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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



SILVER HEAD-DRESS, BEETS OE SILVER COIN, AND NATIVE 



WOVEN SKIRT CONSTITUTE THE HOLIDAY COSTUME 



OE DAYAK WOMEN DURING THE HARVEST 



FESTIVAL SEASON 



useful channels, they have shown much 

 capacity for development. They are 

 thrifty and industrious, building good 

 houses, which are usually neat and clean. 

 As with most of the Sarawak tribes, 

 personal cleanliness is the rule, and the 

 Dayaks have been known to comment on 

 a white traveler to the effect that, al- 

 though he seemed to be otherwise all 

 right, he did not bathe quite as frequently 

 as they considered necessary. They are 

 a fine race physically and delight in per- 

 sonal adornment, in which they show ex- 

 cellent taste in the use of colors for the 

 chawat, or loin cloth, and for the bead 

 necklaces and headdresses. 



I had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing them 

 under the most inter- 

 esting conditions by 

 visiting at two o f 

 their houses on the oc- 

 casion of the harvest 

 feast. After setting 

 aside from the rice 

 crop the portion they 

 require for the year's 

 food supply and 

 enough more for trad- 

 ing purposes, the re- 

 mainder is converted 

 into a rice wine and 

 feasts are held at one 

 house after another. 



On the morning of 

 the feast chickens are 

 killed, rice is scattered 

 about the house, and 

 other ceremonies are 

 performed to propiti- 

 ate the evil spirits. 



As guests begin to 

 arrive from neighbor- 

 ing houses, the gongs 

 are beaten, small brass 

 cannon are fired, if 

 gunpowder can be ob- 

 tained from a white 

 visitor, and live fowls, 

 as a token of good- 

 will and friendship, 

 are waved about over 

 the newly arrived 

 guests. 



The sacrifice of 

 fowls plays an impor- 

 tant part in many ceremonies, such as 

 that of blood-brotherhood among the 

 Kayans when a man is adopted into the 

 family of another, the killing of the fowl 

 serving as a means of conveying a mes- 

 sage to the gods. 



THE CEREMONIAL OE THE GREAT EEAST 



On the evening of the feast, at one of 

 the Iban houses, I witnessed a rather 

 startling performance of the sacrifice of 

 a fowl. 



The great feast of the day was held 

 at noon, and in the evening the different 

 members of the house invited their par- 

 ticular friends to supper in their own 



