i6o PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



children are weaned about the end of their second 

 year. 



During the next years, until the boy is five or 

 six years of age, he remains always under the care 

 of his mother. He spends the day running about 

 within and around the house and among the boats 

 at the landing-place, playing with his fellows, chasing 

 the pigs and fowls, and bathing in the river. The 

 children are in the main what is commonly called 

 good, they cry but little, and quarrels and outbreaks 

 of temper are few. During the boy's third year a 

 hole is punched in the shell of each ear. A single 

 blow with a bamboo punch takes out a circular piece ; 

 into this a circular plug of wax or wood is inserted. 

 The girl, on the other hand, has more rings added 

 to the lobes of her ears, which gradually yield to 

 the weight, and begin to assume the desired charac- 

 ter of slender loops. During these years the boy 

 normally takes the first step of his initiation as a 

 warrior by striking a blow at a freshly taken head, 

 or, if need be, at an old one (see vol. ii. p. 169). 



It is at some time in the course of these years, 

 usually not earlier than the beginning of the child's 

 third year, that he first receives a name. The 

 occasion of the rite is a general naming of all the 

 children of the house of suitable age ; and the time 

 is determined by the conclusion of a successful 

 harvest ; for a general feast is made for which much 

 rice and burak are required, and these cannot be 

 spared in a year of poor harvest. For each child 

 who is to be named a small human image in soft 

 wood is prepared. This is an effigy of Laki Pesong, 

 the god whose special function it is to care for the 

 welfare of the children. A small mat is woven aAd 

 a few strips of rattan provided for each child. Each 

 child sits with his (or her) mother in the gallery 

 beside the door of their room, and the parents 

 announce the name they propose for the child. 



