32 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



may be repeated again and again with greater 

 elaboration of detail, and may be prolonged through 

 many hours and even days with brief interruptions. 



When all these efforts prove unavailing, despair- 

 ing relatives sometimes put the end of a blow-pipe 

 to the dying or dead man's ear (or merely their 

 lips) and shout through it, '* Come back, this is 

 your home, here we have food ready for you." 

 Sometimes the departed soul is believed to reply, 

 ** I am far from home, I am following a To A and 

 don't know the way back." 



If, in spite of all these efforts, the patient dies, 

 a drum is loudly beaten (or in case of a female 

 a tawak) in order to announce the decease to 

 relatives and friends gone before, the number of 

 strokes depending upon the rank and sex of the 

 departing spirit. The corpse is kept in the house 

 during a period which varies from one night for 

 people of the lower class, to three nights for middle 

 class folk, and ten days for a chief. During this 

 time the dead man lies in state. The corpse has a 

 bead of some value under each eyelid ; Mt is dressed 

 in his finest clothes and ornaments, and is enclosed 

 within a coffin hollowed from a single log, the lid of 

 which is sealed with resin and lashed round with 

 rattans. 



The coffin is covered with a particular design in 

 red and black and white, and is placed in the gallery 

 on a low platform, surrounded by the most valuable 

 personal property of the dead man, whose family 

 will take pains to make the display of property as 

 imposing as possible. A fire is kept burning near 

 the coffin, and small packets of cooked rice and of 

 tobacco are placed upon it for the use of the dead 

 man's soul. Hundreds of cigarettes are hung in 

 bundles about the platform by people of the house, 



^ These beads seem to be designed for use by the ghost in paying for its 

 passage across the river of death. 



