114 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap, xv 



Long, a species of Caladiunty is commonly hung, 

 both root and leaves, upon the door of a room 

 to mark that it is lali (tabu) owing to sickness, 

 harvesting, or any other circumstance. 



Orobong, a weed (not unlike the foxglove in 

 appearance) which always grows freely among the 

 young padiy is gathered by the female friends of any 

 woman passing through the ordeal of childbirth. 

 They boil the leaves and wash her body with the 

 decoction on several days following the delivery. 

 It is held that, if this is not done, the woman's 

 abdomen will not regain its normal state. This 

 usage also is common to the Kayans with many 

 other tribes. 



The leaves of the Draccena are sometimes tied 

 beneath the prow of a boat during journeys to 

 distant parts (as mentioned on p. 70, vol. ii.) ; they 

 are also hung upon the tombs and, with the isang, 

 upon altar posts, when the rites are performed. 



The I bans and some of the Klemantans will not 

 make the first stroke in cutting down the tapang 

 tree {Arbouria), alleging that, if they do so, great 

 troubles will befall them. 



Supplementary Note on the Ngarong 



Since correcting the proofs of this chapter we have come upon a 

 brief account of the guardian spirits of the I ban, which corroborates 

 our account of the Ngarong. It is contained in a series of papers 

 entitled Religious Rites and Customs of the Ibans or Dyaks of 

 Sarawak, Borneo, written by Leo Nyuak (an I ban educated in a 

 mission school), and translated by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn 

 {Anthropos, vol. i. p. 182, 1905). In this account the guardian 

 spirit is called Tua, and we are told that "The Tua or guardian 

 spirit of an I ban has its external manifestation in a snake, a leopard, 

 or some other denizen of the forest. It is supposed to be the spirit 

 of some ancestor renowned for bravery, or some other virtue, who 

 at death has taken an animal form ... it is revealed in a dream 

 what animal form the honoured dead has taken." 



