While Kayan women had their forbidden things to do when their husbands left for headhunting trips, Iban women also had a list of their own taboos when their men were out for war.

John Hewitt who was the Curator of the Sarawak Museum from 1905 to 1908, published the paper ‘Taboo customs of the warpath amongst the Sea Dayaks of Sarawak’ in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in March 1909.

In the paper, Hewitt discussed some of the taboos observed by Iban (Sea Dayak) women when their husbands were sent to a punitive expedition against some border tribes.

These men were part of the Sarawak Rangers and mainly came from villages around the Batang Lupar area.

Here are some taboos that must be followed by Iban women when their husbands were sent to war:

1.The Iban women must wake up early in the morning and at the streak of dawn all windows must be opened, for fear that their husbands would oversleep and be caught by the enemy. With the window opened early to bring light into the room, so would be bright when the men commence their march.

2. Wives were not allowed to take a nap during the day or else their husbands would be drowsy when walking.

3.It is forbidden (pemali) for the women to oil their hair as it was feared that their husbands would slip while walking along a batang (tree trunks) path.

4.Hewitt stated, “Every morning they must scatter popcorns (made of rice) on the verandah: and just as the elastic popcorns bounds and rebounds on the hard floor so will the men be agile in their movement. At the same time the women sing a verse-

‘Oh kamba, enti tinggi surok,
Enti baroh, perjok,
Munsoh suroh genong
Awak ka baka ditanggong, baka sangkutong’

This can be translated to “Oh you absent ones dodge under the high obstacles and leap over the low ones. Petrify the enemy and keep off the hands raised against you”.

5. It was pemali (forbidden) to bathe in the usual way with the petticoat on because the garment would become wet and heavy so it was believed that their husbands would also feel heavy in body and unable to move rapidly.

6. Homes must be kept very tidy, all boxes being placed near the walls, for should anyone stumble in the house so may the men fall when walking and thus be at the mercy of the enemy.

7. During eating, they must eat their food only at meal times and must be sitting down properly. Otherwise, the men will be tempted ‘to chew leaves or earth on the march’.

8. At each meal, a little rice must be left in the pot and must be put aside. This is to ensure that the men shall have plenty to eat and never go hungry.

9.Hewitt also listed, “On no account may a woman sit so long at the loom as to have the cramp’ or the men will surely become stiff and be unable to rise up quickly after resting or to run away. Accordingly the women intersperse their weaving operations by frequent walks up and down the veranda.”

10. It is forbidden to cover up the face with a blanket or the men will not be able to find their way through tall grass or jungle.

11.When it comes to sewing, the women must not sew with a needle or the men will thread upon ‘tukak’ (sharpened spikes of bamboo placed point upwards in the ground by the enemy).

12.The women are not allowed to wear flowers or scent, otherwise the movements of the men will be revealed to the enemy by their smell.

13.It is bad luck to break the ‘kain apit’ (the piece of leather or bark of tree with which the women support their backs when weaving); should this occur the men will be caught be the chin on some overhanging bough during their expedition.

14.Lastly, the women are not allowed to be unfaithful or commit adultery during the absence of their husbands or he will lose his life in the hands of his enemy.

In the same paper, Hewitt further explained some of taboos and customs that must be observed by the men during the war trip. These include:

1.The men must not cover up the rice when cooking, or their vision will become obscured and the way difficult to see.

2.The spoon must not be left standing up in the rice pot, otherwise the enemy will so leave a spear sticking in their bodies.

3.During cooking time should the pots be a distance apart from each other they must be connected by sticks; so will the men have neighbours near at hand should they be surprised by the enemy. It is thus customary to put the pots very close together.

4.It is pemali to pick out the bits of husk from the rice when feeding lest the enemy in like manner pick out that man from a group.

5.As the rice is taken from the pot, the cavity thus left in the food must be immediately smoothed over; otherwise wounds will not heal quickly.

6.It is unlucky to sleep with legs crossed or touching those of a neighbour lest the spears of the enemy smite the unfortunate offender of this taboo.

In the olden days, cases of dying during childbirth were not uncommon. With lack of modern medical knowledge and hygiene, it was not rare for women to experience complications while giving birth.

Most cultures around the world have their own taboos and customs for women who died during labour.

For instance in Japan, one traditional custom for the burial of a deceased pregnant woman was commonly practiced.

According to Manami Yasui in her paper Research Notes: On Burial Customs, Maternal Spirits, and the Fetus in Japan (2003), the burial custom was to open the abdomen of the deceased woman, remove the fetus, and bury the two – now separated – bodies together in the same graves.

It is said that this custom was practiced so that the pregnant women would not turn into ‘ubume’.

Ubume are Japanese yokai or spirits of pregnant women. Legend has it that the ubume would ask a passerby to hold her child for just a moment, disappearing when her unsuspecting victims take the swaddled baby.

The baby then becomes increasingly heavy until it is impossible to hold. It is then revealed not to be a human child but a rock or a stone image of Jizo (a bodhisattva revered in East Asian Buddhism).

Meanwhile in Borneo, different indigenous groups each has its own belief when comes to women who died in childbirth.

In order to ensure these poor mothers have safe journeys into the afterlife, there were taboos or customs that needed to be followed.

So here are some forgotten taboos and customs of death during childbirth among Borneo natives:

1.Iban

Anthropologist Clifford Sather in his paper The Malevolent Koklir: Iban Concepts of Sexual Peril and the Dangers of Childbirth detailed the ritual of death during childbirth among the Iban people.

“The death of a woman in childbirth is regarded as especially grievous because it typically claims a woman in her prime, or middle years, whose loss seriously disrupts her family, usually leaving a widower and possibly motherless children.

As a ritual defence, to cripple the ghost and prevent the woman who has died in childbirth from wandering abroad as a koklir, the soles of her feet and the palms of her hands are pierced diagonally with citrus thorns (duri limau) immediately before her body is removed from her bilek apartment and placed inside the sapat enclosure on the gallery prior to burial. Plants have generally a life-sustaining meaning to the Iban and thorns are frequently used, as here, as a protective instrument against demonic spirits.

Piercing the soles and palms is felt to be an unpleasant task and generally falls to one of the women’s closest female relatives, usually her mother or a sister; it is performed surreptitiously so as not to be seen by other mourners, and is accompanied by a brief prayer in which the dead woman is requested to accept her fate and not cause further grief to her family and others.

Some informants say that the woman’s tongue may also be pierced with a needle or porcupine quill. Otherwise, she is given a normal burial, except that citrus branches are sometimes placed upon her grave. But owing to the especially grievous nature of her death, it is considered to be abnormally ill-lucked, and her soul is believed in consequence to suffer a separate fate in the other world, different from that of those who have died ordinary deaths.”

Now comes the question of what happens to the baby once the mother has died.

Sadly, according to one old custom, this child – although alive – would share the same fate as his dead mother.

Reverend Frederick William Leggatt came to Sarawak in 1884 and had worked among the Ibans at Banting (1885-1887), Skrang (1887-1898) and lastly Lundu (1898-1908).

This is an example case infanticide that he observed following the death of the mother.

“Sea Dyaks custom required (until a civilised government interfered to prevent such atrocious murders), that if the death of a mother followed in consequence of delivery, the child should pay the penalty (i) as being the cause of the mother’s death, (ii) because no one remained to nurse and care for it. Therefore the child was placed alive in the coffin with the mother, and both buried together, not unfrequently without consulting the father, who might venture to dare custom and be willing to spare his child. No woman would consent to suckle such an orphan lest it should bring misfortune upon her own children.

“One case I am acquainted with where the mother, in the father’s absence, gave birth to twins and died immediately afterwards. By the grandfather’s orders (the paternal grandfather) both children were buried with the mother.”

2.Dayak Embaloh

Victor T. King in his paper Cursing, Special Death and Spirits in Embaloh Society explained how the death of a woman during delivery is handled traditionally among the Dayak Embaloh of the West Kalimantan.

“Pregnancy and childbirth are hedged round with all kinds of taboo. In Embaloh society a high percentage of deaths is the result of complications in childbirth and pregnancy, and women, their husbands and the immediate family are confined by taboos (tata’) relating to food, to certain work and action, and to avoidance of certain animals. If a woman should die in childbirth her soul invariably becomes a much-feared, malevolent spirit called antu anak.

This spirit delights in seeking revenge and bringing sickness and sometimes death to pregnant women, as well as to mothers and their small children. It can also attack men at night and devour their genitals, the symbol and ultimate cause of the spirit’s demise in life. To a man the antu anak frequently appears in the guise of a beautiful woman, but it can also change into a variety of furry animals such as the monkey, squirrel and civet cat.

“The corpse of a woman who dies in delivery or when pregnant is wrapped in a rattan mat, taken as quickly as possible from the village and buried in the jungle away from the death-house. There are no ceremonies, the soul does not go to Telung, and any status a woman may have had in life is immediately cancelled. She is, in fact condemned to an eternity as an evil jungle spirit.”

3.Kayan

According to Jerome Rousseau in his book Kayan Religion, a Kayan woman who dies in childbirth should be buried immediately because she becomes a particularly fearsome spirit.

“People often fled after a sudden death, leaving old men and women to dispose of the corpse.”

The spirits of children and mothers who died in childbirth are known as the to’ ka’.

Explaining about these fearsome spirit, Rousseau stated, “These angry spirits tear off young men’s testicles and eat them. They can take the form of wild or domestic fowl, a mousedeer, or a civet cat.”

The fear of to’ ka’ is might be the reason why this now-extinct practice existed among the Kayans back then.

As what Spenser St John recorded in his book, “Among the Kayans I may mention one inhuman custom, which is, that women who appear to be dying in childbirth are taken to the woods and placed in a hastily-constructed hut; they are looked upon as interdicted and none but the meanest slaves may approach them, either to give them food or to attend to them.”

These authors claim that the names for ethnic groups – Kelabit and Melanau – were unexpected results from misspellings.

The Melanau people

The Melanau people are an ethnic group indigenous to Sarawak. During the 19th century, they settled dominantly along the main tributaries of the Rajang River in central part of Sarawak.

John Beville Archer, the former chief secretary of Sarawak claimed in his autobiography Glimpses of Sarawak between 1912 and 1946 that the word ‘Melanau’ was a result of misspelling.

“I see that I have been rather dictatorial about the spelling of the world Melanau. As a matter of fact the correct word should be ‘Lemanau’. It is said the spelling of the word ‘Melanau’ is a hundred year old mistake. Apparently an old writer had such an illegible hand that the mistake occurred and has never been put right. In any case, the name as applying to the whole race is merely a modern idea. It is not used by the people themselves except when dealing with Government Officials and Chinese.”

The Kelabit people

Meanwhile, Sagau Batu Bala in his book Kelabits’ Story the Great Transition (2012) claimed that British zoologist and ethnologist Charles Hose was responsible for the misspelling.

The Kelabit people are the indigenous people of Borneo highlands. They have close ties to the Lun Bawang people.

According to Sagau, the mistake could be traced back to the early 20th century.

“In 1901, a group of Pa’ Labid people went down to Marudi on business. This was one of the first groups of people from the Highlands who went to Marudi after Baram became part of Sarawak. This group of Kelabits wanted to show that they were responsible subjects of the Rajah of Sarawak. They went to identify themselves and, at the same time, pay courtesy call on the newly appointed resident in his office in Fort Hose. The building of Fort Hose had just been completed in 1901 on the bank of Baram River at Marudi. When they met Charles Hose in his office, he wanted to know what race they were, as he had been instructed by the Raja of Sarawak earlier.

“He asked them, ‘Kamu dari mana?’ It means, ‘Where are you from?’ Because they were from their village called Pa’ Labid, the leader of the group answered and said, ‘Pa’ Labid.’ Charles Hose asked them again, ‘Apa bangsa kamu?’ It means, ‘What is your race?’ The leader answered and said, ‘Orang Pa’ Labid’ because they were Lun Pa’ Labid or the people of Pa’ Labid. He was right in saying that because there was no single race name for all the people who lived in the Highlands at the source of Baram River. It was Charles Hose who misheard the word Pa’ Labid, when he wrote the first letter ‘P’ became ‘K’ and the last letter ‘d’ became ‘t’, and he wrote down in his record book ‘Kalabit’.

“He accepted it to mean a race for all the people who lived in the Highlands south of all the people who lived in the Highlands south of Mount Murud. From that time onwards, Kalabit became officially the race of the people who occupied the Highlands at the source of Baram River the border of Forth and Fifth Divisions and right along the border of Sarawak and Kalimantan until today.”

What do you think of these misspellings KajoReaders?