204 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



houses in the comparatively flimsy style adopted by 

 the Ibans and some of the Klemantans, and even 

 occasionally by Kenyahs. The main features of the 

 structure of a Kayan long -house have been de- 

 scribed in Chapter IV. Here it remains only to 

 describe some of the more peculiar and important 

 processes of construction. 



The great piles that support the house may be 

 floated down river from the old house to be used in 

 the construction of the new ; ^ they are not dug 

 from the ground, but are felled by cutting close to 

 the surface of the ground. The great planks of the 

 floor, the main cross-beams, and the wooden shingles 

 of the roof, are also commonly carried from the old 

 house to the new. If a house has been partially 

 destroyed by fire, no part of the materials of the old 

 house is used in the construction of the new ; for it 

 is felt that in some indefinable way the use of the 

 old material would render the new house very liable 

 to the same fate, as though the new house would be 

 infected by the materials with the ill-luck attaching 

 to the old house. '^ In such cases, or upon migration 

 to a different river, the whole of the timbers for the 

 house have to be procured from the jungle, and 

 shaped, and erected ; and the process of construction 

 is extremely laborious. But once the timber has 

 been brought together upon the chosen site, the 

 building goes on rapidly, and the whole of a house 

 some hundreds of yards in length may be sub- 

 stantially completed within a fortnight. The main 

 supports of the structure are four rows of massive 



^ The convenience of thus floating the timber is one reason for the general 

 tendency shown by Kayans to migrate gradually down river, 



^ This is an example of a very common type of practice which implies the 

 belief that the attributes of any object will attach themselves to any whole into 

 which the object may be incorporated as a part ; thus a hunter who has shot 

 dead a pig or deer with a single bullet will cut out the bullet to melt it down 

 with other lead, and will make a fresh batch of bullets or slugs from the 

 mixture, believing that the lucky bullet will leaven the whole lump, or impart 

 to all of it something of that to which its success was due. Compare also the 

 similar practice in regard to the seed grain (vol. i., p. 112). 



