WAR 



175 



of age, who are ripe for their second participation 

 in mock warfare, also strike at a head in a similar 

 way, but engage also in mimic battles with one 

 another, using wooden swords and spears, and, 

 curiously enough, small roughly made bows and 

 arrows/ It is customary for the victorious warriors 

 to spend the first night after their return encamped 

 before the house. A strip of green damt isang 

 is tied about the left wrist of each man who has 

 taken part in the expedition, and also of each of the 

 young boys. Those who have taken heads adorn 

 also their war - caps with the same leaf and with 

 feathered sticks. On the following day a tall post of 

 bamboo (balawing) is erected near the figure of the 

 war-god. It is covered with frayed palm leaves {daun 

 isang), and from its tip a single head, also wrapped 

 in leaves, is suspended by a long cord (PL 66). 

 Before the altar-post of the war-god several shorter 

 thicker posts are erected, and to each of these two 

 or three small pieces of human flesh, brought home 

 from the corpses of the slain enemies for this 

 purpose, are fastened with skewers. These pieces 

 of flesh seem to be thank-offerings to the hawks 

 to whom the success is largely attributed. These 

 bits of flesh are dried over a fire at the first oppor- 

 tunity on the return journey, in order to preserve 

 them.2 



^ So far as we know this is the only way in which the bow and arrow 

 is used in Borneo, although the principle of the bow is frequently applied 

 in making traps. It is perhaps worthy of remark that the dense character of 

 the jungle is probably more favourable to use of the blow-pipe than to that 

 of the bow and arrow. 



^ It is probable that the observation of this practice by Europeans has 

 given rise to the frequently published statements that the tribes of the interior 

 are cannibals. We affirm with some confidence that none of the peoples of 

 Borneo ever consume human flesh as food. It is true that Kayans, Kenyahs, 

 and Klemantans will occasionally consume on the spot a tiny piece of the 

 flesh of a slain enemy for the purpose of curing disorders, especially chronic 

 cough and dysentery ; and that Ibans, men or women, during the mad 

 rejoicings over captured heads will occasionally bite a head, or even bite a 

 piece of flesh from it. A third practice involving the consumption of human 

 flesh was formerly observed among the Jingkangs (Klemantans of Dutch 

 Borneo) ; when a son was seriously ill and the efforts of the medicine-men 



