The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

VII DAILY LIFE 129
overhear the proceedings ; and
if they find these
exceptionally interesting, they will congregate about
the doors, but will strictly abstain from interfering
with them in any way. The flow of speech and
song and conversation goes on uninterruptedly,
except when the occasional intrusion into the circle
of some irrepressible dog necessitates its violent
expulsion ; until, as midnight approaches, the men
drop away from the circle by twos and threes, the
circle being finally broken up when the visiting
chief expresses a desire to sleep. Each guest
spreads his own mat on the platform assigned to
the party, and the men of the house retire to their
rooms.
We will not conclude this chapter without stating
that among the Kayans, Kenyahs, and most of the
Klemantans, alcoholic intoxication is by no means
common. At great feasts, such as are made at the
close of the harvest or on the return of a successful
war-party, much borak is drunk, the women joining
in, and a few of the men will usually become quite
drunk ; but most of them will hardly go further
than a state of boisterous jollity.
Although in a year of good padi harvest each
family constantly renews its supply of borak, yet the
spirit is never drunk in private, but only on festive
occasions of the kind described above, or when a
man entertains a small party of friends in his own
chamber.
The account given above of the reception and
entertainment of guests would apply with but little
modification to the houses of the Kenyahs and
Klemantans. In the Sea Dayak house the reception
and entertainment of guests is less ceremonious,
and is carried out by the unorganised efforts of
individuals, rather than by the household as a
whole with the chief at its head. On the arrival
of a party of visitors, the people of each room
VOL. I K