2 COMPUTION TIME IN BORNEO, 



wet weather. Rice will grow and ripen in a sufficiently warm, 

 sunny climate provided there is enough water on the land, either 

 from irrigation or continual showers. 



In Borneo there is usually rain all round the year in mag- 

 nificent quantity. It is not according to the rainiest season, 

 but according to the driest that the farmer regulates his work. 

 For the jungle is felled and left to dry before being burnt, and 

 the success of the crop depends largely on the completeness of 

 the clearing. The best crop will be generally obtained on land 

 burnt off at the driest season. 



How are these illiterate tribes to find out when a particular 

 season has arrived? In England this is simple enough ; we have 

 almanacks galore, we have clocks which can tell us the length 

 of time from sunrise to sunset. The native does not know how 

 many days there are in a year, and would not take the trouble 

 to keep count if he did. He may know how many moons there 

 are, but like the Malays he would probably get about eleven 

 days wrong every year, and eleven days is a large error of 

 itself. In two or three years the crops would be planted far 

 too early. Unfortunately, too, the length of the day varies very 

 little in the tropics, and the native has no means of observing 

 that variation. He is therefore obliged to have recourse to the 

 stars or the sun to tell the time of year. 



The Dayaks and many of the less important tribes look to 

 the stars to guide them. Every day, as they know, these bodies 

 rise a little earlier, and some wise man is appointed to go out 

 before dawn to watch for the Pleiades. Dayaks use the Malay 

 expressions u bintang tiga " for Orion's belt, and " bintang bangak" 

 or Apai andau (the father of the day) for the Pleiades. When 

 the " seven stars " rise while it is yet dark, it is time to begin. 



Two of the house are sent into the jungle to find omens, 

 while the others wait. In two days perhaps, or a fortnight, or at 

 most a month, the favourable indications will appear, and then an 

 end is made both of science and superstition and the Dayaks set 

 to work on the forest. If they are so late that Orion's belt rises 

 before daybreak, they must make every effort to regain lost time 

 or the crop will be poor. What kind of land they will choose 

 depends on circumstances : in any case it will have lain two or 

 three years fallow and will be thickly covered with vegetation. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



