38 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



with clay, allowing the hair to grow on the parts of 

 the head and face usually kept shaved,^ and the 

 putting aside of ornaments such as ear-rings, neck- 

 laces, or the substitution of wooden ear-rings for 

 the metal ones commonly worn by the women. All 

 music, feasts, and jollifications are avoided. The 

 period of mourning can only be properly terminated 

 by a ceremony in which a human head plays an 

 essential part. Where the influence of the European 

 governments has not made itself felt, the death of a 

 chief necessitates the procuring of a fresh head, and 

 a party may be sent out to cut off in the jungle, on 

 the farms, or on the river, some small party of a 

 hostile village. The common people must postpone 

 the termination of their mourning until some such 

 occasion presents itself. Nowadays in the districts 

 in which head hunting has been suppressed, an old 

 head, generally one surviving from an earlier period, 

 is borrowed or begged for the purpose from another 

 village, and is brought home with all the display 

 properly belonging to a return from successful war 

 (see Chap. X.). As soon as the head is brought 

 into the house the period of mourning terminates 

 amid general rejoicing. The head, or a fragment 

 of it, or the bundle of palm leaves (daun isang) 

 with which it has been decorated, is hung upon 

 the tomb.^ 



In case of any dispute regarding the division of 

 the property of a dead man, his ghost may be called 

 upon by a Dayong and questioned as to the dead 

 man's intentions ; but this would not be done until 

 after the harvest following upon the death. The 

 ceremony is known as dayong janoi. A small model 

 of a house, perhaps a yard in width and length, is 



^ Among some of the Klemantan tribes the opposite practice of shaving the 

 whole scalp is observed in mourning. 



2 In some of the remoter forts of the Sarawak government old heads that 

 have been confiscated are kept, and are occasionally lent for the purpose of 

 enabling a village to go out of mourning without shedding human blood. 



