DYAK CEREMONIES. 127 



pinang (betelnut) and lawang (zedoary) is bandaged and made 

 to lie on the spathe of an areca palm, a cloth is put round 

 it, and a Dyak sheet hung over it. One of the women who 

 assisted at the birth washes the child and cuts the umbilical 

 cord. She is afterwards rewarded with a parang, an entadu 

 plate, and a long piece of the black Una (black split rotan worn 

 round the waist). The mother is seated with her back against 

 a blazing fire, she drinks freely of ginger-tea to facilitate her 

 discharge. 



As soon as the umbilical cord has dropped off, the infant, 

 for the first time, is taken to the bathing-place. The man who 

 carries the child takes a fowl with him. As soon as they come 

 to the bathing-place the fowl is killed and a wing is cut off. 

 If it be a male child this wing is tied on with a piece of red 

 thread to a spear, and if the child be of the other sex this 

 wing is tied on to an implement used by Dyak women in 

 weaving (leletan). On the fourth day the spear or the leletan, 

 as the case may be, is taken back to the house. 



When the child is able to look about, to laugh, to turn on 

 its side, to roll over, to crawl, to go on all-fours, to sit up, to 

 walk holding on to something, to walk by itself, the restrictions 

 with regard to the killing of animals or snakes are still binding, 

 the child has not cut its teeth. As soon as this has taken place 

 there is an end to all restrictions. If the child dies before it 

 cuts its teeth the parents do not observe the mourning customs. 



The Dyaks of old, it appears, did not know how to assist 

 a woman when she was in travail, consequently many brutal 

 practices were adopted. 



The knowledge was first came to be possessed by a certain 

 man named Kelili Badak Eesa, whose wife was Teburi. When 

 his wife was enceinte he went out into the jungle with a blow- 

 pipe. There he saw the maias (orang-utan) assisting the 

 female at the birth of its young and he saw that they used Via 

 (ginger) and also bandages. Afterwards his wife gave birth to 

 a child and Kelili Badak' Resa was able to asssist a woman 

 when she was in travail in the same way as the maias did. 

 After his child was born he called him Maling, and gave him 

 the title of Panting Bunga Mengala. 



R. A. Soc.,No.46,1906. 



