Chapter 3

All these parallelisms, in the modes of thinking, among men in far removed quarters of the earth, do not, I think, necessarily imply that there has been a transmission of thought from one race to the other, but that there is a certain round of thought through which the brain leads us, and in development we must all have followed along the same path. Some races have made more rapid strides than others, possibly owing to natural surroundings, and in their strides have left the others centuries behind. Almost within the memory of our grandfathers, in this country, witches were burned, and from this there is only a step back to the Dayong of Borneo. Indeed, whosoever sees these people and lives with them their everyday life, must regard them, after a not very long time, merely as backward pupils in the school of life. Let me say in conclusion, that he would have an unresponsive heart that could not feel linked in a bond of fellowship with these people, and that God has made of only one blood all nations of the earth, when he hears a Bornean mother crooning her child to sleep with words identical in sentiment with "Rock-a-bye Baby,"--what though the mother's earlobes are elongated many an inch by heavy copper rings, her arms tattooed to the elbow, and her blackened teeth filed to points. Once upon a time I heard a Kayan mother soothing her little baby to sleep, and the words of the lullaby which I learned are as follows:--

From the River's mouth the birds are straying, And the Baiyo's topmost leaves are swaying; The little chicks cheep, Now my little one sleep, For the black house-lizard, with glittering eye, And the gray-haired Laki Laieng are nigh! Sleep, dear little one, sleep!

For those philologically inclined I append the original:--

Lung koh madang Manoh Migieong ujong Baiyo Mensip anak Yap Lamate Telyap, Telyap abing, Lamate Laki Laieng oban! Ara we we ara!

FOOTNOTE:

[1] "Forests of the Far East," vol. i, p. 213.

End of Project Gutenberg's Folk-lore in Borneo, by William Henry Furness