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No doubt also it is vaguely felt that if the hair of one's head should come into the possession of any other person, that person would acquire some indefinable power over one. Magical practices for the injury of enemies and rivals are more various and frequent among the coastwise Klemantans, especially the Bisayas, Kadayans, and Malanaus.
The Kayans, as well as most of the peoples, regard madness as due to possession by an evil spirit, but the Malanaus extend this theory to many other forms of disease, and practise an elaborate rite of exorcism.
Two forms of BAYOH are known to the people of Niah, but it is only with the BAYOH SADONG that there is any need to deal here. The other form is used by the Punans, or mixed Punans and Malanaus.
Klemantans use the domestic pig and fowl as sacrificial animals just as the Kenyahs and Kayans do, and they have the same superstitious dread of killing a dog. One group of them, Malanaus, use a dog in taking a very solemn oath, and sometimes the dog is killed in the course of this ceremony.
Some of the Klemantans, notably the Malanaus, excel all other tribes, in that they attain a high level of achievement in a great variety of such arts; but each tribe and sub-tribe preserves the tradition of some one or two decorative arts in which they are especially skilled. Wood-carving is the most generally practised and on the whole the most important of the decorative arts.
The Malanaus, who live in the large limestone caves during the time of harvesting the edible nests of the swift, sometimes make rude drawings with charcoal on the walls of the cave. The weaving of decorative designs on cloth is almost confined to the Sea Dayaks. Some account of the designs will be given below. Shell-work The Decorative Designs
On the other hand, some of the coastwise tribes of Klemantans, especially the Malanaus and Kadayans, cultivate magic with some assiduity. The Kayans dislike and discourage all magical practices, with the exception of those which are publicly practised for beneficent purposes and have the sanction of custom. In the old days they used to kill those suspected of working any evil by magic.
Among the Sebops and Barawans the human figure predominates; the Malanaus make especially elaborate crocodile images in solid wood. The tombs of some of the Klemantans are very massive and elaborately decorated. The Tanjongs and Kanowits and Kalabits, who excel in basket-work, introduce a variety of patterns in black, red, and white.
On one occasion another chief resolutely refused to proceed on a journey through the jungle when a mouse-deer, PLANDOK, crossed his path; he will not eat this deer at any time. The people of Miri, who also are Mohammedan Malanaus, claim to be related to the large deer, CERVUS EQUINUS, and some of them to the muntjac deer also.
The Malanaus seem to be by nature peculiarly round-headed; the question whether this is due to the effects of head-flattening practised for many generations, must be left to the investigations of the Neo-Lamarckians.
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