FUNERAL CUSTOMS 341 



night is long enough. Many people gather for the fu- 

 neral. There is little activity in the day time, but at night 

 the work, as the natives call it, is performed, some weep- 

 ing, others dancing. When the room is large the feast is 

 held in the house, otherwise, outside. Fire is kept burn- 

 ing constantly during the night, but not in the day time. 

 Many antohs are supposed to arrive to feast on the dead 

 man. People are afraid of these supernatural associations 

 but not of the departed soul. Formerly, when erecting a 

 funeral house for an important man, an attendant in the 

 next life was provided for him by placing a slave, alive, 

 in the hole dug for one of the upright posts, the end of the 

 post being set directly over him. 



On the Samba I found myself in close proximity to 

 regions widely spoken of elsewhere in Borneo as being 

 inhabited by particularly wild people, called Ulu-Ots: 

 (ulu=men; ot = at the headwaters). Their habitats are 

 the mountainous regions in which originate the greatest 

 rivers of Borneo, the Barito, the Kapuas (western), and 

 the Mahakam, and the mountains farther west, from 

 whence flow the Katingan, the Sampit, and the Pem- 

 buang, are also persistently assigned to these ferocious 

 natives. They are usually believed to have short tails 

 and to sleep in trees. Old Malays may still be found who 

 tell of fights they had forty or more years ago with these 

 wild men. The Kahayans say that the Ulu-Ots are can- 

 nibals, and have been known to force old men and 

 women to climb trees and hang by their hands to the 

 branches until sufficiently exhausted to be shaken down 

 and killed. The flesh is roasted before being eaten. 



