66 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



the description of the ceremony at Tama Bulan's 

 house, their blood may be poured upon the altar- 

 posts of Bali Penyalong. It would seem that 

 fowls and pigs are to some extent interchangeable 

 equivalents for sacrificial purposes. Perhaps the 

 most important occasion on which the fowl plays 

 a part is the performance of the rite by which a 

 blood-feud is finally wiped away. The following 

 extract from the journal previously quoted describes 

 an incident of this kind : — 



In the evening there was serious business on hand. Two 

 chiefs, who some years ago were burned out of their homes 

 in the Rejang district by the government, have settled 

 themselves with their people in the Baram district. They 

 had made a provisional peace with the Kayans some years 

 ago, but the final ceremony was to be performed this 

 evening. The two chiefs of the immigrants, who had 

 remained hitherto in a remote part of the house, seated 

 themselves at one side, and the Kayan chiefs at the other, 

 and Tama Bulan and ourselves between the two parties. 

 First, presents of iron were exchanged. In the old days 

 costly presents of metal-work used to be given ; but, as this 

 led sometimes to renewed disputes, the government has 

 forbidden the giving, in such ceremony, of presents of a 

 greater value than two dollars. So now old sword-blades 

 are given, and the other essential part of the present has 

 been proportionately reduced from a full-grown fowl to a 

 tiny chick. After much preliminary talking, two chicks 

 were brought and a bundle of old sword-blades, which 

 Tama Bulan, in his character of peace-maker, carries with 

 him whenever he travels abroad. A chief of either party 

 took a chick and a sword and presented them to the other. 

 Then one led his men a little apart and began to rattle off 

 an invocation beginning, " O sacred (Bali) chick," snipped 

 off its head with the sword, and with the bloody blade 

 smeared the right arm of his followers as they crowded 

 round him. The old fellow kept up the stream of words 

 until every man was smeared ; and then they all stamped 

 together on the floor raising a great shout. Then the other 

 party went through a similar performance ; and the peace 

 being thus formally ratified, we sat down to cement it still 

 further by a friendly drinking bout. 



