The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

76 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
in the meantime to absent himself from the village,
in the hope that he may form some other attachment.
But if he remains true and favourable omens
are obtained, the marriage is celebrated if possible
at the close of the harvest. If the marriage takes
place at any other time, the feast will be postponed
to the end of the following harvest.^ After the
marriage the man lives with his wife in the room of
his father-in-law for one, two, or at most three
years. During this time he works in the fields of
his father-in-law and generally helps in the support
of the household, showing great deference towards
his wife's parents. Before the end of the third
year of marriage, the young couple will acquire for
themselves a room in the house and village of the
husband, in which they set up housekeeping on
their own account. In addition to these personal
services rendered to the parents of the bride, the
man or his father and other relatives give to the
girl's parents at the time of the marriage various
articles which are valuable in proportion to the
social standing of the parties, and which are gener-
ally appropriated by the girl's parents.^
Divorce is rare but not unknown among the
Kayans. The principal grounds of divorce are
^ For the marriage ceremony see Chap. XVIII,
2 We take this opportunity of contradicting in the most emphatic manner
a very misleading statement which of all the many misleading statements about
the peoples of Borneo that are in circulation is perhaps the most frequently repeated
in print. The statement makes its most recent reappearance in Professor
Keane's book The World's Peoples (published in 1908). There it is written of
the " Borneans" that "No girl will look at a wooer before he has laid a head
or two at her feet." To us it seems obvious that this state of affairs could only
obtain among a hydra-headed race. The statement is not true of any one tribe,
and as regards most of the '
' Borneans " has no foundation in fact. Applied to the
Sea Dayaks alone has the statement an element of truth. Among them to have
taken a head does commonly enhance a wooer's chances of success, and many
Sea Dayak girls and their mothers will taunt a suitor with having taken no
head, but few of them will make the taking of a head an essential condition of
the bestowal of their favour or of marriage. A mother will remark to a youth
who is hanging about her daughter, Bisi dalafji, bisi deluar bull di tanya
anak ahi (When you have the wherewithal to adorn both the interior and the
exterior of a room {i.e. jars within the room and heads without in the gallery)
you can then ask for my child).