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Updated: June 20, 2025
When, as is most commonly the case, the secret helper takes on the form of some animal, all individuals of that species become objects of especial regard to the fortunate Iban; he will not kill or eat any such animal, and he will as far as possible restrain others from doing so.
In most respects they closely resemble the other Iban tribes, but they are distinguished by some peculiarities of language and accent; their manners are gentler, their bearing less swaggering; they are less given to wandering, and they have little skill in the making and handling of boats.
The Kayan or the Iban often acts impulsively in ways which by no means conduce to further his best interests or deeper purposes; but so do we also. He often reaches conclusions by processes that cannot be logically justified; but so do we also. He often holds, and upon successive occasions acts upon, beliefs that are logically inconsistent with one another; but so do we also. Ethnology of Borneo
Since correcting the proofs of this chapter we have come upon a brief account of the guardian spirits of the Iban, which corroborates our account of the Ngarong. Edm. In this account the guardian spirit is called TUA, and we are told that ,The TUA or guardian spirit of an Iban has its external manifestation in a snake, a leopard, or some other denizen of the forest.
The husband of an erring wife must kill her by cutting off her head, and it is incumbent on her brother to take the head of the husband. At present the Punans and Bukats are relinquishing these customs through fear of the Company. The Bukats told me that they originally came from the river Blatei in Sarawak, and that Iban raids had had much to do with their movements.
The pattern to be produced is outlined with the point of the knife upon the surface of the bamboo, the artist working from memory of the desired pattern and adapting it to the proportions of the surface to be covered. The Iban works more freely than others, working out the pattern and modifying it to meet the exigencies of his material, section by section, as he goes along.
They say that the spirit of the crocodile sometimes becomes a man just like an Iban, but better and more powerful in every way, and sometimes he is met and spoken with in this form. Another reason given for their fear of killing crocodiles is that Ribai, the river-god, sometimes becomes a crocodile; and he may become also a tiger or a bear.
A characteristic bit of Iban magic is the following: A man, angered by finding that some one has deposited dirt in or about his property or premises, takes a few burning sticks and, thrusting them into the dirt, says, "Now let them suffer the pains of dysentery." Therapeutic Magical Procedures This last operation seems to fall under the head of magic and may be described here.
It is probable that in no case does a man sit down and produce a new pattern; but the freer mode of working of the Iban leads him on to greater modifications of the traditional designs; and it is probably partly for this reason that a much larger variety of designs is applied in this way by them than by the other tribes, among whom they are very limited in number.
The good qualities enumerated above render the Iban an agreeable companion and a useful servant.
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