Wedding in the Jungles of Borneo. The bridegroom was leaving his house with his entourage. It would be a twenty minutes walk to the
bride’s house. The groom’s mother led the
procession comprising almost the entire community from his village. Twenty of them were leading the procession holding various assortments of brass gongs, earthen jars, and beads, a few heads of chickens, a buffalo and a goat. All in all valued at almost $3,000. That would be the dowry the groom would bring to the bride’s family.
Suddenly the man at the head of the procession, a local
priest stopped and hushed everyone to be silent. He was seen talking to the village chief who was next to him in the procession and several older folks move closer to join the hushed conversation.
I, in my curiosity moved closer to see what was happening. The youngest of the elders, a man more accustomed to modern culture told me that a snake just crossed the path in front of the priest. It was a bad omen he told me. In most parts of Sabah (North Borneo), the indigenous natives still hold on to many
taboos and
belief that if it is not adhered to will be catastrophic not only to the would-be husband and wife but to the both of the community in the two villages.
Among the still popular belief is that if a snake crosses your path a head of you, you ought to stop and consult the gods and only the priest or priestess could do that. Others are like rainbow suddenly appearing somewhere in the horizon, or a small rat appearing suddenly in your path. However, if the snake or rat turned back the way it came from, or the rainbow disappears after a few minutes, all they need to do is wait until the priest have conducted a few rituals and all will be well. Somehow those rituals usually last from one hour to a few days.
In this case, the snake that crossed our path didn’t turn back. What bad luck for the groom and the villagers? I was thinking of the bride’s family and their folks waiting eagerly in their house.
One thing about traditional wedding in North Borneo is that there is no fix ETA for the groom. It’s no wonder that in those days, wedding feast would have started well in advance, sometimes one to three days ahead of the groom’s arrival, and there would be another two to three days of feasting and merrymaking after the groom arrived. In addition, when the groom brings back his bride to his house and his village, there would be another week of feasting and merrymaking. What a waste I thought to myself when I was documenting this particular wedding.
Back to our wedding and our poor groom who was already sweating somewhere in the middle of the “great” procession. I tried to reason with the elder I spoke to earlier that it was okay for us in this modern day not to be ruled by a snake that just happen to pass by. But the Chief Priest could not be persuaded. I noticed that he was already in the middle of a trance trying to mediate with the spirit world. Such an uncompromising spirit world, I thought to my self. Why would they send a snake to warn of possible dangers? It was beyond my own logic of thinking. But I am not surprised at all considering that when I was a little boy, back during the time when we were still under the rule of the English Crown; we used to watch priest and priestess conduct rituals of this nature.
By noon time, we notice that the chief priest have made his decision. A pig has to be slaughtered. Someone from among the crowd ran back to the village and procures a pig, a small one which was easy to carry. After all the spirit world didn’t indicate how big the pig would be. Finally, the procession continued.
About five minutes from the bride’s house, there lay in front of us a big tree that fell not more than two hours ago. There was heavy rained the night before and landslide, which often occurs in North Borneo, had uprooted the big tree and was leaning dangerously above the path that we took. Had we continued our procession earlier, some of uswould have been crushed by the big tree.
We arrive at the bride’s house safely, thanks to the snake that crossed our path.