We begin this series with a Dyak love story. The people were not half crazed lunatics charginging into the villages to take heads and drink blood, but were sensitive humans who took a head for the purpose of presenting it to his loved one. This poem, from the Sarawak Museum Journal of 1959, tells the story of his lady, the search for a head, his failure and finally his vindacation.
The Lady begins the poem
Where have you been, Dom Datu, who never touched me in my special bed this whole year and up to the last full moon. You did not visit me from the beginning of sowing seeds. I hope you are dead , Dom Bujang I hope you are dead and become a spirit of paradise
Her Lover Answers:
Oh! I am not in this country, Ibu Laba, who lives under the golden sun I have gone to another country, to the Island of Penang Sailing by prau through stormy seas. That is why I did not visit you and touch you at your bed And rub you with oil from the garu trees And that is why I did not sit beside you smelling your delicious fragrance
We went to Mukah asking to hunt heads but were not allowed to hunt So, we went to Bintulu seeking heads but were refused And then we went to Miri, where we met a man who had a head He was preparing a feast for the spirit
And then we went many places seeking a Dragon jar We saw many people in Singapore but our money was all but spent There, I followed a Malay where I entered Islam and became Sultan Awang Once, my dear sweetheart I was asked to cut down some heads I did not want to do that as the padang was filled with Ibans
But very luckily, around my waist, were charms and a long sword Where I seized it and swung at the heads on the banner of the Sultan of Singapore.
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