So strong is this morbid desire of the Ibans to obtain human heads,
that a war-party will sometimes rob the tombs of the villages of
other tribes and, after smoking the stolen heads of the corpses,
will bring them home in triumph with glowing accounts of the stout
resistance offered by the victims. Their attitude in this matter is
well expressed by a saying current among them, namely, "Why should
we eat the hard caked rice from the edge of the pot when there's
plenty of soft rice in the centre?" The Iban women urge on the men
to the taking of heads; they make much of those who bring them home,
and sometimes a girl will taunt her suitor by saying that he has not
been brave enough to take a head; and in some cases of murder by Sea
Dayaks, the murderer has no doubt been egged on in this way.
Nevertheless, we repeat that there is no ground for the oft-reprinted
assertion that the taking of a head is a necessary prelude to
marriage.[62] Like other tribesmen Ibans do not bring home the heads
of their companions who have fallen in battle; but while men of other
tribes are content to drag the corpses of their fallen friends into
some obscure spot and to cover them with branches, Ibans frequently
cut off the heads and bury them at a distance from the scene of battle,
in order to prevent their being taken by the enemy.
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