Seventeen years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo; a ... - Sabrizain.org

98 CHILD-BIRTH AND CHILDREN
vented, and no evil effects follow. For instance, the
mother may do basket-work and make mats, provided
some other woman begin the work for her, and the man
may dig trenches or erect a hut of others are first laid to it.
provided the hands
A man may not kill an
animal yet, if he does kill anything, and runs away and
then returns a few minutes afterwards, and makes some
remark like this aloud, "I wonder who killed this animal ?"
he has nothing to fear.
These carious restrictions are more or less similar
among the different tribes. It is probable that they are
founded on some theory of sympathy. Man, woman,
and unborn or newborn babe are all linked together by
some unseen bond, and, accordingly, the wrong action of
one may result in harm to the others.
The whole period of a woman's pregnancy is passed in
fear lest the spirits (antu) should do harm to her or her
unborn babe. If the mother has a bad dream or hears
a bird of ill omen, at once a fowl is sacrificed to propitiate
the spirits.
Should the husband wilfully violate any of the re-
strictions, the wife's relations immediately bring him to
justice, and, according to Dyak law, he has to pay a
fine.
Some years ago Bishop Hose, accompanied by a
missionary, visited Ginsurai, one of the villages in the
Saribas. The Christians there had built for themselves
a small chapel, where services were held. In the evening,
when the Dyaks were sitting together in the ruai of the
Dyak house talking to the Bishop and his companion,
the question arose as to whether the attending of public
worship should be included among the many restrictions
i ni] >osed upon a pregnant woman. The wife of the headman