevation some 10 to 30 feet above the level of the ground, joined with the difficulty of access to the house by means of narrow ladders easily drawn up or thrown down. This elevation of the house serves also to secure its contents against sudden risings of the river, and also against the invasion of evil odours from the refuse which accumulates below it; but its primary purpose is undoubtedly defence against human enemies. The interval between the low outer wall of the gallery and the lower edge of the roof is the only aperture through which missiles can be hurled into the house, and this is so narrow as to render the entry of any missiles well-nigh impossible.

When a household gets wind of an intended attack, they generally put the house into a state of defence by erecting a fence of vertical stakes around it, some three yards outside the posts on which it is supported and some six to eight feet in height. This fence is rendered unclimbable by a frieze consisting of a multitude of slips of bamboo; each of these is sharpened at both ends, bent upon itself, and thrust between the poles of the palisade so that its sharp points (Pl. 100) are directed outwards. This dense jungle of loosely attached spikes constitutes an obstacle not easily overcome by the enemy; for the loosely fitting bamboo slips can neither be hacked away nor removed individually without considerable expenditure of time, during which the attackers are exposed to a shower of missiles from the house. A double ladder in the form of a stile is placed across the fence to permit the passage of the people of the house. If there is any definite pathway leading to the house, a log is sometimes suspended above it by a rattan passing over a branch of a tree and carried to the house. This can be allowed to fall upon the approaching enemy by severing the rattan where it is tied within the house (Klemantan).

A further precaution is to stick into the ground round about the house a large number of slips of bamboo. Each slip is some six inches in length, and its sharp, fire-hardened point projects upwards and a little outwards.

If the attacking party is likely to approach by the river, a trap may be arranged at some point where, by reason of rapids or rocks, the boats are likely to be delayed. Here a large tree overhanging the river is chosen for the trap. Stout rattans are made fast to its branches, brought over the branches of a neighbouring tree, and made fast in some spot within reach of a hidden watcher. The stem of the overhanging tree is then cut almost through, so that a few blows of a sword, severing the supporting rattans, may cause the tree to fall upon the passing boat.

When a hostile war-party enters a section of a river in which there is a number of villages of one tribe or of friendly tribes, its approach may be signalled throughout the district by the beating of the TAWAK. The same peculiar rhythm is used for this purpose by all the tribes, though it probably has been copied from the Kayans by all the others. It consists in a rapid series of strokes of increasing rate upon the boss, followed by one long deep note, and two shorter ones struck upon the body and once repeated. Whenever this war-alarm is heard in a village, it is repeated, and so passed on from village to village. The people working in the farms or in the jungle, or travelling on the river, return at once to their villages on hearing the alarm, and the houses are prepared for defence. When the news of the approach of a hostile party has been spread in this way throughout the river, it has little chance of successfully attacking a house or village, and it will, unless very numerous, content itself with attempting to cut off some of the people returning home from the farms. If the invading party is very strong, it may surround a house whose defenders have been warned of their coming, and attempt to starve them into submission. In the old days it was not uncommon for a strong party of Kayans to descend upon a settlement of the more peaceable coastwise people, and to extort from them a large payment of brass-ware as the price of their safety. If the unfortunate household submitted to this extortion, the Kayans would keep faith with them, and would ratify a treaty of peace by making the headman of the village blood-brother of their chief.

Some features of the tactics adopted by the Kayans are worthy of more detailed description. If a strong party determines to attack a house in face of an alert defence, they may attempt to storm it in broad daylight by forming several compact bodies of about twenty-five men. Each body protects itself with a roof of shields held closely together, and the several parties move quickly in upon the house simultaneously from different points, and attempt to carry it by assault. The defenders of the house would attempt to repel such an attack by hurling heavy bars of iron-wood, sharpened at both ends, in such a way that the bar twirls in the air as it hurtles through it; and this is one of the few occasions on which the blow-pipe is used as a weapon of defence.