Note 84 — Chapter I · TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS

St. John, op. cit., i, 175 sq. (Land Dyak). Mr. Charles Hose declares that at such times the inhabitants of a Kayan communal house may taboo their private rooms to the other inmates. Small fines are imposed for infringing the rule, if the act is unintentional, but when a man forces his way into a tabooed house, a serious quarrel, ending in bloodshed, may result (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1894, xxiii, 170). “It is an old custom among the Iban for a stranger, before climbing the ladder of a house, to ask in a loud voice whether there is no taboo” (L. Nyuak, in Anthropos, 1906, i, 175).