142 
ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES. 
of uneasiness, especially among the women-folk who 
seldom are found to touch it. With some tribes the 
prohibition of eating deer’s flesh is particularly strict 
among the women, especially with young girls and 
virgins. 
Against this last remark it should be noted that 
among the Land-Dayaks of Singghi, a village just off 
the Sarawak River, the women and boys only are 
allowed to partake of deer’s flesh. Sir Hugh Low* 
has an interesting paragraph on these particular 
Dayaks with regard to this subject, and we were in¬ 
terested to hear from a Singghi the other day that the 
customs mentioned by Sir Hugh Low over 60 years ago 
are still observed strictly to-day. 
To return to the eastern limit of the Land-Dayaks, 
we find a tribe called Melikin in the head-waters of the 
Gedong, a tributary of the Sadong, which appears to be 
the strictest in observing this prohibition. The writers 
could not hear of a single instance where any of these 
people have indulged in the forbidden “fruit”. This is 
of exceptional interest because the Melikin Dayaks are 
on the borders of the Sea and Land-Dayak districts 
and consequently they have assimilated the customs 
and speech of both tribes, which are, as is well known, 
very different one from the other. The houses of this 
tribe are practically the same as the ordinary Sea- 
Dayak house, and they have no pancha. Deer’s flesh is 
not allowed to be brought into their houses in any 
form. The Sea-Dayaks on the other hand have no 
* “The prohibition against the flesh of deer is much less strictly practised, 
and in many tribes totally disregarded.In the large tribe of Singhie, 
it is observed in its fullest extent, and is even carried so far, that they will 
not allow a stranger to bring a deer into their houses, or to be cooked by 
cheir fires. The men of the tribe will not touch the animals, and none but 
the women or boys, who have not been on a war expedition, which admits 
them to the privileges of manhood, are allowed to assist the European sports¬ 
man in bringing home his bag. 
“The tribe of Sow, whose villages are not far from the houses of Singhie, 
does not so rigorously observe the practice. Old men, women, and boys may 
oat of its flesh; the middle-aged and unmarried young men only being 
prohibited from partaking of it. I think, however, that the practice of using 
the flesh of the animal in question is one of recent introduction.” (Sir Hugh 
Low, k. c. k. Sarawak, its Inhabitants and Productions. 18i8, p. 266). 
