50 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO ch.xiv 



and that the cheap modern copies of them find little 

 favour. 



The Klemantans put selected pieces of the 

 property of the deceased within the tomb, but do 

 not generally hang them on it externally as the 

 Kayans and Kenyahs do. 



The Sea Dayaks bury their dead in the earth, 

 generally in a village graveyard on the river banks 

 not far from the house. The body, together with 

 personal property, is merely wrapped in mats and 

 laid in a grave some three feet in depth. It is not 

 usual to keep it in the house for some days as the 

 Kayans do, and the burial is effected with com- 

 paratively little ceremony. The grave of the 

 common man is not marked with any monument, 

 but that of a chief may be marked by a sungkup ; 

 this consists of two pairs of stout posts, at head and 

 feet respectively ; each pair is erected in the form of 

 an oblique cross ; the upper end of each post is 

 carved in decorative fashion. Two broad planks 

 laid between the lower parts of these crossed posts 

 form a roof to the grave. In the case of a man 

 noted for great success in farming or fighting, a 

 bamboo tube may be sunk through the earth to the 

 spot just above the root of the nose, and through 

 this they speak to him and pour rice spirit in order 

 to strengthen their appeal. 



The Land Dayaks of upper Sarawak, as well as 

 some other Klemantan tribes in South Borneo, are 

 peculiar in that they burn the dead, or the bones 

 alone after the flesh has dropped away. The 

 burning of the whole body is in some tribes carried 

 out by the richer families only ; the bodies that are 

 not burned are buried in the earth. 



