Having just finished the mild war of the recent state election, it is now time to drink to the Dayak harvest festival in Sarawak. I am eternally grateful to the nice Iban nurse who sent me a few bottles of the most excellent langkau a week ago. In this fiery nectar from Bumi Kenyalang, resides the spirit of the vast good earth of Sarawak.

The Hari Gawai is not really a Gawai. I once looked up Anthony Richard's authoritative Iban Dictionary, which is more like an encyclopaedia on the Iban civilisation than a dictionary. There are over 60 different types of Gawai, all with something to do with religious offerings and rituals for various purposes largely connected with their unique agricultural way of life.

I have attended more than a few Gawai celebrations. On one occasion, during a Gawai Kenyalang celebration somewhere in the Iban heartland of the Rejang Basin, thousands of villagers from communities within miles up and down the river were all invited to this one longhouse.