X WAR 177 



family kills a pig and roasts its flesh, ^ brings out 

 stores of rice-spirit, and prepares cakes of rice-flour. 

 The pigs' livers are examined, and their blood is 

 smeared upon the altar-post of the war-god with a 

 sort of brush {pla) made by fraying the end of a 

 stick in a more than usually elaborate manner. 

 Each head, adorned with a large bunch of daun 

 isang, is carried by an elderly man or woman into 

 the house, followed by all the people of the house — 

 men, women, and children — in long procession. The 

 procession marches up and down the whole length 

 of the gallery many times, the people shouting, sing- 

 ing, stamping, and pounding on the floor with padi 

 pestles, or playing the keluri. This is followed by 

 a general feast and drinking bout, each family pre- 

 paring its feast in its own chamber, and entertaining 

 friends and neighbours who come to take part in 

 the general rejoicing. In the course of the feasting 

 the women usually take temporary possession of 

 the heads, and perform with them a wild, uncouth 

 dance, waving the heads to and fro, and chanting 

 in imitation of the men's war-song (PI. 102). The 

 procession may be resumed at intervals until the 

 heads are finally suspended beside the old ones over 

 the principal hearth of the gallery. The heads 

 have usually been prepared by removal of the brain 

 through the great foramen, by drying over a fire, 

 and by lashing on the lower jaw with strips of 

 rattan. The suspension of the head is effected by 

 piercing a round hole in the crown, and passing 

 through it from below, by way of the great foramen, 

 a rattan knotted at the end. The free end of the 

 rattan is passed through and tied in a hole in the 

 lower edge of a long beam suspended parallel to 

 the length of the gallery from the beams of the 

 roof (PI. 68). The Kenyahs suspend the heads 

 in the same way as the Kayans, but most of the 



* At one such feast eighty- five pigs and fifty-six fowls were slaughtered. 

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