Land Dayaks of the Sadong District Sarawak 1936
Tom’s note: This is a long one, so grab a cup of tea and enjoy!
The Sadong Dayaks say they came over from Dutch Borneo about 18-20 generations(according to Western observers, a generation is a time from birth to reproductive age, 20 years. For many others, it is the life span of a man, which is 70 years)
They were probably in the waves of Mongoloids people moving south somewhere in the region of Siam or Cambodia. They are probably offshoots and resemble the ways of the Ao Nagas(an ancient tribe in northeast India) and others in Assam. (a state in northeast India)
Both sexes wear their hair long and bundled up at the back of the head. The rest of the body is free from hair, while younger people pull out facial and pubic hairs. They file their teeth into points and have small lobes in their ears for unique earrings. No form of tattooing was present.
They are a race who are conservative and proud. During headhunting days, they were easy prey for marauding sea Dyaks. Among themselves, there were feuds with their cousin of Indonesian Borneo, heads of the slain being taken.
The only clothing the men wore was the loin cloth made of the soft inner bark of certain trees. Women wear a small skirt from the waist to the knees. Men have no ornaments on their bodies except an occasional earring. Women wear two kinds of thin rottan around their waist, one red and one black.
In the right-hand branch of the Sadong river, the women wear copper bangles on their knees downward and, in some villages, have them from their shoulders to their forearms. They are made from one coil of twisted copper wire.
The Land Dayak people have many variants and dialects. The Slow and Larah of Lundu are unable to understand the Jagoi. All the dialects are very primitive many words sound like grunts.
The land Dayaks had weapons which were the spear, blowpipe, short sword and shield. The spear was made entirely of wood with no separate iron or steelhead. The best wood obtainable was either the nibong (oncosperma) bamboo ( Bambusa or pinang (areca). Belian wood(hardwood) was never used because it was too heavy.
The blowpipe was made of thin bamboo, and every village saw that young bamboo was planted and easy to reach. The dart was of light wood dipped in the sap of the kayu ara tree (Ficus spp.) as a poison that the Dayaks regarded as very deadly. The small bamboo did not last long, and they discovered how to bore a straight hole through the wood.
The sword was short and one edged made of one piece of steel, the oldest known form of parang used nowadays. There are many variations. The handle of the sword was not in alignment with the blade but bent upwards.
The shield, the best known, was the plau, oval in shape, about three feet in length and two feet broad in the middle. It consisted of a stiff piece of tree bark fastened down at the edges by a strong band of rottan with its edges tied to the bottom.
Another, known as the “Utah Utah”, was slightly rounder in shape and made of tightly woven wickerwork over some tree bark. The last type was a plank, a shield curved inside and made of solid wood without wickerwork.
Before a man decides on the material making the shield, he must consult the omen birds for seven days. In the daytime, he listens for the “jeruit” (sparrow) and the shaku, while at night, he listens for the kundu topang and giang.( I couldn’t find any translation for the last three words. I am guessing they could be sounds in the night like frogs or crickets)
The Land Dyak rarely used boats if he could walk. The boats, when needed, were built of a hollowed-out log. Bamboo rafts and dugout canoes were also made.
The suspension bridge is made by joining and tying bamboo together with a strong black fibre of the wild sago palm. The whole bridge is from branches of trees overhanging the river’s high banks, sometimes 30-40 feet above the water line. This type of bridge is necessary because the water rises with the rain sending down torrents swirling with great logs, which no bridge foundation can withstand. The part of the bridge made for walking on is made of bamboo joined together and laid out end to end, supported by the hanging superstructure. At the actual bridge’s sides are railings that the walker can grab if his foot slips.
A Dayak house was originally a village with each family living in a partitioned longhouse. Nowadays (1936), a Dayak village consists of two or three longhouses comprising 30-40 families. The house is built on piles about six or seven feet from the ground and surrounded by a stout fence with entrances only at either end. It is constructed entirely of wood from the jungle. Bamboo and leaves from the sago and Nipah palm for the roof. A wall of bark partitioned off each room. Each apartment has a kitchen hearth where all the cooking is done, and the smoke escapes through the leaf roof. The floors and verandahs are all split bamboo through the cracks. The refuse is thrown to the pigs who live under the house. Within the room, there are no partitions, and the people sleep on mats on the floor. The storage loft in the attic contains such goods as mats and jars.
Before a new house is built, the penchant or wise man must be consulted. He contacts the omen birds or evaluates his dreams to see if the site is suitable. After completing the whole house, it is taboo for eight days and nights, and no stranger may enter during this period. If they are eating only pigs, the eight-day rule stands, but if they eat chicken, the number of days changes to four. The houses are always built on the banks of rivers or near waterfalls whose water is the source for drinking and bathing.
Land Dyaks always store their rice in a separate building away from the house in case of fire. If a fire does occur, the Dayak man has his padi to feed his family, while if the rice building burns down, he has his belongings in the house to sell for rice.
Many of the villager’s padi houses have a verandah where the rice is put out to dry. It is then taken inside and placed in individual “kurit”, large round tubs of bark, ten feet or more in diameter, where the padi is kept. The padi bins are usually covered, but one man may not look into another mans kurit to see how much padi he has.
The guest house is a communal structure where the guests may stay and is a sleeping place for all unmarried men. It is about 24 feet in diameter, raised very high off the ground on stilts of enormous dimension and is usually in the middle of the village. It joined to the other houses by a plank bridge. The guest house has never collapsed, even with 60-70 people sitting in it during a severe thunderstorm.
In the olden days, the baloi was the place for the reception of triumphant warriors of the village returning laden with the heads of their enemies. Inter-tribal feuds were the chief source of heads. However, they did not declare war or attack a village for heads alone. The Ibans were such a fierce group that even today (1937), they are unwilling to play football if the Ibans are on the opposing team.
On the warriors’ return to their village with heads, the people who were at home prepared a feast of pigs. As the warriors approached the baloi, a drum must be banged incessantly at the window until all have arrived.
The beating of sabang (drum) summons the mountain spirits to come and bless the feast. Rain for 7 days is a sure sign that the man-woman spirit has blessed the ceremony. The heads are smoked on the hearth. They do not appear blackened, and the men dance around their heads. They are placed on the rafters of the beloi until the next feast.
Nowadays (1937), the head man of the village may call a feast of the heads to appease an evil spirit, although new ones cannot be obtained. (The ban on headhunting was lifted during the Japanese occupation of Borneo) During the head feast, no women may be present, and everything must be cleared out of the house. Nothing wet, such as drying loin cloths, is allowed in the room. No stranger may enter or inhabit the village for eight days and nights during and after the feast.
The Land Dyak is an able hunter. He is particularly fond of pig flesh. The flesh of the deer is not to be eaten, but because the deer consume the crops, they are often killed. The squirrels are taken when they are forced to jump from tree to tree by the men banging on the trunks of trees. The squirrel falls to the ground, exhausted and collected by the hunters.
The Dayaks have few fish because using poison from the tuba plant intoxicates the fish and causes them to float to the top and are then collected. The Rajah has forbidden this practice, so people resort to hooks, lines, and traps.
A bee swarm on the tapang (Koompassia) and is collected at night. When the honey is ready, the man who first discovered the swarm, the owner of the tree, and a few friends go out to the tree. The owner scales the tree with a smouldering piece of wood in one hand. The smoking wood creates sparks by pegs knocked into the tree, and the bees leave the hive to follow the sparks. The honey is collected. Before going to collect the honey, fish cannot be eaten that night for fear the bees will follow the smell of the fish and not the sparks.
All sorts of vegetables, watermelon, corn, fern tops, pumpkin, sweet potato and young bamboo shoots, plus local varieties, are planted and harvested. Water is the usual form of beverage. Barum, a mildly alcoholic drink, is usually served at festivals, and everyone usually receives half a cup full.
Bahai or betel nut is chewed quite often by the Bidayuh. The red juice often stains their mouth and teeth.
The Bidayuh believe in an omnipotent being, “Tempah” and everything good and bad is ascribed to him. He lives in the sky, which they think is made of stone. The sun is a great fire, and its eclipse is caused by a large snake (raung) encircling it when it is necessary for everyone to beat drums and gongs to frighten it away.
The men are initiated into a ceremony where the boys are taken into the jungle by an elder and some men. The year before, they could not partake of meat, smoke, or chew betel nuts. What happens when they go to the jungle for overnight is not known as the evening is kept entirely secret.
A boy, upon reaching puberty, moves from his parent’s house to the baloi and then sleeps with the other unmarried bachelors. From here, he may visit an unmarried maiden, crawling under her mosquito net, where they will sit and talk. She then lays down and receives him. There is little restriction between sex between boys and girls. A girl usually only allows a certain boy to have sex with her turning away other suitors. After a time, the parties agree to get married, usually after she becomes pregnant. The headman calls for this after it becomes obvious. On becoming engaged, the man will give her a small token, such as a ring.
Usually, the man agrees, a small feast is held, and the man goes to live in the girls’ room, but after the first four nights of married life, bad omens are reported, and the headman calls off the marriage. However, if the omens are good, and after some time, the couple will leave their parent’s house and build one of their own.
The marriage of first cousins as between siblings is forbidden. For incest, a man is fined $7 (a fortune to them), and he must kill one large and one small pig. They are taken to a temporary shelter, usually by the river, where they are eaten. Then, dressed in war dress, the men come down from the house to the shed to hack it away and with the remains of the feats, it is thrown into the river. This is to drive out the evil spirit that caused the incest.
The wives and husbands are promiscuous, with fines of only $2 levied on the male if they are caught. Should a friend continue to use the other man’s wife, and the “other man” is a bachelor, the husband may apply for a divorce, provided the girl did not leave her husband. If the girl left her husband to follow the other man, she would be fined $7 and he $12. If the friend is married and gets rid of his wife, he is fined $12 for taking another man’s wife, and his wife claims $7 against him for divorce.
The division of labour is unequal, with the women doing most of the hard work while the men are off hunting. Land Dyaks are, in fact patriarchal (society controlled by men), patrilineal (name descends through the male line), but matrilocal.(husband lives with the wife’s family)
When a girl gives birth, older women are called in to help. The placenta falls to the ground through an opening on the floor. The mother is kept warm and is taboo for the first four nights, during which nobody who was not in the room is not permitted save for those who live there. The husband is also taboo for four days, where he may not eat or catch a turtle or fish. If the newborn is a boy, the husband may not smoke a pipe for four days, nor should he eat salt.
Upon death, the body is buried by the undertaker in the graveyard, usually 6-12 hours after death. Formerly, notables were burnt, showing perhaps a Hindu influence, but the custom has been dropped.
The soul of the deadman is supposed to go below the earth and lives with his ancestors. If a person curses or says bad things about him, he will return and give bad dreams. If he is killed outside of his area, he is buried in the nearest cemetery. Should a man be struck by lightning or taken by a crocodile at the village bathing pool, a pig would be killed to prevent recurrence and any sickness.
From
Elam, E.H. Land Dayaks of the Sadong District in the Sarawak Museum Journal, July 1937
