176 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO cH.xvm 



each year by the name of the place where the padi 

 crop of that year was raised. When she reaches 

 back to the year of the birth of any one of her 

 children, she says that the child was born about or 

 before or soon after this particular harvest, and by 

 counting the pieces of stuff laid down she then 

 arrives at the child's age. 



An elderly man can generally make no more 

 accurate statement regarding his age than that at 

 the time of the great eclipse he had just begun to 

 wear a waistcloth, or that when the great guns were 

 heard (i.e, the sound of the eruption of Krakatoa) 

 he was just beginning '* to look for tobacco." 



We mention here a statement commonly made 

 by Kayans, which, if true, is of some interest as 

 reporting a curious exception to a world - wide 

 custom commonly regarded as directly determined 

 by the difference of nature between the sexes, the 

 report, namely, that among the Kalabits the initiative 

 in all love-making is taken by the women. We have 

 no detailed information in regard to their courtship 

 and marriage procedures. 



