Klemantans use the domestic pig and fowl as sacrificial animals just
as the Kenyahs and Kayans do, and they have the same superstitious
dread of killing a dog. One group of them, Malanaus, use a dog in
taking a very solemn oath, and sometimes the dog is killed in the
course of this ceremony. Or instead of the dog being killed, its tail
may be cut off, and the man taking the oath licks the blood from the
stump; this is considered a most binding and solemn form of oath. The
ceremony is spoken of as KOMAN ASU, I.E. "the eating of the dog."
Most Klemantans will kill and eat both deer and cattle freely. But
there are exceptions to this rule. Thus Damong, the chief of a
Malanau household, together with all his people, will not kill or
eat the deer CERVULUS MUNTJAC, alleging that an ancestor had become
a deer of this kind, and that, since they cannot distinguish this
incarnation of his ancestor from other deer, they must abstain from
killing all deer of this species. We know of one instance in which
one of these people refused to use again his cooking-pot, because
a Malay who had borrowed it had used it for cooking the flesh of
deer of this species. This superstition is still rigidly adhered to,
although these people have been converted to Islam of recent years.
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