8 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



right angles to one another, and a fresh fowl's Qgg 

 is inserted between the split ends (PI. 145). Leaves 

 of the Lon^" (a species of Caladium), a plant grown 

 on ih^ padi field for this purpose, are hung upon the 

 post. These leaves serve merely to signalise the fact 

 that some rite is going forward ; they are also hung, 

 together with a large sun hat, upon the door of any 

 room in which a person lies seriously ill, to make 

 it known as lali or tabu ; and in general they seem 

 to be used to mark a spot as pervaded by some 

 spiritual influence, or, in short, as ** unclean." The 

 bodies of fowls and pigs sacrificed in the course of 

 the rites performed before such an altar-post are 

 generally hung upon sharpened stakes driven into 

 the ground before it, i.e. between it and the house, 

 towards which the post, in the case of posts of 

 the former kind, invariably faces ; and the frayed 

 sticks commonly used in such rites are hung 

 upon the altar- post. Such posts are sometimes 

 fenced in, but this is by no means always the case 



(PI. 144). 



The Kayans seek to read in the behaviour of 

 the omen birds and in the entrails of the slaughtered 

 pigs and fowls indications of the way in which the 

 gods responds to their prayers. For they regard 

 the true omen birds as the trusty messengers of 

 the gods. After slaughtering the pigs or fowls to 

 whose charge they have committed their petitions, 

 they examine their entrails in the hope of discover- 

 ing the answer of the gods ; and at the same time 

 they tell off two or three men to look for omens 

 from the birds of the jungle.^ If the omens first 

 obtained are bad, more fowls and pigs are usually 

 killed and omens again observed ; and in an import- 

 ant matter, e.g. the illness of a beloved child, the 

 process may be repeated many times until satis- 

 factory omens are forthcoming. Whatever may 



1 See Chap. X. 



