Radin
Radin East AsiaAn eighteenth–century leader of the Ibans, the Sea Dayaks of Borneo. A legend about him concerns a hungry ghost, which visited his people with smallpox. After winning a battle near Betong and taking many heads, Radin decided to hold a bird festival, gawai burong, and to this feast he invited all the other war leaders and persons of rank. As they were feasting, some of the older guests told him that the image of the rhinoceros hornbill, sacred to the bird god Sengalang Burong, the patron of head–hunters, must be removed from the village three days after the celebration was over, and that the site must be vacated too. Radin adhered to custom in respect of the sacred image, but he did not quit the longhouse, the village under one roof. Some days later his people started to die of smallpox. Then, three nights in succession, as he was lying sleepless, worried by the increasing number of deaths, Radin heard the music of a lovely song, which...
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