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Updated: May 26, 2025
These difficult conditions compel the Kenyahs to take another route in their travels to Tandjong Selor, marching over the watershed to the Bahau River, where they make new prahus and then continue the journey.
As usual there was no lack of enterprise and "go" among the Kenyahs, and they were all keen to make the venture; while the Kayans on the other hand were, as always, more cautious, more inclined to dwell on the possibilities of failure, and slower to take up the plan and make it their own.
Probably Kenyahs never give to the spirits in this way the whole body of a large pig, but only of quite small pigs, and in this they are probably influenced by considerations of economy. It may be said generally that Kenyahs do not kill domestic pigs simply and solely for the sake of food. The killing of a pig is always the occasion for, or occasioned by, some religious rite.
Amongst the Batang Kayan Kenyahs tatuing cannot be executed in the communal house, but only in a hut built for the purpose.
Between the peoples living on the banks of these two rivers and their tributaries there is a traditional hostility which just at this time had been raised to a high pitch by the occurrence of a blood-feud between the Kenyahs, a leading tribe of the Baram, and the Lirongs, an equally powerful tribe of the Tinjar.
The Making of the Blow-pipe The blow-pipe or SUMPITAN is perhaps the finest product of native Bornean craftmanship. It is made by Kayans, Kenyahs, and Punans, and rarely by Ibans and Klemantans. The best sumpitans are made from the hard straight-grained wood of the JAGANG tree.
After helping myself from the cans I gave them to the children, who greatly relished what was left in them, but they did not eat greedily, behaving like white children who have not learned from adults to eat hastily. The Kenyahs are very courteous. When a man passed my tent opening he generally called aloud, as if announcing his presence.
One man, for example, argued in our hearing that he could hardly believe that man continues to exist after death, for, said he, if men and women still lived after death, some of those who have been very fond of their children would surely return to see them, and would be in some way perceived by the living. The Kenyahs' disposal of their dead is very similar in all respects to the Kayan practice.
This view derives, we think, considerable support from the fact that the Kenyahs recognise no special god of war; and in view of their tendency to create deities to preside over each of the great departments of nature and of human activity, the absence from their system of a special god of war requires some special explanation such as we have offered above.
They were all Kenyahs, Oma Bakkah, who came in seven prahus, and proved so interesting that I postponed my journey one day. The government has put up a kind of lodging-house for visiting Dayaks, and the many fine implements and utensils which these men had brought with them made the interior look like a museum.
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