to the dead man’s “ ghost.” He was telling him that
the white man had come, and was friends with the
TALKING- TO THE DEAD MAN’S GHOST.
|(From a Drawing by W. S . Margetson.)
Senendan people. The dead man was the brother of
the chief. The Muruts4 here are much tattooed.
4 “ The Muruts are head-takers, but do not preserve the heads as do
the Dyaks; they keep the skulls, or will even divide the skull of an
enemy into several shares. They take also the finger-nails of their
enemies, which they display as trophies outside their houses. In the
case above alluded to, where Basilan was killed, the Muruts seized a
poor old Paluan woman who had long- lived among them, bound her
and set her on a bamboo grating over the open grave of the murdered
man. Then the brother of the deceased stabbed her, and any one of
the bystanders who wished did the same, her blood falling on the
Those men who have fought, or have gone on bold or
risky expeditions, are tattooed from the shoulders to
the pit of the stomach, and all down the arms in
three broad parallel stripes to the wrists. A head-man,
or rather a sometime headman of Seuendan, had two
square tattoo marks on his back. This was because
he ran away in fight, and showed his back to the enemy.
Another and a braver chief was elected in his place.
A gentle incline brought us to the top of a lull,
where we waited a short time to enjoy the splendid
view. Nalalu, which is not far away, was bearing
837°. From Byag, the kampong where we are to
spend the night, the people go to the foot of the final
precipice in three days. The “ Dendagong ” hills,
near Menkabong, lay in the distance bearing 215°.
We now descended into Byag, which is a curious little
mountain village, no long houses, but all small ones,
built on a steep incline. There are ten houses containing
sixty men and fifty women. Headman,
Caronne. The people cannot tell how long since they
settled a t Byag, but more than 100 harvests ago.
There is a large pool at Byag, forty yards in diameter.
The old man- says there is a lake at Longat,
two days’ journey from here. The people have a
splendid harvest, and all the nce-fields are full of
cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, &c. The soil seems
capital. (Three miles in two hours. Direction,
M .W .)
corpse. After this her skull was divided among the chiefs; and I saw
the principal chief decorate the plot of ground before his house with
a part of the skull, having the long hair attached, and the ten fingernails,
five on a pole, as supporters, the pole being decorated with
ribands of the skin of the banana plant.”—L. E. de Crespigny in the
Sarawak Gazette, quoted in Borneo Herald, April, 1885.