1. Miau ka manok kena Ketanju – waving of the cock to announce the ceremony at the open varendah. The gawai chief waves a cock and announces the second event on the open varendah is about to happen, as on the previous day and invited every guest to gather at the tanju.

2. Miring - dividing the offerings. This is performed by the warrior groups who prepare seven offerings on seven trays at the tanju. When finished, it is covered using the best pua kumbu blankets placed carefully over it. These offerings are placed at the foot of the ritual pole, and some of the offerings are hung at each end of the longhouse roof. While miring is going on, the bards once more bring the skull and the hornbill statue to the tanju accompanied by their ritual song called timang antu pala and timang Kenyalang respectively, same as what was done on the previous day.

The Festival Day

At about 7.00 am early next morning, a traditional cockfight takes place on the open-air varendah or tanju of the gawai chief. This is followed by the morning meal. After the meal, a ceremony to drive away bad spirit, similar to the previous day, is conducted. Then the old head trophy or skulls in the longhouse is taken down from their respective cluster and brought to the feast chief’s varendah (ruai) in a winnowing basket, which contains the offerings.

Shortly after the skulls have been brought to the feast chief’s varendah, one man kills a chicken and smears its blood on the sacred hornbill statue (Kenyalang) at the loft (sadau) of the longhouse. As he smears it with blood, he shouted three times. Then the statue is carried down to the feast chief varendah and is placed near the skulls.

1. Nyambut Pengabang (welcoming the guest)
When the invited guest arrives from their respective longhouse at the host-landing place, they are assembled and welcomed in the same manner as the warriors and the bards earlier. But the individual share of rice wine served to the Warleader, Penghulus and Tuai Rumah are different. Warleader are given 18 glasses of rice wine, Penghulus 17 and the longhouse headmen 12 glasses. Other people receive 8 or 9 glasses each.

The Night Of Nimang Pantar

The eve of the feast is known as Malam Nimang Pantar, where the bards bless the seats with ritual songs.

1. Ngerandang Jalai
Clearing a path the length of the varendah for the bards to sing along. After an evening meal is over, at about 9.00 pm, an influential man of the longhouse performs a berayah dance known as ngerandang jalai. The purpose is to clear the spiritual obstacles from the path along the whole longhouse varendah accompanied by gendang rayah music, and he traverses the varendah not more than three times.

2. Ngelalau
Enclosing the path already cleared. After ngerandang jalai dance is over, another important man performs the rayah dance to erect the lalau, a spiritual fence along the varendah so that the soul of the bards will not stray away as they perform. If this is the first time the people of the longhouse celebrated the Gawai Burong, the chief bard will lead his followers to perform the Ngiga Tanah Alai Berumah chants (looking for a suitable land for a house site). If the longhouse has celebrated the festival before, the lead bard will lead his followers to chant themed Ngerara Rumah (To recite why the house is made ready for a grand festival).

3. Ngading Iyang Lemambang
Invocations of the bard’s guardian spirits.

4. Nyerayong Pandong
Covering the shrine with pua kumbu.

5. Lemambang belaboh mengap niti rumah
The bards begin to sing their chants along the house varendah.

6. Beranchau Tikai
Spreading of the mats.

7. Lemambang berunsut ngena ubat enda layu
The bards anoint their body with charms to prevent themselves from being cursed by anyone or spirits.

8. Ngerintai Tuai Laut
Naming the spiritual Malay chiefs invited to the feast.

9. Ngerintai Tuai Dayak
Naming of the spiritual Dayak leaders to the feast.

10. Ngerintai Tuai Orang Panggau
Calling upon the spirits chiefs of Orang Panggau to the feast.

11. Ngerintai Tuai Orang Gellong
Calling upon the spirits chiefs of Orang Gellong to the feast.

12. Ngalu Petara
Welcoming the invited spirits to the feast. This event is a procession called ngalu Petara to the feast. It is led by the warrior who will divide the offerings (Tukang Nasak), followed by a master ceremony who will announce the purpose of the procession along the route, followed by two senior women, one carrying a plate of pop-rice which she will sprinkle along the route and another lady carrying a plate of offerings. They are followed by a band of festively dressed young men and girls from every family in the longhouse who carry rice wine. Behind them walk the musicians who play gendang panjai on the drums and gong.

The Day of Nimang Pantar

The night before the festival is known as Malam Nimang Pantar. The bards bless the raised seats (pantar) erected for honoured guest with chants. Early in the morning of this day, the gawai chief wave his cock along the varendah of the longhouse and instructed every family to build a raised seat between the varendah (ruai) and passageway (tempuan) for the guest to sit on during the feast. Gendang rayah music is played three times per round during the construction work on the raised seat. The gawai chief family is the first family to erect the raised seats followed by others afterward. After the raised seat is completed, the gawai chief again wave his cock asking each family to spread their new mats on the floors along the varendah for the Nimang Pantar event.

Preparation for the Festival

1. Aum gawai – to discuss preparations for the gawai including fixing dates (nempoh hari), allocation of communal farm (bumai bedandang) where a portion of the harvest is allocated for ceremonial needs and setting time to begin brewing of the rice wine (tuak) which usually occurs about a month before the festival itself.

2. Nutok bram tuak – pounding and preparing glutinous rice for making rice wine.

3. Ngaga raran – erecting of cooking rack. This is done in the afternoon, after completed preparing the rice wine. The gawai chief waves a cock along the varendah (ruai) to announce the time to build the cooking racks for the rice, usually at the upper landing place of the longhouse. Gendang rayah music is played three times per round in the longhouse during the construction of the rack.

4. Ngerendam beras – soaking of the glutinous rice. This is done at about 6 p.m. after the gawai chief waves a cock to announce the event accompanied by gendang rayah music played for five times per round in the house during this event.

5. Ngelulun asi – Roasting of the rice in the bamboo. This is done in the afternoon of the next day, after the gawai chief waves his cock and make announcement. He leads a group of elders carrying offerings (piring), which he placed in a special platform called duran. After placing the offerings properly, he will sit near them until all the work at this stage is finished.

6. Sabong gawai – festival cockfighting is performed at the feast chief’s platform (tanju). Several fights are conducted there and it will be continued elsewhere on nearby clearing if the participants are still enthusiastic.

7. Makai pagi – morning meal are done to initiate the beginning of the festivals and are done along the varendah (ruai) of the longhouse.

8. Ngelumpang asi – taking the rice out of the bamboo is done after the morning meal with the feast chief waving his cock making the announcement. The rice is taken out of the bamboo and placed on a large mat where it is mixed with yeast (ragi) to start the fermentation process of wine making. The rice are then placed inside large jars and its top covered with clean clothes. Gendang rayah music is played three times per round. After this, other preparations take place like making of rice flour cakes, preparing domestic livestock for the next two weeks. The festival chief also organise a group of people to collect mandatory items from the jungle or river to be used for the offerings (piring) and these are:

• Pisang Jait (wild banana fruit);
• Engkudu and trong fruits;
• Lengki palm leaves and its shoot;
• Banjang palm leaves and its shoot;
• Batak shoots, flowers of buot, tepus, sengkenyang and others planted on the padi field; and
• Smoked gerama crabs, kusing bats and fish with white scales.

9. Ngambi Ngabang – sending out invitations is done after materials of the offerings above are ready. A meeting is held by the gawai chief to confirm the number of longhouse to be invited. Four trusted men are sent out to send the invitation carrying a number of strings with knots (temuku tali), where each knot represent a day before the guest are to attend the feast. The guest untie one knot every day to remind them of the feast day. Meanwhile, a day before the big event, the women folks prepared the following items for the piring:

• Cook white, yellow and black glutinous rice;
• Fry penganan iri buns;
• Cook sungkui cake;
• Cook hard boiled eggs;
• Cook ketupat rice; and
• Fry popped rice (letup) and sago flour.

Photo of the Sengkenyang plant.