Petain called liberator of thousands of French
Prince testifies marshal’s surrender to Nazis saved people from fate of Poles
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Three-way control runs Pacific War
Nimitz retains Navy command on Okinawa
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Retreating Japs slay civilians
Homes also wrecked at Kanhsien, China
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Simms: Europe faces starvation but waits U.S. aid
Efforts to help herself suggested
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Background of news –
Borneo’s strange customs
By Frank Aston
Bills for tattooing can be paid on the instalment plan in some parts of Borneo, that large island on which the Allies are slowly overpowering the Japs. Most tribes go for tattooing in a big way. It is not uncommon for a person of distinction to cover his body with tattoo marks outlining his social background.
One tribe starts tattooing girls at the age of four. The job generally takes about five years and is done a little at a time. It hurts. The finishing touch is not put on a kneecap until the bill is paid. Kneecaps show in Borneo. A plain kneecap is the mark of a cheap skate.
But the artists are nice about it. The subject need not pay at once, just stop by with little swords, pieces of brass, gongs and similar tokens of payment until the account is settled. Then the cap is fixed up.
Tribesmen consider it immodest for a female to be tattooed after becoming a mother. Motherhood occurs in the middle teens, for parents urge children to marry at the age of 14. Youngsters of that age are allowed to choose for themselves. It’s customary to hire a go-between who visits both sets of parents and makes the nuptial arrangements.
The Muruts do no work
Since some of the interior tribes are profoundly lazy, child labor never becomes a social menace. Murut tribesmen are so lazy they don’t work at all; they eat whatever they can find. Age is no drawback to any item on their menu. Muruts invariably appear content.
The Dyaks, in the north, believe in spirits. To a Dyak, everything is haunted, especially trees. He is convinced that when a spirit leaves its natural abode, the abode becomes sick and will die unless the spirit returns. That goes for human beings, animals, vegetation. A Dyak keeps pretty busy offering gifts to spirits. He assumes a spirit gets peevish if it doesn’t receive frequent gifts.
And a peevish spirit is likely to move out of whatever it lives in, including the Dyak himself.
A Dyak figures that if he can catch some other fellow’s spirit, it will abide in him. This leads now and then to the practice of bringing home human heads. The heads are cleaned, dyed and decorated with flowers. When feasts are held, choice foods are offered to the heads to persuade the acquired spirits to stick around.
Tattoo marks keep score
Sometimes a tribesman keeps track of his head collecting by recording each head with a tattoo mark on his body.
Birth is an occasion for special rejoicing among the Dyaks. As soon as a baby is born, its proud papa waves a fowl over it, then takes the bird outdoors where he kills and cooks it. Anybody happening along is welcome to a piece.
When a Dyak woman puts on a girdle, she isn’t fooling. It reaches from the armpits to the hips. If she’s really a slick chick she adds a collar which does to her neck what the girdle does to the rest of her. Smart hats are made of rattan. The hair dress consists of a knot.
The men wear loin cloths. Men like bracelets. Both sexes chew tobacco and betel nut. This makes their teeth black.
The “wild man” of Borneo is a myth. He was merely some American rigged up to look wild in circus acts. P. T. Barnum is credited with the invention.
In Borneo they really do wear sarongs. Our men writing home about the optical effects say the sarong girls don’t look like Dorothy Lamour.
Frau Emmy Goering: Own doctor tried to poison Hitler as a madman
‘Crazy ideas’ of Fuehrer are described
By Curt Riess
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