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Updated: May 4, 2025
The afterbirth drops through the floor and is eaten by dogs or pigs. The still-born child is wrapped in a mat and placed in a hollow tree. The mother may work in five days. Two to four weeks elapse before the child is named by the blian and this ceremony is accompanied by the sacrifice of a pig. In cases of divorce the children may follow either parent according to agreement.
About sunset people gather for the marriage ceremony. The couple sit on one gong. A water-buffalo, pig, or fowl having been sacrificed, the blian sings and smears blood on navel, chest, and forehead of the pair.
These recent converts from nomadic life still raise little paddi, depending mostly upon sago. Through the good offices of the Long Kai kapala people of both tribes were sent for and promptly answered the call. The Punan visitors had a kapala who also was a blian, and they had a female blian too, as had the Bukats.
In Borneo, as far as my experience goes, these priest-doctors, whether male or female, are generally recognised by the name blian, or balian. Although some tribes have their own and different designations, for the sake of convenience I shall call them all blians.
If stones are left on either side, but not enough to proceed, then there is an impasse, and the game must be played over again. The price of the daughter of a pangawa is from one to three gongs, and to obtain a wife from the family of a pangin costs a parang, a knife, or some beads. Women assist at childbirth, which takes place within the room, near the door, but generally no blian is present.
During incantations and dancing the blian throws the rice in the direction of the country where the man wants to operate. By the act of throwing the rice an antoh is called to assist and he causes the intended victim to become stupid and forgetful, therefore easily killed. From two to seven days later a start is made on the expedition, and when the head is cut the rice is sure to be found inside.
This done, I again inspected the balei, accompanied by the kapala who himself was a blian; he and the others were perfectly willing to give any information about customs and beliefs, although equally unable to do so. The dancing space in the middle was rectangular, about eight metres long, lying nearly east and west.
The blian blows upon a cupful of water which the woman drinks in order to make delivery easy. The umbilical cord is cut with a knife or a sharp piece of ironwood, and the afterbirth is buried. Death in labor is not unknown, and twins are born occasionally. The mother is confined for a week, and she is forbidden to eat pork, eggs, new rice, cocoanut oil, or any acid substance.
The child in the cradle also stretches out its right arm to receive treatment, while other children and women place their right hands on the hand and arm of the first woman, five to ten individuals thus simultaneously receiving the passes which the blian dispenses from left to right.
When a girl has her first menstruation a hen or a pig is killed, and in the evening the blood thus obtained is applied to the inside of a folded leaf which the blian wafts down her arms "throwing away illness," the meat of the sacrifice being eaten as usual. The same treatment is bestowed upon any one who desires good health.
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