Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo / A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean Jungles

by Edwin Herbert Gomes

From that distant unknown land of Death the spirits of the dead relatives and friends of the dying man come in a long boat, so the Dyaks say, to take his soul away. For a long time there is a struggle between those on earth trying to keep him back and the unseen spirits urging him to join them. Over and over again when the man loses consciousness there are distracted cries from those around of “Pulai! Pulai!”—“Come back! Come back!”

The witch-doctors, who are often called in, try by their incantations to frighten away the spirits.

Immediately the breath has left the body, the female relatives begin loud and melancholy wailings. They wash the corpse and get it ready for burial. All the able-bodied men of the village turn out to help the bereaved family, as in a hot climate the burial has to take place within twenty-four hours.

Rice is strewn on the dead man’s chest. This is a propitiation to the gods for any wrong he may have done while alive. According to Dyak ideas, death is the punishment for some sin, and for that sin some sacrifice must be made, or the living may also suffer for it. By sin is meant either the doing of any of the thousand and one things which a Dyak considers forbidden by the gods, or the disregarding of the warnings of birds or dreams. While this sin-offering is being made, others collect his belongings—his clothes, his implements of work, his shield, his spear—all of which are to be buried with him, and which he is supposed to make use of in the other world. The corpse is dressed in its best garments, and is borne into the great open veranda or common hall (ruai), and covered with a Dyak sheet. Here he is surrounded by the friends and relatives, to be mourned over. Sometimes a professional wailer sits on a swing near the head of the corpse and sings her song of mourning. She calls upon the different parts of the house, beginning at the roof-ridge and proceeding downwards, and blames them for not keeping back the soul of the dead man. Then in highly figurative language she speaks of the journey to Hades, and asks the spirits to guide his soul in the right direction, so that he may not lose his way.

While the body is laid out in the public part of the house none may step over the corpse. There is no special reason against this except the general belief that if such a thing were done the dead man would not live happily in Hades, but would continually visit his former home and trouble the living.

At sunset a fire is lit by the side of the corpse. All through the long hours of the night the sad watchers sit around, and the loud sustained cry of the professional wailer mingles with the sobs and spasmodic utterances of those who feel most the loss of the dead man.

Early on the following morning food is given him to strengthen him for that long journey to Hades, and a little cotton-wool is placed as a pillow for his head. The food is given to the dead in a curious manner. Rice is dashed into his mouth, and the earthen cooking-pot is then broken in pieces—it may not be used for the living, having once been used for the dead. The pillow of cotton-wool is about the size of a pigeon’s egg, and, as far as can be gathered from the Dyaks, it in some way insures the comfort of the dead man in the other world.

Then the body, wrapped in mats and covered over with a light framework of wood, is carried on the shoulders of four men. As they descend the ladder ashes from the fire burnt near the corpse are thrown after them by the people who are left in the house. This is done in order that the dead man may not know his way back to the house, and may thus be unable to trouble his friends afterwards. The women are not permitted to accompany the body to its burial, so they raise a dismal wail as the body is carried away from the house.

The body is either taken by boat or carried on foot to the jungle, where a tree is to be cut down for the coffin. When the spot is reached a halt is made. A fowl is killed, and the blood is collected in a cup and mixed with a little water. Each person present is touched with the blood, to propitiate the gods of the infernal world and to secure immunity from any evil consequences to the persons engaged in the funeral rites. They now set to work to make the coffin. A tree is felled, and the required length cut off. This is split in two, and each half is hollowed out. The corpse is then placed in this rude coffin, the two parts of which are now firmly lashed together with cane.

The crowd then proceed either on foot or by boat to the place of burial. The burial-ground, or pendam, is generally on the side of a hill. The trees are not cut down, and there is nothing to distinguish the pendam from ordinary jungle. The Dyaks regard a cemetery with superstitious terror as the abode of spirits, and never go to it except to bury their dead, and when they do this they do not stay longer than they can help, but hurry away lest they should meet some spirit from the other world. The consequence is that the place is wild and uncared for. The graves, being shallow and not fenced round, are often dug up by wild pigs or bears, and bones and skulls strew the ground.