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Updated: May 8, 2025
When he has heard the Nendak, he will then listen for the Katupong and the other birds in the necessary order. There are always delays caused by the wrong birds being heard, and it may be a month or more before he hears all the necessary cries.
He feels his weakness and the need of some guidance from unseen powers. He has no knowledge of God and the revelation He has made in the Bible, and so he has devised for himself a system of omens. There are seven birds in Borneo whose native names are: Katupong, Beragai, Kutok, Embuas, Nendak, Papau and Bejampong.
This man begins his work some time before the Dyaks begin clearing the ground of jungle and high grass. He will have to hear the cry of the Nendak, the Katupong and the Beragai, all on his left. If these cries come from birds on his right, they are not propitious. He goes forth in the early morning, and wanders about the jungle till the cry of the Nendak is heard on his left.
In every work that you undertake, you must pay heed to the voices of the sacred birds Katupong, Beragai, Bejampong, Papau, Nendak, Kutok and Embuas. These birds, named after my sons-in-law, represent them, and are the means by which I make known my wishes to mankind. When you hear them, remember it is myself speaking to you, through my sons-in-law, for encouragement or for warning.
There are many omens which make a house unfit for habitation. If a Katupong fly into it, or a Beragai over the house, or an armadillo crawls up into it, the Dyaks leave the house and build another for them to live in. Sometimes, however, they sacrifice a pig, and examine the liver, and only abandon the house if the liver is considered by experts to be of bad omen.
The leaves, which are bitter and pungent rather than aromatic, are considered as a powerful antiseptic, and are employed in fevers in the place of Peruvian bark. They are also put into granaries and among cargoes of rice to prevent the destruction of the grain by weevils. Katupong resembles the nettle in growth, in fruit the blackberry. I have not been able to identify it.
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