I hung around SE Asia in 1989, based in Singapore. Inspired by one of the funniest travel books I have ever read, Into the Heart of Borneo by Redmond O’Hanlon, I spent a long weekend in Sarawak. It was published only six years previously, in 1983, so not much had changed.
The palangs were still in a glass topped case upstairs in the museum, not exactly hidden but definitely not flaunted. What’s a palang, I hear you murmur languidly. Well you jolly well won’t be so languid when you know. If you don’t want to know – believe me you don’t – skip the next paragraph.
It is a male genital piercing that penetrates horizontally through the glans of the penis. I don’t imagine that it is much more painful than being circumcised. I read anthropology so I can tell you with an anthropologist’s precision why the Iban and Dayak had palangs. First, it was to discourage sodomy. Secondly, if that didn’t succeed it made it much more pleasurable.
From Kuching I went up-river to visit a longhouse. Hanging up along the verandah were human skulls. In the old days, a young lad proved his manhood by going out into the jungle and coming back with a human head as a trophy. Should you happen to visit this part of the world it is worth looking at the skulls’ teeth. If they have fillings you should be nervous. The last time there was a free-for-all in the skull collecting department was WW II when the Allies gave a bob a nob for Japanese heads.
But I’m still in France and if I had a bob for every blog I’ve read about French markets I would be sitting pretty, so I will not write about today’s excursion to a picturesque old town. Instead let’s look outside where I’m staying. There is an old oven, a stone cross of uncertain origin and a fine génoise roof in in Arcadian setting.
The overhang of the roof was an innovation introduced by Italian masons way back when. Before there were gutters and down-pipes it stopped the rain running down the walls, making them damp and rotting the wooden shutters. The depth of the overhang showed the owner’s status. Tip-top was four layers. This hunting lodge, after a lot of squinting, seems to have 3 1/2.