A SEA-DAYAK DIRGE. — BY THE REYD. W. HOWELL. 
D 
If— A S|sa-Dayak Uirge— By The Revd. W. 
Howell of the S. P. G Mission, Sabu, Sarawak. 
This dirge was recited by a well-known professional 
waller called Lemok, and was written down as she 
recited it. She is blind and her memory is extraordin¬ 
arily good. She lives in the Undup in a village called 
Siga, Batang Lupar district. 
It was most difficult to write down everything when 
recited so quickly and the dirge would be very long 
indeed had I been able to do so. I took down, how¬ 
ever, all that Avas important and sufficient to enlighten 
any one who wanted to know something about the 
Sea-Dayak idea of death and life after death. 
The Dayak of the dirge is most classical and unless 
a man is thoroughly conversant with the language he 
will not understand much. Much as 1 have been 
among the Sea-Dayaks—for some thirty-two years now 
—I had to have several learned Dayaks to explain to 
me the meaning of a great many words and phrases, 
before I undertook to translate the dirge. The Dayak of 
it had been revised twice before it was translated. I owe 
much to the late Mr. D. J. S. Bailey, formerly Resident 
of Simanggang, for continual help and valuable advice 
in the laborious task of translation. The difficulties of 
rendering Dayak ideas'of this nature, especially when 
involved in Dayak verse, into English of any style, 
have naturally been very great. And however far these 
difficulties have been overcome is entirely due to Mr. 
Bailey, an ever-ready friend and kindly adviser, whose 
early demise his many Sarawak friends deeply lament. 
To Mr. H. L. Owen, now Resident of Oya, a word of 
thanks is due for the care and trouble he expended in 
type-writing this manuscript for the printers-a 
difficult task, unless a man is well conversant with 
the Sea-Dayak language.' 
