176 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



As soon as the news of the taking of heads 

 reaches the house, the people go out of mourning, 

 i.e. they shave the parts of the scalp surrounding 

 the crown and pull out eyebrows and eyelashes 

 (which have been allowed to grow during mourning) ; 

 they put off their bark-cloth garments and resume 

 their cotton-cloths and ornaments. 



If, as is usually the case on the return of a war- 

 party, mourning for a chief is to be terminated, one 

 of the heads is carried down river to his tomb, 

 followed by most of the men, while the women wail 

 in the house. The head is first brought before the 

 house, but not into it. An old man shoots a dart 

 into the air in the direction of the enemy, and then, 

 pattering out a long formula in the usual way, he 

 slaughters a fowl and puts a part of the carcase upon 

 a short stick thrust into the earth. The men of the 

 party then march past, each touching the carcase with 

 his knee, and saying as he does so, " Cast out sickness, 

 make me strong and healthy, exalt me above my 

 enemies, etc. etc." Beside the tomb a tall pole is 

 set up, and the head dressed in leaves is suspended 

 by a cord from its upper end. A number of pigs 

 will already have been slain in preparation for the 

 feast, and their lower jaws are hung about the 

 tomb on poles. The deep war-chorus is shouted 

 by the party as it travels to and from the tomb. 

 In returning the whole party bathes in the river, 

 and while they are in the water an old man waves 

 over them some of the isang leaves with which the 

 head has been decorated, wishing them health and 

 long life. 



A few days (not less than four) after the return 

 of the war-party, the heads are brought into the 

 house with much rejoicing and ceremony. Every 



proved ineffective, an infant sister of the patient was killed and a small piece 

 of the flesh given to the patient to eat. It would, we think, be grossly unfair 

 to describe any of these peoples as cannibals on account of these practices. 



