“I will run that risk; I am not so fully convinced that these whitefaces, whom I have never harmed, will aim directly at [[200]]my life. But I intend to bend my steps towards the kotta before daybreak, when the Europeans will be still asleep. Your countrymen, sir, as a rule are not such early risers.”
“May Hatallah guide and protect you, Tomonggong!” the Colonel said, after a few moments of reflection. “I believe your proposal to be the best under present circumstances.”
The night passed by undisturbed, no act of hostility being attempted on either side.
In the fortification, however, after the sentries had been placed, a true Dayak festivity was held. It was the blako ontong which they were about to celebrate, to invoke a blessing on the approaching nuptials of the beautiful Hamadoe with Dohong, alias Wienersdorf. Harimaoung Boekit, who loved his younger sister devotedly, was determined that the festivities in honor of the occasion should be long remembered among the inhabitants of kotta Djangkan.
As soon as the moon bathed the earth in her soft silvery rays, the bride was conveyed from her residence by a guard of honor consisting of seven young ladies who, like herself, were only attired in their saloi or short sarong. Seven Poenans in full war dress also went to escort Wienersdorf from his apartment. The betrothed pair were then led into a large shed which they were made to enter simultaneously, though from opposite directions. As soon as they appeared under the roof of the shed, the priestesses began to beat their drums and to chant a hymn in honor of bride and bridegroom, who in the meantime were conducted to the centre of the apartment. Hamadoe now presented her intended with a mandauw in token of claiming the protection [[201]]of his valor. They then sat down together, each on a handsomely ornamented rattan mat. Their seats were so disposed as to leave a large space in the centre of the shed in which the priestesses took their places and commenced the rites.
Two hymns were chanted, the object of which was to drive away all misfortunes. These finished, each of the company present, including the bride, took a large stick and, led by the priestesses, proceeded to beat with all possible force against the posts, pillars, walls and roof of the shed. All the other houses and buildings of the kotta were next visited in turn and the same ceremony repeated in order to disperse ghosts and spirits. The noise, as may be imagined, was deafening.
The part taken by our Walloon, La Cueille, the pseudo Sheik, was truly comical. He had seized the branch of a tree and was beating about with it like a madman, making more noise than any twenty-five of the others. It amused the Dayaks to see the holy man so busily occupied, but an attentive observer might have remarked how carefully La Cueille managed to remain in the vicinity of one particular maid of honor, and how, while beating with his branch, he was steadily playing the gallant and trying to attract her notice. He was thus busily engaged when suddenly from every gun of the kotta there burst forth a terrific discharge. Our Sheik, almost dead with fright, turned a summersault, jumped up again, and followed by the laughter of the Dayaks fled toward the bastions where, as first artillerist of the fortification, he thought his presence might be needed. He there learned what had taken place. It was only Dalim firing blank cartridges in order to co-operate in the dispersion of malignant spirits. The [[202]]pervading superstition is that evil spirits cannot endure noise and especially abominate the fumes of gunpowder, seeking a safe retreat as soon as they smell it.
The mirth had not abated when the Sheik reappeared inside the shed, where the betrothed had resumed their original places, surrounded by their respective guards of honor.
The priestesses now spread upon a mat in the centre of the shed all the offerings brought for presentation to the deities, which comprised seven full-grown hens, one egg, seven parcels made of pisang leaves and filled with boiled rice, seven joints of bamboo filled with raw rice, seven pieces of sugar-cane each a fathom long, besides pastry, confectionery, and fruits. The priestesses kindled two fires of green wood which emitted dense columns of smoke. Having finished all these preparations, they pronounced their incantations, the purport of which was to compel the King of the Antangs to convey the souls of these offerings, for the Dayaks believe that inanimate objects have souls, to the Radja ontong.
During these incantations the young men gathered round the fires, where they occupied themselves in blowing little poisoned arrows through their blow-pipes into the midst of the rising smoke in order to prevent the return of the unclean and evil spirits. The other guests, men as well as women, formed a large circle around a post planted in the northern half of the shed, to which a buffalo had been tied. Here, holding each other by the tips of their fingers, they moved a few steps backward and forward alternately, then bowed down as low as their knees, to leap up again uttering fearful yells. [[203]]