The Pagan Tribes of Borneo Part 20

The Kayans are not clear whether Laki Tenangan is the creator of the world. He does not figure in the Kayan creation myth.[92] There seems to be no doubt about his supremacy over the other G.o.ds; these are sometimes asked by Kayans to intercede with him on their behalf.[93]

As regards the minor departmental G.o.ds, it is difficult to draw the line between them and the spirits of the third cla.s.s distinguished above. All of them are approached at times with prayers and with rites similar to those used in addressing LAKI TENANGAN. Several wooden posts, very roughly carved to indicate the head and, limbs of a human form, stand before every Kayan house. When the G.o.ds are addressed on behalf of the whole household, as before or after an important expedition, the ceremony usually takes place before one of these rudely carved posts.[94] But the post cannot be called an idol. It is more of the nature of an altar. No importance attaches to the mere posts, which are often allowed to fall away and decay and are renewed as required. A similar post may be hastily fas.h.i.+oned and set up on the bank of the river, if a party at a distance from home has special occasion for supplication.

An altar of a rather different kind is also used in communicating with the G.o.ds. It seems to be used especially in returning thanks for recovery of health after severe illness. It consists of a bamboo some four or five feet in length fixed upright in the ground. The upper end is split by two cuts at right angles to one another, and a fresh fowl's egg is inserted between the split ends (Pl. 145). Leaves of the LONG, (a species of CALADIUM), a plant grown on the PADI field for this purpose, are hung upon the post. These leaves serve merely to signalise the fact that some rite is going forward; they are also hung, together with a large sun hat, upon the door of any room in which a person lies seriously ill, to make it known as LALI or tabu; and in general they seem to be used to mark a spot as pervaded by some spiritual influence, or, in short, as "unclean." The bodies of fowls and pigs sacrificed in the course of the rites performed before such an altar-post are generally hung upon sharpened stakes driven into the ground before it, I.E. between it and the house, towards which the post, in the case of posts of the former kind, invariably faces; and the frayed sticks commonly used in such rites are hung upon the altar-post. Such posts are sometimes fenced in, but this is by no means always the case (Pl. 144).

The Kayans seek to read in the behaviour of the omen birds and in the entrails of the slaughtered pigs and fowls indications of the way in which the G.o.ds responds to their prayers. For they regard the true omen birds as the trusty messengers of the G.o.ds. After slaughtering the pigs or fowls to whose charge they have committed their pet.i.tions, they examine their entrails in the hope of discovering the answer of the G.o.ds; and at the same time they tell off two or three men to look for omens from the birds of the jungle.[95] If the omens first obtained are bad, more fowls and pigs are usually killed and omens again observed; and in an important matter, E.G. the illness of a beloved child, the process may be repeated many times until satisfactory omens are forthcoming. Whatever may have been the origin and history of such rites, it seems to be quite clear that the slaughtering of these animals is regarded as an act of sacrifice in the ordinary sense of the word, I.E. as an offering or gift of some valued possession to the spiritual powers; for, although on some occasions a pig so slaughtered is eaten, those stuck upon stakes before the altar-post are left to rot; and the idea of sacrificing, or depriving oneself of, a valued piece of property is clearly expressed on such occasions in other ways; E.G. a woman will break a bead of great value when her prayers for the restoration to health of a child remain unanswered, or on such an occasion a woman may cut off her hair.[96]

The custom of approaching and communicating with the G.o.ds through the medium of the omen birds, seems to be responsible in large measure for the fact that the G.o.ds themselves are but dimly conceived, and are not felt to be in intimate and sympathetic relations with their wors.h.i.+ppers. The omen birds seem to form not only a medium of communication, but also, as it were, a screen which obscures for the people the vision of their G.o.ds. As in many a.n.a.logous instances, the intercessors and messengers to whose care the messages are committed a.s.sume in the eyes of the people an undue importance; the G.o.d behind the omen bird is apt to be almost lost sight of, and the bird itself tends to become an object of reverence, and to be regarded as the recipient of the prayer and the dispenser of the benefits which properly he only foretells or announces.[97]

We have little information bearing upon the origin and history of these Kayan G.o.ds. But a few remarks may be ventured. The names of many of the minor deities are proper personal names in common use among the Kayans or allied tribes, such as JU, BALARI, ANYI, IVONG, URAI, UKA; and the t.i.tle LAKI, by which several of them are addressed, is the t.i.tle of respect given to old men who are grandfathers. These facts suggest that these minor G.o.ds may be deified ancestors of great chiefs, and this suggestion is supported by the following facts: --

First, a recently deceased chief of exceptional capacity and influence becomes not infrequently the object of a certain cult among Klemantans and Sea Dayaks. Men will go to sleep beside his grave or tomb, hoping for good dreams and invoking the aid of the dead chief in acquiring health, or wealth, or whatever a man most desires. Sea Dayaks sometimes fix a tube of bamboo leading from just above the eyes of the corpse to the surface of the ground; they will address the dead man with their lips to the orifice of the tube, and will drop into it food and drink and silver coins. A hero who is made the object of such a cult is usually buried in an isolated spot on the crest of a hill; and such a grave is known as RARONG.

Secondly, all Kayans, men and women alike, invoke in their prayers the aid of ODING, LAHANGand his intercession with LAKI TENANGAN. That they regard the former as having lived as a great chief is clearly proved by the following facts: firstly, many Kayans of the upper cla.s.s claim to, be his lineal descendants; secondly, a well-known myth,[98] of which several variants are current, describes his miraculous advent to the world; thirdly, he is regarded by Kayans, Kenyahs, and many Klemantans as the founder of their race.

The Kenyahs also invoke in their prayers several spirits who seem, like ODIN LAHANG, to be regarded as deceased members of their tribe; such are TOKONG and UTONG, and PA BALAN and PLIBAN. From all these descent is claimed by various Kenyah and Klemantan sub-tribes; and that they are regarded as standing higher in the spiritual hierarchy than recently deceased chiefs, is shown by the prefix BALI,[99]

commonly given to their names, whereas this t.i.tle or designation is not given to recently deceased chiefs; to their names the word URIP is prefixed by both Kayans and Kenyahs. The word URIP, means life or living; the exact meaning of this prefix in this usage is obscure, possibly it expresses the recognition that the men spoken of are, though dead, still in some sense alive.

A further link in this chain of evidence is afforded by the Kenyah G.o.d of thunder, BALINGO. This spirit, it would seem, must be cla.s.sed among the departmental deities, being strictly the Kenyah equivalent of LAKI BALARI of the Kayans; and all the Kenyahs and many Klemantans seem to claim some special relation to BALINGO,[100] while one Madang (Kenyah) chief at least claims direct descent from him.[101]

The last mentioned instance completes the series of cases forming a transition from the well remembered dead chief to the departmental deity, the existence of which series lends colour to the view that these minor G.o.ds have been evolved from deceased chiefs. The weakness of this evidence consists in the fact that the series of cases is drawn from a number of tribes, and is not, so far as we know, completely ill.u.s.trated by the customs or beliefs of any one tribe.

There is, then, some small amount of evidence indicating that the minor G.o.ds are deified ancestors, whose kins.h.i.+p with their wors.h.i.+ppers has been forgotten completely in some cases, less completely in others. If this supposition could be shown to be true, it would afford a strong presumption in favour of the view that LAKI TENANGAN also has had a similar history, and that he is but PRIMUS INTER PARES. For among the Kayans, as we have seen, a large village acknowledges a supreme chief as well as the chiefs of the several houses of the village; and in the operations of war on a large scale, a supreme war chief presides over a council of lesser chiefs. And it is to be expected that the social system of the superior powers should be modelled upon that of the people who acknowledge them.

On the other hand, none of the facts, noted in connection with the minor G.o.ds as indicating their ancestral origin, are found to be true of LAKI TENANGAN, except only his bearing the t.i.tle LAKI, which, as we have seen, is the t.i.tle by which a man is addressed as soon as he becomes a grandfather. The name TENANGAN is not a proper name borne by any Kayans, nor, so far as we know, does it occur amongst the other peoples. LAKI in Malay means a male. The name is possibly connected with the Kayan word TENANG which means correct, or genuine. The termination AN is used in several instances in Malay (though not in Kayan) to make a substantive of an adjective. The name then possibly means -- he who is correct or all-knowing; but this is a very speculative suggestion.

It is possible that the Kayans owe their conception of a supreme G.o.d to their contact. with the Mohammedans. But this is rendered very improbable by the facts: firstly, that the Kayans have had such intercourse during but a short period in Borneo, probably not more than 300 years, (though they may have had such intercourse at an earlier period before entering Borneo); secondly, that among the Sea Dayaks, who have had for at least 150 years much more abundant intercourse with the Mohammedans of Borneo than the Kayans have had, the conception has not taken root and has not been a.s.similated.

The Kenyah G.o.ds and the beliefs and practices centering about them are very similar to those of the Kayans. This people also recognises a princ.i.p.al G.o.d or Supreme Being, whose name is BALI PENYLONG, and a number of minor deities presiding over special departments of nature and human life. The Kenyahs recognise the following minor deities: BALI ATAP protects the house against sickness and attack, and is called upon in cases of madness to expel the evil spirit possessing the patient. A rude wooden image of him stands beside the gangway leading to the house from the river's brink; it holds a spear in the right hand, a s.h.i.+eld in the left; it carries about its neck a fringed collar made up of knotted strips of rattan; the head of each room ties on one such strip, making on it a knot for each member of his roomhold. Generally a wooden image of a hawk, BALI FLAKI, stands beside it on the top of a tall pole.

The Kenyahs carve such images more elaborately than the Kayans, who are often content merely to indicate the eyes, mouth, and four limbs, by slas.h.i.+ng away with the sword chips of wood from the surface of the log, leaving gashes at the points roughly corresponding in position to these organs. The Kenyahs treat these rude images with rather more care than do the Kayans; and they a.s.sociate them more strictly with particular deities. The children of the house are not allowed to touch such an image, after it has been once used as an altar post; it is only when it is so used, and blood of fowls or pigs sprinkled upon it, that it seems to acquire its uncleanness."[102]

BALI UTONG brings prosperity to the house. BALI URIP is the G.o.d of life; he too has a carved altarpost, generally crowned with a bra.s.s gong. BALINGO is the G.o.d of thunder.

BALI SUNGEI is the name given to a being which perhaps cannot properly be called a G.o.d. He is thought of as embodied in a huge serpent or dragon living at the bottom of the river; he is supposed to cause the violent swirls and uprushes of water that appear on the surface in times of flood. He is regarded with fear; and is held to be responsible for the upsetting of boats and drownings in the river. It is not clear that he is the spirit of the river itself; for floods and the various changes of the river do not seem to be attributed to him.

BALI PENYALONG, like Laki Tenangen, has a wife BUNGAN. She is not so distinctly the special deity of the women folk as is DOH TENANGAN among the Kayans.

A special position in the Kenyah system is occupied by BALI FLAKI, the carrion hawk, which is the princ.i.p.al omen bird observed during the preparation for and conduct of war. Something will be said of the cult of BALI FLAKI in a later chapter; but we would note here that this bird is peculiar among the many omen-birds of the Kenyahs, in that an altar-post before the house is a.s.signed to him, or at least one of the posts rudely carved to suggest the human figure is specially a.s.sociated with BALI FLAKI, and in some cases is surmounted by a wooden image of the hawk. It seems to us probable that in this case the Kenyahs have carried further the tendency we noted in the Kayans to allow the omen birds to figure so prominently in their rites and prayers as to obscure the G.o.ds whose messengers they are; and that BALI FLAKI has in this way driven into the background, and more or less completely taken the place of, a G.o.d of war whose name even has been forgotten by many of the Kenyahs, if not by all of them.

Peculiar adjuncts of the altar-posts of the Kenyahs are the DRACAENA plant (whose deep red leaves are generally to be seen growing in a clump not far from them) and a number of large spherical stones, BATU TULOI. These are perpetual possessions of the house. Their history is unknown; they are supposed to grow gradually larger and to move spontaneously when danger threatens the house. When a household removes and builds for itself a new home, these stones are carried with some ceremony to the new site (Pl. 144).

We reproduce here a pa.s.sage from a paper published by us some ten years ago[103] in which we ventured to speculate on the development of the Kenyah belief in a Supreme Being.

We cannot conclude without saying something as to, the possible origin of their conception of a beneficent Being more powerful than all others, who sends guidance and warnings by the omen birds, and receives and answers the prayers carried to him by the souls of the fowls and pigs. It might be thought that this conception of a beneficent Supreme Being has been borrowed directly or indirectly from the Malays. But we do not think that this view is tenable in face of the fact that, while the conception is a living belief among the Madangs, a Kenyah tribe that inhabits a district in the remotest interior and has had no intercourse with Malays, the Ibans, who have had far more intercourse with the Malays than have the Kayans and Kenyahs, yet show least trace of this conception. As Archdeacon Perham has written of the Ibans, there are traces of the belief in one supreme G.o.d which suggest that the idea is one that has been prevalent, but has now almost died out. We are inclined to suppose that the tribes of the interior, such as the Kenyahs and Kayans, have evolved the conception for themselves, and that in fact Bali Penyalong of the Kenyahs is their G.o.d of war exalted above all others by the importance of the department of human activity over which he presides; for we have seen that they had been led to conceive other G.o.ds -- Balingo, the G.o.d of thunder, Bali Sungei, the G.o.d of the rivers, whose anger is shown by the boiling flood, and Bali Atap, who keeps harm from the house, while the Kayans have G.o.ds of life, a G.o.d of harvesting, and other departmental deities. It seems to us that the only difficult step in such a simple and direct evolution of the idea of a beneficent Supreme Being is the conception of G.o.ds or spirits that perform definite functions, such as Bali Atap, who guards the house, and the G.o.ds that preside over harvesting and war, as distinct from such G.o.ds or nature-spirits as Balingo and Bali Sungei. But there seems to be no doubt that this step has been taken by these peoples, and that these various G.o.ds of abstract function have been evolved by them. And it seems to us that, were a G.o.d of war once conceived, it would be inevitable that, among communities whose chief interest is war and whose prosperity and very existence depend upon success in battle, such a G.o.d of battles should come to predominate over all others, and to claim the almost exclusive regard of his wors.h.i.+ppers. Such a predominance would be given the more easily to one G.o.d by these people, because the necessity for strict subordination to their chiefs has familiarised them with the principles of obedience of subjects to a single ruler and of subordination of minor chiefs to a princ.i.p.al chief; while the beneficence of the Supreme Being thus evolved would inevitably result; for the G.o.d of battles must seem beneficent to the victors, and among these people only the victors survive. Again, this conception is one that undoubtedly makes for righteousness, because it reflects the character of the people who, within the community and the tribe, are decent, humane, and honest folk.

We are conscious of presumption in venturing to adopt the view that the conception of a beneficent Supreme Being may possibly be neither the end nor the beginning of religion, neither the final result of an evolution, euhemeristic, totemistic, or other, prolonged through countless ages and generations, nor part of the stock-in-trade of primitive man mysteriously acquired. Yet we are disposed to regard this conception as one that, amid the perpetual flux of opinion and belief which obtains among peoples dest.i.tute of written records, may be comparatively rapidly and easily arrived at under favourable conditions (such as seem to be afforded by tribes like the Kenyahs and Kayans, warlike prosperous tribes subordinated to strong chiefs), and may as rapidly fall into neglect with change of social conditions; and we suggest that it may then remain as a vestige in the minds of a few individuals only to be discerned by curious research, as among the Ibans or the Australian blacks, until another turn of Fortune's wheel, perhaps the birth of some overmastering personality or a revival of national or tribal vigour, gives it a new period of life and power.

We still regard as highly plausible the view suggested in this pa.s.sage. We would add to what we have written only a few words in explanation of what may seem to be a difficulty in the way of this view. It was mentioned above that the Kayans recognise a G.o.d of war, TOH BULU. This fact may seem incompatible with the view that the idea of LAKI TENANGAN has been reached by exalting the G.o.d of war above his fellow-departmental deities; but it is not, we think, a fatal objection. For TOH BULU seems to be a G.o.d of but small account with the Kayans; his name figures but little in their rites; and the name itself indicates his subordinate position; for TOH is, as we have seen, the generic name for spirits of minor importance, and BULU is the Kayan word for feather; TOH BULU, literally translated, is then the feather-spirit or spirit of the feathers. It seems possible, therefore, that TOH BULU was nothing more than the spirit concerned with the hornbill's feathers, which are the emblems or badges of acknowledged prowess in battle; and that with the exaltation of the original G.o.d of war above his fellows, this minor spirit concerned in warfare has acquired a larger sphere and importance.

With the Kenyahs similar processes, we suggest, have led to the exaltation of BALI PENYALONG, the original G.o.d of war, into the position of the Supreme Being, and of BALI FLAKI, his special messenger, into the position, or almost into the position, of the G.o.d of war. This view derives, we think, considerable support from the fact that the Kenyahs recognise no special G.o.d of war; and in view of their tendency to create deities to preside over each of the great departments of nature and of human activity, the absence from their system of a special G.o.d of war requires some special explanation such as we have offered above.

The Klemantan G.o.ds are more numerous and more vaguely conceived, and the whole system seems more confused than that of the Kayans or Kenyahs. It is probable that the Klemantan tribes have borrowed freely from these more powerful neighbours. Many of them are very skilful in wood-carving, and it is probably largely owing to this circ.u.mstance that they make a larger number of images in human form. Some of these are kept in the house, while others stand before the house like those before the Kayan houses. The former are generally more highly regarded, and it is before them that their rites are generally performed. It seems not improbable that these stand for the G.o.ds proper to these people, and those outside the house for the borrowed G.o.ds.

The supernatural beliefs and cults of the Sea Dayaks differ so widely from those described above that we think it best to bring together in one place (vol. ii., p. 85) what we have to say about them.

The Lesser Spirits of Ill-defined Nature

In the second of the three cla.s.ses of spiritual beings distinguished above (vol. ii., p. 4) we put the souls of men and of some of the animals. Some account of beliefs connected with these will be given in the following two chapters. We conclude this chapter by describing the spirits of the third cla.s.s, spirits or intelligent powers vaguely conceived, of minor importance, but imperfectly individualised and not regularly envisaged in any visible forms or embodied in any material objects. The generic Kayan name for spirits of this cla.s.s is TOH. All the spirits of this cla.s.s seem to be objects of fear, to be malevolent, or, at least, easily offended and capable of bringing misfortunes of all kinds upon human beings.

The most important of these TOH are perhaps those a.s.sociated with the dried human heads that hang in every house. It seems that these spirits are not supposed to be those of the persons from whose shoulders the heads have been taken. Yet they seem to be resident in or about the heads, though not inseparable from them. They are said to cause the teeth of the heads to be ground together if they are offended or dissatisfied, as by neglect of the attentions customarily paid to the heads or by other infringement of custom. The heads are thus supposed to be animated by the TOH; if a head falls, through the breaking of the rattan by which it is suspended, it is said to have thrown itself down, being dissatisfied owing to insufficient attention having been paid to it. This animation of the heads by the TOH is ill.u.s.trated by the treatment accorded by the people to the heads from the time they are brought into the house. Having been dried and smoked in a small hut made for the purpose, they are brought up to the house with loud rejoicings and singing of the war chorus. For this ceremony all members of the village are summoned from the fields and the jungle, and, when all are a.s.sembled in the houses, every one puts off the mourning garments which have been worn by all since the death of the chief for whose funeral rites the heads have been sought. Everyone having donned the ordinary attire, the men carry the heads in procession adorned with DAUN SILAT, the dried and frayed leaves of a palm, before one of the altar posts that stand between the house and the river. There fowls and pigs are sacrificed in the usual way, and their blood is scattered upon the a.s.sembled men with a wisp of shredded palmleaves.

Then the procession carries the heads into the house and up and down the gallery. The men dressed in their war coats, carrying s.h.i.+elds and swords, drawn up in a long line, sing the war chorus, and go through a peculiar evolution, known as SEGA LUPAR. Each man keeps turning to face his neighbours, first on one side, then on the other, with regular steps in time with all the rest. This seems to symbolise the alertness of the warriors on the war-path, looking in every direction. The heads, which have been carried by old men, are then hung up over the princ.i.p.al hearth on the beam on which the old heads are hanging; they are suspended by means of a rattan, of which one end is knotted and the other pa.s.sed upward through the FORAMEN MAGNUM and a hole cut in the top of the skull. After this the men sit down to drink, and the chief describes the taking of the heads, eulogising the warrior who drew first blood in each case, and who is credited with the glory of the taking of the head. Then follows a big feast, in every room a pig or fowl being killed and eaten; after which more BORAK is drunk, the war chorus breaking out spontaneously at brief intervals. BORAK is offered to the heads by pouring it into small bamboo cups suspended beside them; and a bit of fat pork will be pushed into the mouth of each. The heads, or rather the TOH a.s.sociated with them, are supposed to drink and eat these offerings. The fact that the bits of pork remain unconsumed does not seem to raise any difficulty in the minds of the Kayans; they seem to believe that the essence of the food is consumed.

At all times the heads hanging in the house are treated respectfully and somewhat fearfully. When it is necessary to handle them, some old man undertakes the task, and children especially are prevented from touching them; for it is felt that to touch them involves the risk of madness, brought on by the offended TOH or spirits of the heads.

The fire beneath the heads is always kept alight in order that they shall be warm, and dry, and comfortable. On certain special occasions they are offered BORAK and pork in the way mentioned above.

On moving to a new house the heads are temporarily lodged in a small shelter built for the purpose, and are brought up into the house with a ceremony like that which celebrates their first installation. The Kayans do not care to have in the house more than twenty or thirty heads, and are at some pains occasionally to get rid of some superfluous heads -- a fact which shows clearly that the heads are not mere trophies of valour and success in war. The moving to a new house is the occasion chosen for reducing the number of heads. Those destined to be left are hung in a hut built at some distance from the house which is about to be deserted. A good fire is made in it and kept up during the demolition of the great house, and when the people depart they make up in the little head-house a fire designed to last several days. It is supposed that, when the fire goes out, the TOH of the heads notice the fact, and begin to suspect that they are deserted by the people; when the rain begins to come in through the roof their suspicions are confirmed, and the TOH set out to pursue their deserters, but owing to the lapse of time and weather are unable to track them. The people believe that in this way they escape the madness which the anger of the deserted TOH would bring upon them.

The precautions described in the foregoing paragraph ill.u.s.trate very well the power for harm attributed to the TOH of the heads and the fear with which they are regarded. Nevertheless these beings are not wholly malevolent. it is held that in some way their presence in the house brings prosperity to it, especially in the form of good crops; and so essential to the welfare of the house are the heads held to be that, if through fire a house has lost its heads and has no occasion for war, the people will beg a head, or even a fragment of one, from some friendly house, and will instal it in their own with the usual ceremonies.

The TOH of the heads are but a few among many that are conceived as surrounding the houses and infesting the tombs, the rivers, the forests, the mountains, the caves, and, by those who live near the coast, the sea; in fact every locality has its TOH, and, since they are easily offended and roused to bring harm, the people are careful to avoid offence and to practise every rite by which it is thought possible to propitiate them. Death and sickness, especially madness, accidental bodily injuries, failure of crops, in fact almost any trouble may be ascribed to the malevolent action of Toh. Examples of the way conduct is influenced by this belief are the following: --

In clearing a patch of jungle in preparation for sowing PADI, it is usual to leave a few trees standing on some high point of the ground in order not to offend the TOH of the locality by depriving them of all the trees, which they are vaguely supposed to make use of as resting-places. Such trees are sometimes stripped of all their branches save a few at the top; and sometimes a pole is lashed across the stem at a height from the ground and bunches of palm leaves hung upon it; a "bull-roarer," which is used by boys as a toy, is sometimes hung upon such a cross-piece to dangle and flicker in the breeze.[104]

Again, young children are held to be peculiarly subject to the malevolent influence of the TOH. We have already mentioned that no name is given to a child until it is two or three years of age, in order to avoid attracting to it the attention of the TOH. For the same reason the parents dislike any prominent person to touch an infant; and if for any reason such contact has taken place, it is usual to give the mother a few beads, which she ties about the wrist or ankle of the child, "to preserve its homely smell" as they say, and so, it would seem, avoid the risk of the TOH being attracted by the unusual odour of the child. Parents who have lost several young children will give to a child, when the time comes for naming it, some such name as TAI (dung), or TAI MANOK (birds' dung), or JAAT (bad), in order that it may have a better chance of escaping the unwelcome attention of the TOH. If for any reason it is suspected that the attention of some evil-disposed TOH has been drawn to a child (and the same practice is sometimes observed by adults under similar circ.u.mstances), a sooty mark is made upon the forehead, consisting of a vertical median line and a horizontal band just above the eyebrows. This is thought to render it difficult for the TOH to recognise his victim. Such a black mark is worn more especially on going away from the house. Sea Dayaks sometimes go farther under such circ.u.mstances. They place the new-born child in a small boat and allow it to float down river, and standing upon the bank call upon all the evil spirits to take the child at once, if they mean to take it, in order that the parents may be spared the greater bereavement of losing it some years later. If, after floating some distance down stream, the child is found unhurt, it is carried home, the parents feeling some confidence that it will be "spared" to grow up

Again, on going to the territory of people who have recently come to friendly terms with their village, men will make a black mark across the forehead with soot in order to disguise themselves from the TOH of this region. In the main, although all regions are infested with TOH those of the locality in which a man dwells are regarded by him as less dangerous than those of other parts; for experience has shown him that in the neighbourhood of his own village he may behave in certain ways with impunity, whereas in distant regions all is uncertain. It is for this reason that, when boys enter any river or branch of the river for the first time, a special rite is performed. An old man will take them apart from the company to some spot on the bank of the river, and, calling all the spirits of the place, will ask them to favour the boys and to give them vigorous life. An egg (which on this occasion is spoken of only by the name OVE = sweet potato) is offered to the spirits on behalf of each boy (or sometimes merely a fowl's feather) by placing it in the split end of a bamboo stick thrust into the ground. Not until this rite has been performed are the boys considered to be safe in the strange region.

The more remote and inaccessible the region, the more are the TOH of it feared; rugged hill tops and especially mountain tops are the abodes of especially dangerous TOH, and it was only with difficulty that parties of men could be induced to accompany us to the summits of any of the mountains.

The influence of the TOH is not always pernicious; certain spots become credited with the presence of TOH of benign influence. Thus, tradition relates of a streamlet (Telang Ading) falling over the rocky bank of the Baram river some little distance below the mouth of the AKAR, that a wild pig recently killed with spears fell into it and was allowed to lie there, and that after a little while it jumped up and made off Through this event the streamlet has acquired a great reputation, and pa.s.sing boats generally stop in order that the crews may splash some of the water on their heads and faces, and so be cured of any ailments they may happen to have at the time. These therapeutic effects are attributed to the TOH of the stream.

The TOH play a considerable part in regulating conduct; for they are the powers that bring misfortunes upon a whole house or village when any member of it ignores tabus or otherwise breaks customs, without performing the propitiatory rites demanded by the occasion. Thus on them, rather than on the G.o.ds, are founded the effective sanctions of prohibitive rules of conduct. For the propitiation of offended TOH fowls' eggs and the blood of fowls and of young pigs are used, the explanations and apologies being offered generally by the chief or some other influential person, while the blood is sprinkled on the culprit or other source of offence.

The beliefs and practices of the Kenyahs and Klemantans in regard to spirits of this cla.s.s are very similar to those of the Kayans. They designate them by the same general name, TOH.

We are doubtful whether the Sea Dayaks can properly be said to have any religion. They believe in a number of mythical and legendary heroes in whose honour they indulge in heavy feasting; but none of these seem to be credited with the attributes of a G.o.d, or to evoke on the part of the people the specifically religious emotions and att.i.tudes -- awe, reverence, supplication, trust, grat.i.tude, and hope. Their cult of the PETARA seems to show traces of Javanese and Hindu influence or origin. They believe in a mult.i.tude of ill-defined spirits which they speak of as ANTU, and towards which their att.i.tude is very similar to that of the Kayans towards the TOH. Some further account of Iban superst.i.tions will be found in Chapter XV.

CHAPTER 14

Ideas of the Soul Ill.u.s.trated by Burial Customs, Soul-Catching, and Exorcism