People who have Died Have Ghosts
Once there was a longhouse. There was someone who had just died in that longhouse.
After four days a young man went out hunting. He called his dogs to follow him. They did not meet any wild pigs that day. Then he looked up at the sun and saw it was quite late.
“Oh dear, those dogs are not going to scent any wild pigs. I’ll go home; it will rain and I will get wet,” said the young man.
He called his dogs and went home, and continued calling them as he went. It started to rain, and the light grew dim. He was nearly past the burial ground when he heard a child cry. “Whose child is it, crying in the graveyard?” the youth asked himself. The child cried and cried. The youth kept on walking, calling for his dogs.
The graveyard was near the edge of the path.
“Friend, was it you who went hunting?” called a youth from the graveyard.
“Yes,” answered the first youth, “Are you going home now, Friend?” he asked.
“Yes,” said the youth who had been hunting.
“Tell my wife to come home, won’t you? Tell her our child is crying,” said the youth at the graveyard.
“I won’t know who your wife is, Friend,” said the youth who had been hunting.
“Yes, you will. You can’t miss her. She has her hair wound round her head and fastened with one bead,” said the other youth.
“Now, Friend, take this leaf and rub it on your eyes and you will see my wife,” continued the youth.
So he took the leaf given by the other youth, rubbed it on his eyes and immediately he could see him and his child. The child was not very old and had been left behind when the mother had gone to see the dead man at the house of the youth who had been hunting. The youth took the leaf and went straight home.
He waved until he came to his house. He saw that the house was full of ghosts. Even the dancing floor was full of them, and they were jumping up and down. He went up into the house, and into his room. He put his blowpipe on the wall and stored his carrying basket. Then he went to the veranda and took with him, the leaf given by the youth at the graveyard.
The leaf was red on one side and green on the other. He took the leaf and rubbed it on his eyes. he saw the wife of the youth at the graveyard and she was dancing on the floor. He went over and pulled her arm.
“Your husband said you are to go home. Your child has been crying a long time said youth. Then all the ghosts turned round,
“Help! Who showed him how to see us?” they said.
They all jumped off the dancing floor. They started to tickle the youth, and he laughed. Out dropped the leaf he had been given by the youth at the graveyard to rub on his eyes. They picked it up and took it home. They vanished. There were no more ghosts in the house.
That was how our ancestors knew that people who died have ghosts. They were frightened, and they made a place to leave their food on the edge of the village, a distance of one chain from the house. They did it for four days if it was a woman, and a week if it was a man. They cooked rice and prepared other dishes. They took these out to the edge of the village and left it there. In the old days, they did not use lamps. They used resin from trees in the jungle. They lit it and put it beside their offering.
“That’s for the ghosts who have come to wake up the dead. This is the time they will usually come,” they said.
They were afraid for four days. They called all their children home.
“Come home. It is getting dark. Your hearts will be punched and you will die. Look out for the ghosts. it is the time for them to come out now,” said the old ones.
“Yes,” said the children and obeyed.
They all gathered together in the inner room as they were afraid of the ghosts. that was how the children began to be afraid – afraid of what the old ones had told them about.
They knew that dead people had ghosts. They stopped work if someone died. The young ones believed in what they had been told, and were afraid if someone died. “There are ghosts,” they said.
It was not very long before the youth who went hunting, died. He died four days after meeting the youth at the graveyard.
People Who Have Died Have Ghosts in “Iban Folk Stories” compiled by Rita Tujoh Kuching: Borneo Literature Bureau, ~1960
Many thanks to Veronica Chang-Schmid
BorneoHistory.net