no PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



of both sexes. If the omens observed are considered 

 to be bad, or of doubtful import, the men go out for 

 a second period ; but if they are favourable, the 

 women of each room perform the private rites over 

 their stores of seed padi, which are kept in their 

 rooms. After the pros and cons have been fully- 

 discussed, the chief names the day for the be- 

 ginning of the clearing operations. 



At the beginning of the sowing the house is 

 again subject to malan for one day. During the 

 growth of the padi various charms and superstitious 

 practices are brought into use to promote its 

 growth and health, and to keep the pests from it. 

 The padi charms are a miscellaneous collection or 

 bundle of small articles, such as curious pebbles 

 and bits of wood, pigs' tusks of unusual size or 

 shape, beads, feathers, crystals of quartz. Kayans 

 as a rule object to pebbles and stones as charms. 

 Such charms are generally acquired in the first 

 instance through indications afforded by dreams, 

 and are handed down from mother to daughter. 

 Such charms contained in a basket are usually kept 

 in 2ipadi barn, from which they are taken to the field 

 by the woman and waved over it, usually with a 

 live fowl in the hand, while she addresses th^ padi 

 seed in some such terms as the following : " May 

 you have a good stem and a good top, let all parts 

 of you grow in harmony, etc. etc." Then she 

 rapidly repeats a long customary formula of 

 exhortation to the pests, saying, " O rats, run 

 away down river, don't trouble us ; O sparrows and 

 noxious insects, go feed on the padi of the people 

 down river." If the pests are very persistent, the 

 woman may kill a fowl and scatter its blood over 

 the growing padi, while she charges the pests to 

 disappear, and calls upon Laki Ivong (the god of 

 harvests) to drive them out. 



Women alone will gather the first ears of the 



