94 
MANANGISM IN BORNEO. 
To neutralize the ill omen bird flying across the path ; 
To cut off the katupong’s flight coming from the left ; 
To cover its screeching ;—a bird of dread effect ; 
To make harmless the pangkas, a hot tempered bird; 
To counteract the omen of the low voiced deer. 
Hence ye fowls are for waving and for offering. 
But will not bodies of birds suffice ? 
The bodies of the top knot jungle fowl which fills the 
lowland with long and gentle whistling, 
The hodies of long necked cranes covering the hill, 
The bodies of argus pheasants upon the hillocks of the 
plain, 
The bodies of fire back pheasants filling the lowland 
jungle, 
The bodies of blue kingfishers a pool full just coming 
from pecking on the big spreading rock, 
The bodies of one kneed moorhens filling the gully, 
The bodies of red beaked hornbills filling the ravine, 
The bodies of adjutant birds in the swamp, like kings 
with covered feet, 
The bodies of owls, a flock, sitting withovt doffing their 
hats ; 
Many may be the birds, and many the minas, 
Bodies of hornbills, and bodies of green parrots ; 
But all are ineffectual for waving, for offering: 
They are not worth a fowl as big as the fingers. 
That is the thing for waving and for offering. 
Ye fowls were ever the race ever the seed (for sacrifice), 
From our grandfathers and grandmothers, 
From ancient times, from chiefs of old, 
Down to your fathers and mothers : 
Because we give you rice, we breed you, 
We give you food, give you nourishment, 
We hang for you nests, we make for you roosts; 
We make you coops, we make you baskets: 
Hence ye fowls are used for substituting for buying, 
Substitutes for the face, substitutes for the life. 
