8 ON TALLY STICKS AND STRINGS IN BORNEO. 



under his care, and also to indicate the number of people under 

 his protection in each house. The image of Bali Atap outside 

 the door of a Madang house has a whole fringe of knotted 

 strings tied round his neck. This deity (Bali — a hero, Atap — a 

 spear) is the special protector of the house, and when they want 

 him to take charge of a house it is necessary to kill at his altar 

 a fowl or pig, the blood of the sacrifice being sprinkled over 

 the head of the wooden image of the god and on those persors 

 of the assembled crowd, who wish for his protection ; in some 

 cases however an egg in a cleft stick has to suffice as the 

 offering. To the Kenyan or Punan the tying of the knot for 

 Bali Atap has a deep significance: it -means to them the sealing 

 of a fixed contract. They will only tie such knots whey they 

 receive an omen from Bali Atap sufficiently favourable to 

 justify them in assuming that the god is willing to make the 

 agreement with them. The actual manner of obtaining such 

 an omen is as follows : a man fixes up two vertical poles in the 

 ground and on the top of these and again two feet below he 

 attaches horizontal poles • then he sits down behind the square 

 thus formed and looks through it to the area of sky beyond. 

 At this part of the ceremony the above mentioned sacrifice is 

 made. And now, after waiting perhaps for hours, if a hawk 

 soars in this patch of sky in a direction from right to left, he 

 knows that this hawk will carry his message to Bali Atap, and 

 seeing it he waves a fire brand in the air towards the flying 

 bird at the same time loudly shouting the message which is 

 carried upwards in the ascending smoke to the hawk. Thus 

 being assured that Bali Atap has been willing to receive and 

 hence is favourable to his request he completes the ceremony by 

 tying the knotted string to the image of the god as a seal to 

 the agreement just made between Bali Atap and the man. 



The same idea in the tying of a knot is met with in entirely 

 different ceremonies of which we may mention one example. 

 It is held by Kenyahs that when a person t falls sick his soul 

 leaves the body and to heal the patient all that is necessary is 

 the return of the soul. The witch doctor (Dayong) in charge 

 of the case obtains assistance from the next world and thus is 

 able to persuade the erring soul to return. In the ceremony 



Jour. Straits Branch 



