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

254 DYAK FOLKLORE
of the morning. The incidents in a story thus sung are
not many, but the Dyaks delight in verbosity and amplification,
and use a dozen similes where one would do, and
love to repeat over and over again the description of the
various characters in different words, with the double
object of showing their command of language
lengthen the story.
and to
They have many amusing tales told of Apai Saloi (the
father of Saloi)— the Simple Simon of the Dyaks. He is
represented as doing the most foolish things, and always
outwitted by his enemy, Apai Samumang (the father of
Samumang), who does not hesitate to take advantage of
his stupidity. The following will give an idea of the kind
of story related of Apai Saloi :—One day he was paddling
in his boat in the river, and his axe-head fell into the
water. He made a notch in the side of the boat to mark
the spot where the axe-head dropped into the water, and
"
paddled home. There will be plenty of time," he said,
"
for me to look for it to-morrow morning." He reached
the landing-stage of his house, and pulled his boat up the
bank. The next day he went to the boat and looked for
his lost axe-head underneath the part of the boat where
he saw the notch he had made the day before. He was
very much surprised at not finding his lost axe-head !
But what seems to give the Dyaks most pleasure are
tales about animals, especially those in which the cunning
of the mouse-deer (akal plandok) is displayed. The fol-
lowing are well known among them, and I have myself
often heard these related, with variations, by the Dyaks
themselves. Very often, in travelling by boat in Borneo,
one has to wait for the turn of the tide, and the Dyak
boatmen on these occasions often relate some of their
old stories to each other to while away the time.