MENGAP, THE SONG OF THE DYAK 

 HEAD FEAST, 



BY THE REV. J. PERHAM, 



Read at a Meeting of the Society held on the 8th of July 1878. 



The principal ceremonial feasts of Sea Dyaks are con- 

 nected with three subjects; farming, head-taking, and the 

 dead ; and are called by them respectively, Gawe Batn or 

 Gawe Benin, Gawe Pala or Burong, and Gawe Antn; the 

 Stone or Seed feast, the Head or Bird feast, and the Spirit 

 feast. The first mentioned are two distinct feasts and not 

 two names of one ; but both refer to the farm. It is with 

 the Gawe Pala or Burong that this paper is concerned. 



When a house has obtained a human head a grand feast 

 must be made sooner or later to celebrate the acquisition ; 

 and this is by no means a mere matter of eating and drink- 

 ing, although there is an excess of the latter, but is a mat- 

 ter of much ceremony, of offerings and of song. The song 

 which is then recited is well-known to differ considerably in 

 form from the ordinary language, and the European who 

 may be able to understand and to speak colloquial Dyak may 

 yet find the "Mengap" (as it is called in Saribus dialect) 

 mostly unintelligible. But I believe the difference is only 

 that between a poetical and prose language. Certain require- 

 ments of alliteration and of rythm and rhyme have to be 

 fulfilled, which, together with native metaphor and most 

 excessive verbosity, are quite sufficient to mystify an unin- 

 structed hearer. Another reason for the difference lies in 

 the fact that the language of the Mengap remains station- 

 ery, whilst the ordinary spoken language is continually 

 changing and developing new forms. But the object of this 

 paper is not to discourse ab/out Dyak poetical language, I 

 only attempt to give a sketch of the Mengap of the Head- 

 feast, so that the reader may have some idea of the meaning 

 of what has perhaps sour^ed to some a mere senseless rig- 

 marole. 



