Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/185

 MENGAP, THE SONG OF THE DYAK HEAD FEAST,

Read of a Meeting of the Society held on the 8th of July 1878.

principal ceremonial feasts of Sea Dyaks are connected with three subjects; farming, head-taking, and the dead; and are called by them respectively, Gawè Batu or Gawè Benih, Gawè Pala or Burong, and Gawè Antu; the Stone or Seed feast, the Head or Bird feast, and the Spirit feast. The first inentioned are two distinct feasts and not two names of one; but both refer to the farm. It is with the Gawè Pala or Burong that this paper is concerned.

When a house has obtained a human head a grand feast must be made sooner or later to celebrate the acquisition; and this is by no means a mere matter of eating and drinking, although there is an excess of the latter, but is a matter of much ceremony, of offerings and of song. The song which is then recited is well-known to differ considerably in form from the ordinary language, and the European who may be able to understand and to speak colloquial Dyak may yet find the "Mengap" (as it is called in Saribus dialect) mostly unintelligible. But I believe the difference is only that between a poetical and prose language. Certain requirements of alliteration and of rythmrhythm [sic] and rhyme have to be fulfilled, which, together with native metaphor and most excessive verbosity, are quite sufficient to mystify an uninstructed hearer. Another reason for the difference lies in the fact that the language of the Mengap remains stationery, whilst the ordinary spoken language is continually changing and developing new forms. But the object of this paper is not to discourse about Dyak poetical language, I only attempt to give a sketch of the Mengap of the Head-feast, so that the reader may have some idea of the meaning of what has perhaps sounded to some a mere senseless rigmarole.