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He had hunted and eaten the wild pig freely like all his fellow-tribesmen, until once in a dream a wild boar appeared to him, and told him that he had always helped him in his fighting. Thereafter Aban Jau refused, until the day of his death, to kill or eat either the wild or the domestic pig, although he would still consult for omens the livers of pigs killed by others.
At the distance of about a mile up the "Jau" a river tumbles over the upper wall of lava, and rushes down the main fissure for a few hundred yards, when it suddenly diverges and breaks through a gap in the inferior wall, and comes down the valley on the outside toward the lake. During my stay at Thingvalla I walked up to this part of the Almannajau, and made a rough sketch of the waterfall.
On my return Zoega was saddling up the horses. A cup of coffee and a dry biscuit put me in traveling order, and we were soon on our way up the valley. For the first few miles we followed the range of the "Jau," from which we then diverged across the great lava-beds of Thingvalla.
The course of the river, which lies behind the Jau, on the opposite side, is entirely hidden by the great wall in front, and nothing of it is visible till the whole river bursts over the dark precipice, and tumbles, foaming and roaring, into the tremendous depths below, where it dashes down wildly among the shattered fragments of lava till it reaches the outlet into the main valley.
In such cases the species approaches very closely the clan-totem in some of its varieties. Of similar cases among other tribes of guardian-animals appearing to men in dreams and claiming their respect and gratitude, we must mention the case of Aban Jau, a powerful chief of the Sebops, a Klemantan sub-tribe.
If the eldest child OBONG dies, the father, Tama Obong Jau, becomes OYONG JAU; if one of his younger children dies, he becomes AKAM JAU; if his wife dies, he becomes ABAN JAU; if his brother died, he would be called YAT JAU; and if his sister, HAWAN JAU; and if two of these relatives are dead, these titles are used indifferently; but the deaths of wife and children are predominant over other occasions for the change of name.
On the following morning we again steamed up-river, having added to our train these two Kenyah chiefs, each with a boat's crew of fighting men, they having agreed to make the whole journey with us. She is the daughter of the late Aban Jau, who was for many years the most powerful chief of the Tinjar Sebops.
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