288 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



bamboo till it is finished. A large hole is 'hen cut 

 in the bamboo, and by some sleight of hand from it 

 is extracted a canine tooth of the Clouded Leopard, 

 which had been placed there by divine means this is 

 a powerful charm sufficient to ward off bullets from 

 the possessor. Then rice dyed yellow with turmeric 

 is flung up to the heads, with many prayers to drive 

 off sickness, send good crops, and so forth, the prayers 

 being punctuated by a sort of wailing screams. The 

 women dance in a large circle all round the central 

 figures, and much beating of gongs and firing of guns 

 goes on all the time. There is much feasting, which 

 may last for four or more days, and then the heads 

 are transferred to the Head-House. 



2jth. I was waked early by the usual chorus of cock- 

 crowing, pigs grunting and dogs snarling beneath the 

 " Baluh" ; spent the morning in trying to photograph the 

 unwilling natives, in taking measurements, and in buying 

 odds and ends of ethnographical interest for the Museum. 

 At 4 p.m. I descended from the " Baluh " and went into 

 the inner verandah of the Penglima's house: here was 

 arrayed a row of dishes piled up with uncooked rice, 

 and reposing on the rice cooked eggs ; between the 

 dishes were joints of shaved-down bamboo containing 

 cooked " pulut" rice (Oryza glutinosa). Nine or ten boys 

 battered unceasingly on a row of gongs, and an old 

 man clad in an English soldier's red tunic and a pair 

 of Chinese trousers sat at one of the doors leading 

 into the verandah and chanted an immensely long 

 prayer, whilst we sat in front of the dishes ; the prayer 

 being at length ended, we fell to on the eggs and 

 "pulut" rice. A man with a bowl of water in one 

 hand, a bead-necklace in the other, sprinkled us all 



