ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES. 153 
his daily life and he must observe many of the above 
restrictions (viz. Nos. i, 4, 6—10, 12, and 13). 
1. —No yam may be brought into the house, lest the 
child may get a cough— (Miclap kuduk). 
2. —No tuba or shoot of a bamboo may be brought 
into the house, lest it cause sickness of any sort to the 
child. 
3. —No stranger would be allowed into the room 
where the mother and child lay for fear of sudden 
shock to either. After the lapse of sixteen days, a 
feast is held, to which the mid-wife (penading), rela¬ 
tions and friends are invited. 
The penading alone may hand food to the child and 
its parents. 
[From notes communicated by Simigaat, a Land-Dayak 
of Quo pc Ed. 
Tan Tepang. 
This is a curious superstitious belief prevalent 
among all the tribes of the Sca-Dayaks, and parti¬ 
cularly so with those tribes who live far in the interior, 
away from all civilisation. 
Tau Tepang people are supposed to have the power 
of inflicting all sorts of disasters on villages, people, 
crops, etc., and the manner of this is distinctly start¬ 
ling; for it is only the head of a Tan Tepang person 
that can do the harm and the belief is, that during the 
night the head leaves the Tau Tepang person’s body, 
returning in the early morning after having accom¬ 
plished its work of evil. 
This power can only be inherited, and of course 
there are several stories to account for its origin, no 
two tribes believing in the same version. The follow¬ 
ing was told to me by Majeng, the Government chief 
in the Undup :— 
Once upon a time an enormous snake called NabaiF 
fell down from the heavens, doing incalculable harm 
* [Some Saribas Dayaks say that Nabau was so enormous that he merely 
reached down from the skies to eat up the paddy; and it was not until tin- 
people had blown several poisoned darts into his body that he fell down to 
earth altogether ]. Ed. 
