(3) Gawai Nyimpan Padi (the “Feast of Storing the Paddy”): This is held after the reaping and winnowing are over and the paddy is ready to be stored in the paddy-bins in the loft of the Dyak house. It is only held when the harvest is a particularly good one. A blessing is asked upon the paddy, that it may last a long time, and may not decrease in any mysterious way. Friends who are invited to the feast help to carry and store away the paddy.
3. The great Feast connected with the Dead is the Gawai Antu (the “Spirit Feast”): No definite period is fixed for the celebration of it, and it may be held one or more years after the death of the person. All those that have died since the last time the feast was held, and have not yet been honoured by this festival for the dead, are remembered at the same time, so that the number of departed spirits commemorated by this feast is great, especially if it is many years since the last time the feast was held.
The preparation is carried on for many weeks. Food and drink and other things are procured. Distant friends are visited and asked to help the feast with gifts of food or money. When all is ready, the whole neighbourhood for miles around is invited to it. It is an opportunity for a friendly social gathering, and it is a formal laying aside of mourning, but in addition, it is a religious ceremony, and means the doing of certain things necessary for the final wellbeing of the dead in the other world.
The dead are invoked and invited to be present at this feast. But how are they to come from Hades? Send a boat for them, says the Dyak, and so he sends what he calls a lumpang. A piece of bamboo in which rice has been cooked is make into a tiny boat and sent to Hades. Actually it is thrown away beneath the house, but spiritually, through the incantation of the wailer, it is carried to the unseen realm to fetch their dead relatives and friends. Great is the joy of the spirits when they see this boat, which by the time of its arrival has grown into a large war-boat. They are ready to start as soon as the final summons comes.
The preparations for the feast go on. The hard wood memorial monuments for the graves are got ready by the men. The day before the feast, the women weave, with finely-split bamboo, small imitations of various articles of personal and domestic use, and these are hung over the graves—that is to say, given to the dead for their use in the other world. If it be a man for whom the feast is made, a bamboo gun, a shield, a war-cap, and such things are woven; if a woman, a loom, a fish-basket, a winnowing fan, etc.; if a child, toys of various kinds.
An offering of food is put outside the house for the dead visitors who may be too hungry to wait for the food in the house.
The living guests arrive during the day, but the feasting does not begin till the evening. Before the feasting comes the formal putting off of mourning. The nearest male relative of the dead person in whose honour the feast is held comes dressed in an old waist-cloth or trousers. These are slit through by some Chief, and the man assumes a better garment. In the case of female relatives the rotan rings round the waist are cut through and set aside, and they resume the use of their personal ornaments and jewellery. The bundles containing the finery, that were put away at the death of their relative, are brought forth, and the string tying them cut through. As the feast is in honour of several who have died since the feast was last held, this kind of thing goes on in several of the rooms at the same time.
The professional wailer sings her song of mourning (see [p. 228]), beginning in the evening. The journey from Hades is so long that the dead do not arrive till early dawn. And then occurs an action in which the dead and living are supposed to join. A portion of tuak (rice spirit) has been reserved in a bamboo as the peculiar portion of the dead. It is now drunk by some old man renowned for bravery, who is not afraid of so near a contact with the spirits of the dead. This “drinking of the bamboo,” as it is called, is an important part of the festival, and is greeted with shouts of joy.
The morning after the feast, the last duty to the dead is performed. The ironwood monuments, the bamboo imitation articles, and food of all kinds are arranged upon the different graves. Having received these gifts, the dead relinquish all claim upon the living, and depend on their own resources. But before the Gawai Antu they are supposed to come to the house and take their share of the food and drink.
According to ancient custom, this feast could not be held until a new human head had been procured, but this ghastly ornament to the festival has now generally to be dispensed with.