i62 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



Among the Kayans of the upper Rejang the 

 naming ceremonies differ widely from those described 

 above, and are even more elaborate. The following 

 description was given us by Laki Bo, a Kayan 

 penghulu} A child is named sometime between its 

 third month and the end of its second year, the 

 date depending partly on the father's capacity to 

 afford the expenses incidental to the ceremony. 

 The father and his friends obtain specimens of all 

 the edible animals and fish, and after drying them 

 over the fire, set them up in his room in attitudes 

 as lifelike as possible. He procures also the leaves 

 of a species of banana tree which bears very large 

 horn-like fruit, known as puti oran ; and having 

 procured the services of a female dayong, who has a 

 reputation for skill in naming, he calls all the friends 

 and relatives of the family to the feast. The dayong 

 enters the room where the child is, bearing a fowl's 

 ^^^, while gongs and drums are beaten and guns 

 discharged. She strokes the child from forehead to 

 navel with the ^^'g, calling out some name at each 

 stroke, until she feels that she has found a suitable 

 name. The whole company then pretends to fall 

 asleep ; and presently some go out into the gallery. 

 The dayong then calls upon sixteen of the women to 

 enter the room ; they enter led by a woman who, 

 pretending to be a fowl, clucks and crows, and 

 Says, " Why are you all asleep here '^ It has been 

 daylight for a long time. Don't you hear me crow- 

 ing .? Wake up, wake up." The child, which has 

 been kept in its parents' cubicle during this first 

 part of the ceremony, is then brought into the large 

 room, and a fowl and small pig are slaughtered and 

 their entrails examined. If these yield favourable 

 omens, the dayong begins to chant, invoking the 

 protection of good spirits for the child. Then 

 sixteen men and sixteen women, whose parents are 



1 Tht penghulu is the leading chief of a district ; cf. Chap. XXII. 



