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Updated: May 11, 2025
When the augur has collected a twig for each necessary omen bird, he takes these to the land selected for farming, buries them in the ground, and with a short form of address to the omen birds and to Pulang Gana the god of the earth clears a small portion of the ground of grass or jungle, and then returns home.
A special deity or spirit, Pulang Gana, presides over the rice-culture of the Ibans, but the crocodile also is intimately concerned with it. The following account was given us by an intelligent Iban from the Batang Lupar: On going to a new district Ibans always make a life-size image of a crocodile in clay on the land chosen for the PADI-farm.
It takes place before the farming operations begin, and is held in honour of Pulang Gana, the god of the land, who lives in the bowels of the earth, and has power to make the land fruitful or unfruitful. In this feast invocations are made to this god, and he is asked to give them a good harvest. The whetstones and farming implements are placed in a heap in the public part of the Dyak house.
Next in importance to Singalang Burong is Pulang Gana, who is the god of the earth. He is an important power according to Dyak ideas, and to him offerings are made and incantations sung at all feasts connected with Farming. They are entirely dependent upon his goodwill for a good harvest. Salampandai is the maker of men.
He had also one son, Agi Melieng etc., who married the daughter of Pulang Gana, the god of agriculture, her name being Indu Kachanggut Rumput Melieng Kapian. It was amusing and instructive to hear this Iban rattle off these enormous names without any hesitation, while another Iban sitting beside him guaranteed their accuracy.
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