XVII MYTHS, LEGENDS, STORIES 149 



Kelap, and advised him to get out of the river. 

 *' No, I shall stay here," said Kelap, ''this is the 

 safest place for me," and he went and stood quite 

 still among the big stones in the shallow water. 



Presently the people began to beat out the tuba 

 root on the stones, and one man, taking Kelafs 

 back for a stone, began to beat his tuba upon it. 

 Then Kelap made his back sink lower little by little, 

 so that the water began to cover it. '* Hello ! " 

 said the man, " the water's rising, it's no good 

 trying to poison the river when the water's rising." 

 So they went home. 



The Kenyah Story of the Belira Fish 



The belira is a fish that has an extraordinary 

 number of bones. The following story accounts 

 for this exceptional number of bones and, in con- 

 junction with the foregoing story, explains why 

 Kenyahs, when proposing to poison the river with 

 tuba in order to take the fish, speak of their inten- 

 tions only in parables. 



The fish began to complain that they were so 

 often caught by men who poisoned the river. So 

 they decided they must have a dayong who could 

 make rain for them ^ so as to prevent the poisoning 

 of the water. They asked one fish after another to 

 become a dayong \ but all refused until they came 

 to the belira, who said he would do his best to 

 become a dayong and to make rain for them, if each 

 of the other fishes would give him a bone. They 

 accepted the bargain and each gave him a bone, 

 and that is why the belira has so many bones. 



The Story of the Stupid Boy 



The following Klemantan story illustrates the 

 taste of the people for the comic : — 



^ This is the only mention of rain-making that has come to our notice 

 among any of the Borneans. 



