Another Sea-Dayak legend
Edwin H. Gomes, a missionary working among the Sea-Dyak (Iban) of Borneo, published this legend in 1906 as a continuation of his 1904 collection of Sea-Dyak narratives. The text records an oral tradition explaining the origin of the ritual protocol governing paddy cultivation — specifically, why Dyak farmers must make invocations and offerings to the deities Pulang-Gana, Rajah Shua, and Seregendah before clearing forest for rice. The legend functions as an aetiological myth that sacralises agricultural practice by rooting it in a narrative of familial betrayal, divine adoption, and the transfer of sovereignty over the earth.
Summary
The legend follows Pulang-Gana, the youngest of seven brothers, who is chronically mistreated for his inability to drive a porcupine from the family garden. One night he follows the animal into a cave in a rocky mountain and emerges, after hours of walking, into an underground world. There he is received hospitably in a longhouse of approximately one hundred families, where he is taken in by an old man and eventually marries his daughter. The old man is revealed to be Rajah Shua, ruler of the spirits dwelling in underground caves, and his wife is Seregendah, a goddess with power over all forest animals. The porcupine that had plagued the family garden is identified as a slave of Rajah Shua named Indai-Antok-Genok, commanded to transform and visit the garden — a detail that reframes the domestic nuisance as an act of divine agency (pp. 72–75).
When Pulang-Gana’s daughter asks what inheritance her father can provide, he returns to his brothers to claim a share of their father’s property. His brother Bui-Nasi responds with contempt, hurling a clod of earth at him and telling him to leave. Rajah Shua interprets this gesture as the most valuable gift imaginable: the clod of earth confers upon Pulang-Gana sovereignty over all land, with the power to make it fruitful or barren at will (pp. 76–78). He then enforces this authority by restoring, at dusk, all the trees his brothers have felled for their new paddy field, calling upon the animals and invisible spirits in the names of Rajah Shua and Seregendah. When the brothers reclear the forest and set a watch, they capture Pulang-Gana and intend to kill him, but he reveals his divine status and they are compelled to submit (pp. 79–81).
The narrative culminates in the establishment of a formal ritual protocol. Pulang-Gana addresses a gathered assembly and prescribes that before any forest is cleared for paddy, the cultivators must invoke him, Rajah Shua, and Seregendah; kill an animal (pig or fowl) as sacrifice; offer food (rice, eggs, potatoes, or fruit); and bury a small offering in the ground as “rent” for the use of the land that year. The legend closes by stating that from this moment the ceremonies came into force and that no Dyak dares plant paddy without observing them (pp. 82–83).
Key Findings
- The porcupine damaging the family garden is identified as Indai-Antok-Genok, a slave of Rajah Shua commanded to transform into the animal and visit the garden (p. 75).
- Rajah Shua is defined as the god who rules the spirits living in underground caves; Seregendah is a goddess with power over all forest animals (p. 75).
- Pulang-Gana’s wife is named Trentom-Tanah-Tumboh, alternatively Setanggoi-Tanggoi-Buloh (p. 76).
- The clod of earth thrown by Bui-Nasi is interpreted by Rajah Shua as conferring absolute sovereignty over the earth: “Whoever wishes to plant on it must first make offerings and sacrifices to you and pray to you to give him a good harvest” (p. 78).
- The prescribed ritual requires two categories of sacrifice — an animal (pig or fowl) and a food offering (rice, eggs, potatoes, or fruit) — plus the burial of a small gift in the ground as annual “rent” for the land (p. 82).
- The longhouse in the underground world is described as housing approximately one hundred families (p. 73).
Conclusion
Gomes presents the legend as a direct aetiology for the Sea-Dyak paddy-planting ritual: the myth explains not merely why offerings are made, but the precise theological hierarchy to which they are directed and the specific material forms the offerings must take. The narrative logic is that agricultural sovereignty was transferred from the mortal brothers to the mistreated youngest brother through a seemingly contemptuous gesture (the clod of earth), which the divine father-in-law reinterpreted as an act of investiture. The legend thus encodes a cosmological principle — that the earth is not human property but is held in trust by a divine triad, and that cultivation is a conditional privilege requiring annual renewal through ritual payment.
Context
- Gomes was a Church of England missionary (Revd., M.A.) working in Borneo; this article is a continuation of his 1904 piece “Two Sea-Dyak Legends” (JSBRAS No. 41) and represents the standard colonial-era practice of missionaries recording indigenous oral traditions for the Royal Asiatic Society.
- The text is presented as a faithful transcription of an oral narrative without commentary, annotation, or comparative analysis. No informant is named, and no dialectal or linguistic notes are provided. The legend is reproduced in standard English prose, with proper nouns rendered in romanised Sea-Dyak orthography.