The boat is decorated with ribbons of the leaves and with the
blossoms of the areca palm, and allowed to float out to sea with the
ebb-tide in the belief or hope that it will carry the sickness with it.
Among the Ibans, if a man has deceived people in a serious matter by
means of a malicious lie, and if the untruth is discovered, one of
the deceived party takes a stick and throws it down at some spot by
which people are constantly passing, saying in the presence of others,
"Let any one who does not add to this liar's heap (TUGONG BULA) suffer
from pains in the head." Then others do likewise, and the nature of
the growing heap becoming known, every passer-by throws a stick upon
it lest he should suffer pains. In this way the heap grows until it
attains a large size, in some cases that of a small haystack, and,
being known by the name of the liar, is a cause of great shame to him.
When any man has his hair cut or shaved, he sees that the hair cut
off is burnt or otherwise carefully disposed of. This is common to all
the Borneans. It would seem that this is not prompted by fear of any
definite harm, nor is there, so far as we know, any recognised way
of using the hair cut off to work injury to its former owner. The
custom seems rather to be due to the fact that shields and swords
are decorated with the hair of enemies by Kenyahs and others;
therefore it is felt that to use a man's hair for this purpose is
almost equivalent to taking his head; and it is well to guard against
this possibility.
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