Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 49/On Tally Sticks and Strings in Borneo

On Tally Sticks and Strings in Borneo.

By DR. HOSE AND J. HEWITT.

Amongst the natives of Sarawak, notched sticks and strings are in common use for keeping record of contracts. To some of the various tribes the custom is one of antiquity whilst in other cases e.g. the Sea Dayaks, it is certainly a new idea borrowed from their neighbours.

If a Malanau undertakes to meet another person in a definite number of days he ties up a piece of string into as many knots as there are days before the fulfilment of his engagement as each day passes by he unties a knot. The same people often appear in the debt courts carrying a knotted string or rotan and explaining that each knot represents a debt of one pasu of lemanta (8 gallons of raw sago). On one occa- sion a Malanau produced in the debt court a stick notched on two sides on the one side the notches corresponded to his debt, and on the other side he had cut a notch each time he had made a repayment.

Amongst the Kenyahs, Punans and other tribes of the interior this custom reaches its highest development. The string is made from bark of the tree known to Kenyahs as Kumut and to Sea Dayaks as Tekalong (Artocarpus sp.) As before, it is knotted according to the number of days before that of the engagement, and each party keeps a string. They wear it on their person tied to the unus, slender leglets of twisted fibre usually from the ijok palm (Arenga saccharifera). As each day passes by a knot is cut clean off. To such people a definite contract thus arranged is kept quite seriously and the evidence of his tally string is usually deemed quite suff- cient to relieve the wearer of other conflicting duties which might be imposed upon him by the head-man of the house.

But this custom is by no means confined to men. Even Bali Atap, a god of the Kenyahs, wears such knotted strings around his neck to tell off the number of doors in the house under his care, and also to indicate the number of people under his protection in each house. The image of Bali Atap outside the door of a Madang house has a whole fringe of knotted strings tied round his neck. This deity (Bali—a hero, Atap—a spear) is the special protector of the house, and when they want him to take charge of a house it is necessary to kill at his altar a fowl or pig, the blood of the sacrifice being sprinkled over the head of the wooden image of the god and on those persons of the assembled crowd, who wish for his protection; in some cases however an egg in a cleft stick has to suffice as the offering. To the Kenyah or Punan the tying of the knot for Bali Atap has a deep significance: it means to them the sealing of a fixed contract. They will only tie such knots whey they receive an omen from Bali Atap sufficiently favourable to justify them in assuming that the god is willing to make the agreement with them. The actual manner of obtaining such an omen is as follows: a man fixes up two vertical poles in the ground and on the top of these and again two feet below her attaches horizontal poles; then he sits down behind the square thus formed and looks through it to the area of sky beyond. At this part of the ceremony the above mentioned sacrifice is made. And now, after waiting perhaps for hours, if a hawk soars in this patch of sky in a direction from right to left, be knows that this hawk will carry his message to Bali Atap, and seeing it he waves a fire brand in the air towards the flying bird at the same time loudly shouting the message which is carried upwards in the ascending smoke to the hawk. Thus being assured that Bali Atap has been willing to receive and hence is favourable to his request he completes the ceremony by tying the knotted string to the image of the god as a seal to the agreement just made between Bali Atap and the man.

The same idea in the tying of a knot is met with in entirely different ceremonies of which we may mention one example. It is held by Kenyahs that when a person falls sick his soul leaves the body and to heal the patient all that is necessary is the return of the soul. The witch doctor (Dayong) in charge of the case obtains assistance from the next world and thus is able to persuade the erring soul to return. In the ceremony the Dayong affects the motions of a person going a long journey— paddling a boat for instance—chanting all the time and accom- panied in the chorus by the people who repeat over and over again the words 'Bali Dayong;' then returning with the soul he with the assistance of a fowl or pig waives it back into the body. And now, when safely in and the fees paid, the Dayong knots round the patients wrist with a string of Daun silat (leaf of a Licuala palm) and thus ties in the soul and at the same time completes the undertaking. During this time however the soul of the Dayong has been absent from his body and at this stage to the cries of 'Mulai Mulai' (Come home, come home) from the crowd it re-enters, the man himself suddenly relapsing from a quivering hissing maniac into a rational being who, as if just awakening from a sleep, takes his seat unconcernedly amongst the crowd.

Tally sticks also are very much used by Kenyahs, Punans, and other inland tribes (but not Kayans) who have not come in contact with more civilised peoples. An ordinary Kenyah tally stick is a strip of wood about a foot long, an inch or more wide, and an eighth of an inch thick: at one end is a rudely carved head and hands, a representation of the god. At one side of the stick are marks each referring to one door of the house. A debt incurred by the occupant of any 'door' is recorded by a notch in the corresponding position on the stick. Bartering among these people is very limited: their objects of barter are few, being mainly pigs, fowls, parangs, gongs, and pieces of iron. For each of these different objects there are separate positions on the stick, Excepting in rare cases debts are not incurred between occupants of different houses so that one stick of the type just described is as a rule quite sufficient to record all the debts owed to one man. When a debt is paid the owner of the stick will just snip away the wood from either side of the notch so as to replace the notch by a curved depression in the wood.

The tally stick is usually to be found hung up near the fire- place where it becomes smoked and blackened with age such a stick would be accepted as evidence in case of a dispute respecting a debt of long standing, for it would not be easy to forge an old notch. A stick which has been kept for years acquires quite a high value as a 'lucky' stick: it is customary also in disputes to swear with such sticks calling down vengeance on themselves if they tell a lie. Kenyahs, whose conservatism is not very strong, often content themselves with sticks devoid of carving or polish and even sometime without the image of the god.

In conclusion therefore it seems to us very probable that. in the knotted string (terbuku tali) of the more civilised and better known natives of Borneo and perhaps in the tally stick we have something which did not originate merely as a means of counting but which is a relic that has largely lost its original meaning of covenant.