THE GREAT FEAST 227 



dance of the blians, and these were a daily feature of the 

 great occasion, a dance hitherto in vogue at night was 

 danced in the afternoon. In this the people, in single 

 file, moved very slowly with rythmic steps, describing 

 a circle around three blians, including the principal one, 

 who sat smoking in the centre, with some bamboo baskets 

 near by. Next morning the circular dance was repeated, 

 with the difference that the participants were holding on 

 to a rope. 



About four o'clock in the afternoon the Dayaks be- 

 gan to kill the pigs by cutting the artery of the neck. 

 The animals, which were in surprisingly good condition, 

 made little outcry. The livers were examined, and if 

 found to be of bad omen were thrown away, but the pig 

 itself is eaten in such cases, though a full-grown fowl or a 

 tiny chicken only a few days old must be sacrificed in ad- 

 dition. The carcasses were freed from hair by fire in the 

 usual way and afterward cleaned with the knife. The 

 skin is eaten with the meat, which at night was cooked 

 in bamboo. Outside, in front of the houses, rice cooking 

 had been going on all day. In one row there were per- 

 haps fifty bamboos, each stuffed with envelopes of ba- 

 nana leaves containing rice, the parcels being some thirty 

 centimetres long and three wide. 



During the night there was a grand banquet in all the 

 houses. Lidju, my assistant, did not forget, on this day 

 of plenty, to send my party generous gifts of fresh pork. 

 To me he presented a fine small ham. As salt had been 

 left behind we had to boil the meat a la Dayak in bamboo 

 with very little water, which compensates for the ab- 



