OMENS AND DREAMS
The Dyak is conscious of his ignorance of the laws which govern the
world in which he lives. He feels his weakness and the need of some
guidance from unseen powers. He has no knowledge of God and the
revelation He has made in the Bible, and so he has devised for himself a
system of omens.
There are seven birds in Borneo whose native names are: _Katupong_,
_Beragai_, _Kutok_, _Embuas_, _Nendak_, _Papau_ and _Bejampong_. These
are supposed to reveal to the Dyaks the will of the great god Singalang
Burong. These birds are beautiful in plumage, but, like most tropical
birds, they have little song, and their calls are shrill and piercing.
They are supposed to be the seven sons-in-law of Singalang Burong, and
the legend which tells of how the Dyaks came to know them and to listen
to their cries is given in Chap. XIV. ("The Story of Siu").
The system of bird omens as carried out by the Dyaks, is most
complicated, and the younger men have constantly to ask the older ones
how to act when contradictory omens are heard. The law and observance of
omens occupy a great share of the thoughts of the Dyak.
Some idea of the method in which the Dyaks carry out their system of
omens may be learned from what is done at the beginning of the yearly
rice farming. Some man who has the reputation of being fortunate, and
has had large paddy crops, will be the augur, and undertake to obtain
omens for a large area of land, on which he and others intend to plant.
This man begins his work some time before the Dyaks begin clearing the
ground of jungle and high grass. He will have to hear the cry of the
_Nendak_, the _Katupong_ and the _Beragai_, all on his left. If these
cries come from birds on his right, they are not propitious. He goes
forth in the early morning, and wanders about the jungle till the cry of
the _Nendak_ is heard on his left. He will then break off a twig of
anything growing near, and take it home, and put it in a safe place. But
it may happen that some other omen bird or animal is first to be seen or
heard. In that case he must give the matter up, return, and try his
chance another day.
Thus, sometimes several days pass before he has obtained his first omen.
When he has heard the _Nendak_, he will then listen for the _Katupong_
and the other birds in the necessary order. There are always delays
caused by the wrong birds being heard, and it may be a month or more
before he hears all the necessary cries. When the augur has collected a
twig for each necessary omen bird, he takes these to the land selected
for farming, buries them in the ground, and with a short form of address
to the omen birds and to Pulang Gana--the god of the earth--clears a
small portion of the ground of grass or jungle, and then returns home.
The magic virtues of the birds have been conveyed to the land, and the
work of clearing it for planting may be begun at any time.
The sacred birds can be bad omens as well as good. If heard on the wrong
side, or in the wrong order, the planting on a particular piece of land
must be postponed, or altogether abandoned.
I have mentioned the omens necessary before planting the seed. In a
similar manner, before beginning to build a house, or starting on a war
expedition, or undertaking any new line of action, certain omens are
required, if good fortune is to attend them and the Fates be propitious.
The worst of all omens is to find anywhere on the farm the dead body of
any animal included in the omen list. It infuses a deadly poison into
the whole crop. When such a terrible thing happens, the omen is tested
by killing a pig, and divining from the appearance of its liver directly
after death. If the liver be pronounced to be of good omen, then all is
well, but if not, then all the paddy grown on that ground must be sold
or given away. Other people may eat it, for the omen only affects those
who own the crop.
It is not only to the cry of birds that the Dyaks pay heed. There are
certain animals--the deer, the armadillo, the lizard, the bat, the
python, even the rat, as well as certain insects--which all may give
omens under special circumstances. But these other creatures are
subordinate to the birds, from which alone augury is sought at the
beginning of any important undertaking.
The Dyak pays heed to these omen creatures, not only in his farming, but
in all his journeyings, and in any kind of work he may be engaged in. If
he be going to visit a friend, the cry of a bird of ill omen will send
him back. If he be engaged in carrying beams from the jungle to his
house, and hear a _Kutok_, or a _Bejampong_ or an _Embuas_, he will at
once throw down the piece of timber. So great is the Dyak belief in
omens, that a man will sometimes abandon a nearly-finished boat simply
because a bird of ill omen flies across its bows. The labour of weeks
will thus be wasted. I have myself seen wooden beams and posts left half
finished in the jungle, and have been told that some omen bird was heard
while the man was at work on them, and so they had to be abandoned.
There are many omens which make a house unfit for habitation. If a
_Katupong_ fly into it, or a _Beragai_ over the house, or an armadillo
crawls up into it, the Dyaks leave the house and build another for them
to live in. Sometimes, however, they sacrifice a pig, and examine the
liver, and only abandon the house if the liver is considered by experts
to be of bad omen.
DREAMS
The Dyaks place implicit confidence in dreams. Their theory is that
during sleep the soul can hear, see and understand, and so what is
dreamt is what really takes place. When anyone dreams of a distant land,
they believe that his soul has paid a flying visit to that land.
In dreams, also, the gods and spirits are supposed to bring charms to
human beings. The story is often told of how a man falls asleep and
dreams that a spirit came to him and gave certain charms, and lo! when
he awakes, he finds them in his hands. Or else he is told in a dream to
go to a certain spot at a special time and pick up some stone there,
which will have some mysterious influence for good over his fortunes.
Dreams are looked upon by the Dyaks as the means the gods and spirits
use to convey their commands to men, or to warn them of coming danger.
Houses are often deserted, and farming land, on which much labour has
been spent, abandoned on account of dreams. Newly married couples often
separate from the same cause. It is no unusual thing for a man or a
woman to dream that the spirits are hungry and need food. In that case
the inmates of the Dyak house organize a feast, and offerings are made
to the hungry spirits.