TRIBES IN DUTCH BORNEO 429 



gave as reasons for this practice scarcity of food and 

 woman's fear of dying. Both seem incongruous to fact 

 and primitive ideas, and perhaps his view would better 

 be accepted only as an indication of his ignorance in the 

 matter. The young people are taught to dance by the 

 blian before they are married, and take lessons for a year 

 or two. 



The Murung blian possesses three small wooden 

 statues of human beings which he employs in recovering 

 brua (souls) and bringing them back to persons who are 

 ill, thus making them well. These images are called 

 jurong, two being males, the other female, and carrying 

 a child on its back. While performing his rites over either 

 sex the blian holds the female jurong in his right hand, 

 the other two being inserted under his girdle, one in front, 

 the other at the back, to protect him against his enemies. 

 In the case of a child being ill its brua is brought back 

 by means of the infant carved on the back of the effigy. 

 Undoubtedly the images are similar in character to the 

 kapatongs I have described as occupying an important 

 place in the lives of the Duhoi (Ot-Danum), the Katin- 

 gan, and other tribes of Southwestern Borneo. 



PENYAHBONGS 

 (Notes from the Upper Busang River, Central Borneo) 



The Dutch officials give this tribe the name of Punan- 

 Penyahbongs; the Malays call them Punans, seldom Pen- 

 yahbongs. The Saputans, a neighbouring tribe, told me 

 that the Penyahbongs and the Punans make themselves 



