Iban Journey

Though his father, Bujang, loves him, Nuing runs away from home because the people of the longhouse reject him. Following a failed war expedition, Bunsu Jugam, the spirit of the youngest sun bear, rescues Nuing and brings him into the invisible world where he tells him that Bujang has been kidnapped by K’lansat demons. The python spirit of his father’s trophy head spits on Nuing and causes his skin to burn and swell until he looks like a deformed rhinocerous. He manages to rescue his father and on their return they are attacked by four men. Bujang kills one, and Nuing three. When the thick skin finally comes off and the people learns that their hero is Nuing, they grudgingly accepts him back, believing that the curse of his birth is nullified by the power of the three heads he took. Iban Journey is volume two in this unique series of fantasy fiction — that includes Iban Dream — in which author Golda Mowe, herself an Iban from Borneo, uses real beliefs, taboos and terminology of the Iban (a longhouse-dwelling indigenous group of people from Borneo who, until very recently, were renowned for practising headhunting) to weave epic tales of good versus evil.