i84 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



two communities take part. Speeches are made, 

 and the leaders exhort the young couple to industry 

 and to obedience to themselves, making specific 

 mention of the principal duties of either sex, such as 

 collecting camphor and procuring animal food for 

 the man, the preparing of sago, cooking, and tend- 

 ing the children for the woman. 



After the ceremony, the husband joins the wife's 

 community and generally remains a member of it ; 

 unlike the Kayans, among whom a husband, though 

 he may live for some years with his wife's people, 

 eventually brings her to his father's village. No 

 definite payment is made to the parents of the 

 bride, but some small gift, perhaps two or three 

 pounds of tobacco, is usually presented to them by 

 the bridegroom. 



Adverse omens may cause the postponement of 

 a marriage ; but beyond this there seems to be no 

 regular method of obtaining or seeking divine sanc- 

 tion for the marriage ; an offering of cooked food 

 may be made to Bali-Penyalong, by placing it on 

 a stake beneath the image of the crocodile (which 

 seems to serve as an altar) with some dedicatory 

 words — for like the other peoples the Punans are 

 voluble in speech, both in human intercourse and 

 in appealing to the supernatural powers. On such 

 occasions the words uttered usually take in part the 

 form of a prayer for protection from danger. 



Those who are accustomed to all the complex com- 

 forts and resources of civilisation, and to whom all 

 these resources hardly suffice to make tolerable the 

 responsibility and labour of the rearing of a family, 

 can hardly fail to be filled with wonder at the thought 

 of these gentle savages bearing and rearing large 

 families of healthy well-mannered children in the 

 damp jungle, without so much as a permanent shelter 

 above their heads. The rude shelter of boughs and 

 leaves, which is their only house, is perhaps made 



