CHAPTER XXXI 



AMONG THE DUHOI (OT-DANUMS) — RICH COLLECTIONS — 

 THE KAPATONGS — THE BATHING OF DAYAK INFANTS — 

 CHRISTMAS EVE — THE FLYING BOAT — MARRIAGE CERE- 

 MONIES 



As we approached the kampong Kuala Braui, our next 

 objective, the men in our prahus began yelling in time, 

 in a manner surprisingly like a college yell. We were 

 received at the landing float by the "onder" of the place, 

 a nervous and shy but intelligent looking Duhoi. Pa- 

 jamas graced his tall form as an outward sign that he was 

 more than an ordinary Dayak, and he wore the same suit 

 every day for a week without washing it. He spoke very 

 few Malay words, which made intercourse with him diffi- 

 cult. Very gentle and retiring, by those unacquainted 

 with the Dayaks he would be regarded as unlikely to 

 possess head-hunting proclivities; nevertheless, twenty 

 years previous to my visit, this same man avenged mem- 

 bers of his family who had been deprived of their heads 

 by Penyahbongs, killing two of the band and preserving 

 their heads. Ten years before he had presented them to 

 Controleur Baren on the Kayan River, thus depriving 

 me of the chance I had hoped for on my arrival. 



The small kampong on the river bank, which here is 

 over twenty metres high and very steep, is new, and a 

 primitive pasang grahan was in course of erection. Six 



men were much entertained by the novel work of putting 



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