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

THREE DYAK LEGENDS 279
the many charms and amulets that he possessed. With
his spear in his right hand and his shield on his left arm,
warrior. But t
he presented a splendid type of a Dyak ;
is not of Siu's bravery nor of his deeds of valour against
the enemy that this tale relates. It tells only of an ad-
venture which ended in his discovery of paddy.
He proposed to the young men of his house that they
should take their blowpipes with them and go into the
jungle to shoot birds. So one morning they
all started
early. Each man had with him his bundle of food for
the day, and each went a different way, as they wished
to see, on returning in the evening, who would be the
most successful of them all.
Siu went towards a mountain not far from his house,
and wandered about the whole morning in the jungle,
but, strange to say, he did not see an}' bird, nor did he
meet with any animal. Everything was very quiet and
still. Worn out with fatigue, he sat down to rest under
a large tree, and, feeling hungry, he ate some of the food
he had brought with him. It was now long past midday,
and he had not been able to kill a single bird ! Surely
none of the others could be so unfortunate as he ! Deter-
mined not to be beaten by the others, after a short rest
he started again, and wandered on in quest of birds.
The sun had gone half-way down in the western heaven,
and Siu was beginning to lose heart, when suddenly he
heard not far off the sound of birds. Hurrying
in thai
direction, he came to a wild fig-tree covered with ripe
fruit, which a large number of birds were busy eating.
Never before had he seen such a ! sight On this one
tree the whole feathered population of the forest seemed
to have assembled together !
Looking more carefully,
he was surprised to see that the different kinds of birds