Picture of a traditional Bidayuh house in Sarawak .
Image credit: http://www.alamy.com
I am at the top of a hill looking down. I see green all
around. I’m wearing a kind of slipper which
shows my toes. It is made of dried grass and tied around my feet. I’m male. I
have black hair. My skin is darker than in current life. I am wearing animal skin,
white in colour. I wrap it up around my whole body.
I see a house made from dried grass, with bamboo as pillars. It is
square and has a sharp pointed roof. Inside the house, there is a mattress made
of dried grass, and some kitchenware made of rock. It’s quite big and used to
smash food or seeds. The flooring is made of bamboo tied up and arranged
together. Some are cut bamboo, some are round.
A woman comes back from outside, wearing a blue turban. She looks
like some sort of native. She’s carrying clothes. She has just come back from
the river. She’s wearing black clothing, with a rough texture. She’s wearing
something like a black sarong on the bottom half. The top part of her body is covered
around with cloth and tightened with another piece of cloth. Her shoulders are
bare. She tied her hair upright and wrapped around like a small turban. She
covers all her long hair. She smiles to me. She is my wife.
She is now cooking…. smashing the chilli and some seeds. Then she
cooks outside the house. She cooks on the ground. She heats it with wood sticks
and dried grass. She starts boiling something. She uses utensils made of
ceramic. It’s white colour. She’s eating something like wheat.
Me: What do you do for a living?
I hunt. I hunt foxes, snakes and wild boars. I hunt with another
other villager. He’s is a slim guy, with very dark skin. His hair is straight. He
is wearing a headband tied across his forehead. There’s a piece of big feather,
from a kind of bird. I recognise him as my colleague in the current life.
We walk and go hunting very deep in the jungle. We use spears for
hunting. The spears are made of wood. The tip is very sharp. It is made from
animal’s tooth. My friend said he had put poison at the tip of the spear, so
that the animal could die faster. We are hunting a deer, a female deer. We
killed the deer. We carried the deer back. It is not very big deer. We shared
our food. We cooked the meat that we brought home. Our children and our wives were
very happy. I have a son and a daughter.
Next scene:
It is my son’s wedding. He’s wearing a band on his head. He’s
wearing animal skin. It looks like fox skin. There is what looks a fox’s tail,
hung behind him. There are other villagers there. We drink our own self-made
wine -- wheat wine.
The bride is wearing black, with some accessories, made of grass. It
has green and red colour leaves, all handmade, very simple looking. It is tied around
her waist and wrapped her forehead. They are not wearing shoes. My wife also
has a kind of cloth covering her hair. Her hair is tied into a bun and wrapped like
a turban. It was an arranged marriage. The bride is another friend’s daughter. I
recognise the head of the village as my boss in the current life. He’s performing
a ceremony to bless my son and the bride.
Me: Which country are you in?
I am in Borneo .
Next scene:
My wife passed away. She was sick due to TB (tuberculosis). She
was 54 years old. They put her body on dried grass and dried leaves and covered
her body with grass and leaves. There was no coffin. They carried her body to be
buried at a graveyard near the river. After burying her and covering her body
with earth, they put stones on the earth, around where the body was buried.
After 20 days, we had to clear all the stones. We arranged and piled up the
stones to make a sign of a tomb. Each stone
is bigger than my hand. We left after that. I continued staying with my son. He
is a hunter.
End of life:
I have already died. They put my body on the grass and leaves in
the middle of the jungle. I’m very very old with white hair. I’m very thin and
dark skinned. I’m wearing animal skin and my spear is laid beside me. There is
some ritual ceremony. There is a new head of village. He is very skinny. They
drink and pour some wine on my body, to cleanse all my sickness away, so that I
could rest in peace. They carry my body for burial. I was buried at the same
graveyard as my wife’s grave, but not next to it. I died because of animal
attack. The animal bite was very deep in my neck. They say it was a kind of
monkey that bit me. I had no regrets over that life.
Note: Client did some research after that and felt that in that
lifetime, she was probably what is now termed a Bidayuh native in Borneo . Client said that it was difficult
to find pictures that corroborate that lifetime as the photos in the internet
are considered modern whereas she had gone back to a prehistoric lifetime in the hillsides
of Borneo . Client sent me the photo of the Bidayuh
house above, which she described as being is the closest to what she has seen. She
said that during that lifetime, houses were without windows and doors and had only
half-walls. Furthermore, the woman’s clothes were black, akin to the Bidayuh
natives.
