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Updated: June 18, 2025
From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum. From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum. Plate 137. Sea Dayak modification of the dog design. From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum. From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum. Plate 138. From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum. From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum. From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum.
On the fourth day from Martapura we arrived at the first Dayak habitation, Angkipi, where Bukits have a few small bamboo shanties consisting of one room each, which were the only indications of a kampong.
Very often a Dayak, on returning from his work or a hunt in the jungle, would walk straight up to a large gong that was hanging up and hammer on it for a few minutes in a most businesslike way, looking all the time as if it bored him. I suppose it soothed them after their day's work, but it irritated me.
Controleur W.J. Michielsen, quoted before, relates an instance of a Dayak from Serayan, whose daughter had been killed by a Katingan head-hunter, who pursued the marauders to their homes, and, on the occasion of the festivities incident to the return of the members of the raid, he cut the head from the murderer of his child while the celebration was in progress.
The Dayaks told me that there were plenty of bears here, but I never saw any myself in this part of Borneo. They told me the bears were very fierce, and had often nearly killed some of their friends. The Dayak dogs are fearful cowards, and I was told that they run away at the sight of a wild pig.
The dead are buried in the ground as deep as the height of a man. Formerly the corpse was placed in a small bamboo house which rested on six upright poles, and on the floor a mat was spread. I was pleasantly surprised one day when a Dayak arrived at our kampong bringing a number of attractive new bamboo baskets which he had bought on the Tappin River, near by to the west.
However, it must be conceded that their presence helped to make an impression on the next kampong which was expected to furnish another gang of carriers. We managed to travel along, and finally reached the last Dayak kampong, Bayumbong, consisting of the balei and a small house.
A prominent Dayak said to me: "If we did not have this feast there would not be many children; the paddi would not ripen well, or would fail; wild beasts would eat the fowls, and there would be no bananas or other fruits." The first four days are chiefly taken up with preparations, the festival occurring on the fifth and sixth days.
The Sea Dayak social organisation is also similar in most of its features. The most important of the differences presented by it are the following: Polygamy is not allowed, and occurs only illicitly. Both parties are fined when the facts are discovered.
Every day, weather permitting, as soon as the men return from the ladangs in the evening, about an hour before sunset, this game is played on the space before the houses of the kampong. Sometimes only two men consult fate, spinning alternately. The same kind of top is found among the Kayans, Kenyahs, and other Dayak tribes.
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