FOLKLORE TALES 137 



ment forward and backward with peculiar steps accom- 

 panied by the swaying of the body. The evolutions of 

 the two dancers were slightly different. 



In October a patrouille of seventeen native soldiers 

 and nine native convicts, under command of a lieutenant, 

 passed through the kampong. In the same month in 

 1907 a patrouille had been killed here by the Murungs. 

 It must be admitted that the Dayaks had reason to be 

 aggrieved against the lieutenant, who had sent two 

 Malays from Tumbang Topu to bring to him the kapala's 

 attractive wife — an order which was obeyed with a tragic 

 sequence. The following night, which the military con- 

 tingent passed at the kampong of the outraged kapala, 

 the lieutenant and thirteen soldiers were killed. Of 

 course the Dayaks had to be punished; the government, 

 however, took the provocation into account. 



The kapala's wife and a female companion demanded 

 two florins each for telling folklore, whereupon I ex- 

 pressed a wish first to hear what they were able to tell. 

 The companion insisted on the money first, but the 

 kapala's wife, who was a very nice woman, began to 

 sing, her friend frequently joining in the song. This 

 was the initial prayer, without which there could be no 

 story-telling. She was a blian, and her way of relating 

 legends was to delineate stories in song form, she in- 

 formed me. As there was nobody to interpret I was 

 reluctantly compelled to dispense with her demon- 

 stration, although I had found it interesting to watch 

 the strange expression of her eyes as she sang and the 

 trance-like appearance she maintained. Another notice- 



