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National Geographic : 1919 Feb
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE SILVER HEAD-DRESS, BELTS OF SILVER COIl WOVEN SKIRT CONSTITUTE THE HOLID OF DAYAK WOMEN DURING THE H FESTIVAL SEASON useful channels, they have shown much capacity for development. They are thrifty and industrious, building good houses, which are usually neat and clean. As with most of the Sarawak tribes, personal cleanliness is the rule, and the Dayaks have been known to comment on a white traveler to the effect that, al though he seemed to be otherwise all right, he did not bathe quite as frequently as they considered necessary. They are a fine race physically and delight in per sonal adornment, in which they show ex cellent taste in the use of colors for the chawat, or loin cloth, and for the bead necklaces and headdresses. N, AND NATIVE AY COSTUME I had an oppor tunity of seeing them under the most inter esting conditions by visiting at two of their houses on the oc casion of the harvest feast. After setting aside from the rice crop the portion they require for the year's food supply and enough more for trad ing purposes, the re mainder is converted into a rice wine and feasts are held at one house after another. On the morning of the feast chickens are killed, rice is scattered about the house, and other ceremonies are performed to propiti ate the evil spirits. As guests begin to arrive from neighbor ing houses, the gongs are beaten, small brass cannon are fired, if gunpowder can be ob tained from a white visitor, and live fowls, as a token of good will and friendship, are waved about over the newly arrived ARVEST guests. The sacrifice of fowls plays an impor tant part in many ceremonies, such as that of blood-brotherhood among the Kayans when a man is adopted into the family of another, the killing of the fowl serving as a means of conveying a mes sage to the gods. THE CEREMONIAL OF THE GREAT FEAST On the evening of the feast, at one of the Iban houses, I witnessed a rather startling performance of the sacrifice of a fowl. The great feast of the day was held at noon, and in the evening the different members of the house invited their par ticular friends to supper in their own 112
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