Now it
is against custom to eat any of the rice during reaping; and when the
mother went away for a short time leaving the girl at work, she told
her on no account to eat any of the rice. But no sooner was the mother
gone than the girl began to husk some PADI and nibble at it. Then
at once her body began to itch, and hair began to grow on her arms
like the hair of a DOK. Soon the mother returned and the girl said,
"Why am I itching so?" The mother answered, "You have done some wicked
thing, you have eaten some rice." Then hair grew all over the girl's
body except her head and face, and the mother said, "Ah, this is what
I feared, now you must go into the jungle and eat only what has been
planted by human hands." So the girl went into the jungle and her
head became like a DOK'S, and she ceased to be able to speak.
The DOK does not help them in any way, but only spoils their crops. A
very popular dance is the DOK dance, in which a man imitates very
cleverly the behaviour of the DOK. It is a very ludicrous performance,
and excites boisterous mirth. They say it is done merely in fun.
In one Kayan house the ends of all the main crossbeams that support the
roof are ornamented with fretwork designs, which are clearly animal
derivatives and apparently all of the same animal.
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