DYAK CEREMONIES. 129 



thresh cotton in [the house or village, lest the mother should 

 feel stiff ; to prepare a kind of lily for thread, lest the mother 

 should feel a crazy sensation ; to lie down on a bemban mat, 

 lest the mother should have rheumatism ; to give suck to the 

 child lying down, lest the child should be deaf ; to give suck 

 to the child in the water lest the child should have bad teeth ; 

 to eat sugar-cane, lest the mother should give birth fre- 

 quently. 



It is very often the case that the mother has no milk for 

 the child for perhaps two or three days or a week after it is 

 born, and the child has to live on masticated cooked rice. It is 

 believed by Dyaks that a kind of land crab (grama) when 

 cooked and eaten by the mother will produce milk. 



Enough has not been said about the ceremony of taking 

 the child to the watering place to bathe for the first time. It 

 is not necessary to repeat what has already been written but it is 

 a very solemn ceremony- Every family has its own pecu- 

 liarities of ceremony, which are more or less attached to 

 religious rites. With some families the village or house is 

 tabooed when a child is born. The doors are marked with sign to 

 denote non-admittance to strangers until the umbilical cord of 

 the child has dropped off. Anybody trespassing in the house 

 or village is not allowed to leave until the umbilical cord has 

 dropped off, which may be five or seven days. Should any 

 one leave the house before that time he is liable to a heavy 

 fine of a full-grown pig. Unless this custom is carried out, the 

 child might suffer from blindness. 



Once on my usual tour round my mission at a place called 

 Pua-ai, one of my followers entered into a large village when 

 it was too dark to discern anything, to buy some rice for our 

 consumption. He was detained in the house. Three of the 

 people in the village came to see me and brought the rice which 

 he bought and explained matters to me. This was unfortunate 

 as I could not stay there more than two nights, so I had to 

 redeem my friend by paying for a large pig. 



After the umbilical cord has dropped off the village or 

 house is no longer tabooed and the marks or signs are taken 

 off. Some families have not got such customs. 



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



