The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

I20 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
work out of doors beside the padi barns, sometimes
under rude lean-to shelters.
When this task is completed the women are
covered with dust ; they descend again to the river,
and bathe themselves and the children once more.
They may gather some of the scanty vegetables
grown in small enclosures near most of the
houses, and then proceed to prepare supper with
their rice and whatever food the men may have
brought home from the jungle. For now, about an
hour before sundown, the men return from expeditions
in the jungle, often bringing a wild pig, a
monkey, a porcupine, or some jungle fruit, or young
shoots of bamboo, as their contribution to the supper
table ; others return from fishing or from the padi
fields, and during the sunset hour at a large village
a constant stream of boats arrives at the landingplace
before the house. Most of the home-comers
bathe in the river before ascending to the house.
This evening bath is taken in more leisurely fashion
than the morning dip. A man will strip off his
waist-cloth and rush into the water, falling fiat on his
chest with a great splash. Then standing with the
water up to his waist he will souse his head and face,
then perhaps swim a few double overhand strokes,
his head going under at each stroke. After rubbing
himself down with a smooth pebble, he returns to
the bank, and having resumed his waist-cloth, he
squeezes the water from his hair, picks up his
paddle, spear, hat, and other belongings, and ascends
to the gallery. There he hangs up his spear by
jabbing its point into a roof-beam beside the door of
his chamber, and sits down to smoke a cigarette and
to relate the events of his day while supper is prepar-
ing. As darkness falls, he goes to his room to sup.
By the time the women also have supped, the
tropical night has fallen, and the house is lit by the
fires and by resin torches, and nowadays by a few