Religion.—This principally consists of a number of superstitious observances. They are given up to the fear of ghosts; and in the propitiation of these by small offerings and certain ceremonies consists the principal part of their worship. But though this is the case, I am quite convinced that they have a firm, though not clear belief in the existence of one Supreme Being, who is above all, and over all; and in this lies the best hope of the missionary. If we could trace back the origin of their superstitions, we should probably find that many of their inferior spirits are simply heroes of old who have assumed the form of demigods; in fact, all my inquiries among the wild tribes confirm me in the opinion that they believe in a Supreme Being. I have mentioned in my Limbang Journal old Japer saying,—“When I speak of the God of the Pakatan tribe, I mean Him who made the heavens, the earth, and man.” I have always thought that the three inferior spirits mentioned by Mr. Chalmers in the extract I will give, Tenabi, Iang, and Jirong are merely agents of Tapa, and occasionally their subordinate position is overlooked by the Dayak narrators. It reminds one of the three powers in the Hindu religion, “Brahma,” “Vishnu,” and “Siva,” issuing from the Godhead Bram—and, in the Dayak religion, “Tenabi,” the maker of the material world; Iang, the Instructor, and Jirong, the Renovator and Destroyer, emanating from the Godhead Tapa, the great Creator and Preserver. Before proceeding, I will give the substance of Mr. Chalmers’s account of the religion of the Land Dayaks; I may also premise by saying, that the Sarawak Land Dayaks call their God “Tapa,” the Silakaus and Laras “Jewata,” and the Sibuyaus, “Batara.”

In common with many other barbarous tribes, their religious system relates principally to this life. They are like the rest of mankind, continually liable to physical evils, poverty, misfortune, sickness, and these they try to avert from themselves by the practice of ancient customs which are supposed to be effectual for the purpose. This system may be classed as follows:—

The killing of pigs and fowls, the flesh of which is eaten, small portions being set aside with rice for the spiritual powers; and from the blood mixed with spittle, turmeric, and cocoa-nut water, a filthy mess is concocted, and called physic, with which the people attending the feast are anointed on the head and face. Dancing by the elders and the priestesses about a kind of bamboo altar, erected on these occasions either in the long room or on the exterior platform of one of the houses, round which the offerings are placed, always accompanied by the beating of all the gongs and drums of the tribe by the young lads, and singing, or rather chanting, by the priestesses. The “pamali,” or taboo of an apartment, house, or village for one, two, four, eight, and even sixteen days, during which in the case of a village, no stranger can enter it, in the case of a house, no one beside the families residing therein, and in the case of an apartment no one out of the family.

It cannot be denied that they have some belief in the Supreme God who is called “Tapa,” the Creator or Maker, though their idea of Him as a moral governor is very hazy and confused. They possess also some glimmerings of a future existence, though scarcely any idea of a future state of rewards and punishments. The following are a few particulars of the Dayak theology.

There are four chief spirits: “Tapa,” who created men and women, and preserves them in life; “Tenabi,” who made the earth, and, except the human race, all things therein, and still causes it to flourish; “Iang,” or “Iing,” who first instructed the Dayaks in the mysteries of their religion, and who superintends its performance; “Jirong,” who looks after the propagation of the human species, and also causes them to die of sickness or accident. “Iang” is frequently associated with “Tapa,” and “Tapa Iang” often stands for the Supreme Being.

An intelligent man of the tribe Setang, gave another account. He says that “Tapa” and “Tenabi” are but different names for the same Great Being, and that with Him is associated “Jirong,” the Lord of birth and death. That when Tapa made the world, he first created “Iang,” then the spirits “Triu” and “Komang,” and then man. That man and the spirits were at first equal, and fought on fair terms, but that on one woful occasion, the spirits got the better of man, and rubbed charcoal in his eyes, which made him no longer able to see his spirit foes, except in the case of certain gifted persons, as the priest, and so placed him at their mercy.

With respect to a future state, the common Dayak story is that when a man dies, he becomes a spirit, and lives in the jungle, or (this Mr. Chalmers heard in one of the dead body burning tribes) that as the smoke of the funeral pile of a good man rises, the soul ascends with it to the sky, and that the smoke from the pile of a wicked man descends, and his soul with it is borne down to the earth, and through it to the regions below. Another version is, that when a man dies a natural death, his soul on leaving the body becomes a spirit, and haunts the place of burial or burning. When a spirit dies, for spirits too, it would seem, are subject unto death, it enters the hole of Hades, and coming out thence again becomes a Bejawi. In course of time the “Bejawi” dies, and lives once more as a “Begutur;” but when a “Begutur” dies, the spiritual essence of which it consists, enters the trunks of trees, and may be seen there damp and blood-like in appearance, and has a personal and sentient existence no longer.

I have introduced this account, and it is curious to trace in it a similarity to the Budhist religion professed in Siam. There, they believe that after passing through many and various transmigrations, they will, as the last and best existence, sink into “neiban” and be lost to all sense, and fade away without retaining personality any longer.

With regard to a future state, the Dayaks point to the highest mountain in sight as the abode of their departed friends.

The spirits are divided into two classes, “Umot,” spirits by nature, and “Mino,” as I understood it to be, ghosts of departed men.

Umot.—The “Trui” and “Komang” live amid the noble old forest on the tops of lofty hills. They delight in war and bloodshed, and always come down to be present at the Dayak “head feasts.” They are described as of a fierce and wild appearance, being covered with coarse red hair like an orang-utan. By some the “Komang” are said to be the spirits of departed heroes, associated after death for their valour with the war-loving “Trui.” “Umot Sisi” is a harmless kind of spirit which follows the Dayak, to look for the fragments of food which have fallen through the open flooring of their houses, and who is heard at night munching away below. “Umot Perubak” cause scarcity among the Dayaks, by coming invisibly and eating the rice from the pot at mealtime; their appetite is insatiable. “Umot Perusong” and “Tibong” come slily and devour the rice which is stored within a receptacle made of the bark of some gigantic tree, and is in the form of a vat. It is kept in the garrets of the houses, and a large one will contain a hundred and fifty bushels, and the family live in constant fear that these voracious spirits will visit their store and entirely consume it.

“Mino Buau” are the ghosts of those who have been killed in war. These are very vicious and inimical to the living;—they dwell in the jungle, and have the power of assuming the form of beasts or headless men. A Quop Dayak declared he met with one. He was walking through the jungle, and saw what he thought was a squirrel sitting on the large roots of a tree which overhung a small stream. He had a spear in his hand, this he threw at the squirrel, and thought he had struck it; he ran towards the spot at which it had apparently fallen, when to his horror it faced him, rose up, and was transformed into a dog. The dog walked on a few paces, and then turning into a human shape, sat slowly down on the trunk of a fallen tree—head there was none. The spectre body was parti-coloured, and at the top drawn up to a point. The Dayak was smitten with a great fear, and away he rushed home and fell into a violent fever; the priest was called, and he pronounced that the patient’s soul had been summoned away from its corporeal abiding place by the spirit; so he went to seek it, armed with his magic charms. Midway between the village and place where the “Buau” had appeared, the fugitive soul was overtaken and induced to pause, and having been captured by the priest, was brought back to its body, and poked into its place through an invisible hole in the head: the next day the fever was gone.

This shows how the priests practise on the ignorance and superstition of the people. Mr. Gomez, aware of it, used his utmost efforts to convert the principal “Manang” or priest of the Lundu branch of the “Sibuyaus,” and succeeded; since then there have been many baptized. This, however, is not the principal effect; he has enlisted the learned man on his side instead of against him, and I have little doubt of his ultimately winning over the whole tribe of that section of Sea Dayaks.

Some accuse the Buau of being occasionally guilty of running off with women. In former times, a wife named Temunyan was, in her husband’s absence, carried off. On his return he searched for, and found the spirit, slew him by a trick and recovered his wife; not, however, until she had suffered violation. She was pregnant by the Buau, and in due time she brought forth a son—a horrible monster, which her enraged husband chopped up into small pieces; and these immediately turned into leeches, with which the jungles are to this day unpleasantly infested.

“Mino Pajabun.”—These are the ghosts of those who meet with an accidental death. Their name seems to be derived from a Dayak word meaning “To long for,” because it is said they pass their time in useless wailings over their hard fate.

“Mino Kok Anak.”—The spirits of women who have died in childbed. They delight to mount high trees, and to startle belated Dayaks by horrible noises as they are hurrying home in the twilight. There is also a ghost or spirit—whether “Mino” or “Umot,” I have not ascertained—known to the “Peninjaus,” which lives amid the holes of the rocks on the hills; it is called “Sedying,” and on a rainy day may be heard in its cave shivering and bemoaning as if suffering from the ague.

I have already mentioned that the custom “pamali,” called by the Land Dayak “porikh,” obtains among all the tribes, and is constantly practised. To propitiate the superior spirits, they shut themselves up in their houses a certain number of days, and by that, among other means, hope to avert sickness, to cure a favourite child, or to restore their own health. They also have recourse to it when the cry of the gazelle is heard behind them, or when their omen birds utter unfavourable warnings. They likewise place themselves under this interdict at the planting of rice, at harvest home, and upon many other occasions. During this time, they appear to remain in their houses, in order to eat, drink, and sleep; but their eating must be moderate, and often consists of nothing but rice and salt. These interdicts are of very different durations and importance. Sometimes, as at the harvest home, the whole tribe is compelled to observe it, and then no one must leave the village; at other times it only extends to a family, or to a single individual. It is also considered important that no stranger should break the taboo by entering the village, the house, or the apartment, placed under interdict. If any one should do so intentionally, he would subject himself to a fine.

The taboo lasts from one to sixteen days, according to the importance attached to the event. The animals used in the sacrifice are fowls and pigs, and I hear also that even dogs in certain tribes are occasionally employed. The fowls and pigs are eaten, but the dogs not, the blood only being required in their incantations. When a fowl is killed a taboo may last one, two, or four days; when a pig—and then it is usually a very important occasion—the ceremony may last four, eight, or sixteen days.

People under interdict may not bathe, touch fire, or employ themselves about their ordinary occupations. In conversation you continually hear even the Malays say, “It is pamali,” or interdicted by their superstitions, but if contrary to their religion they say “haram.”

I will notice a few things which the Dayaks consider must not be done by them; for instance, most are not allowed to eat the flesh of horned animals, as cattle and goats, and many tribes extend the prohibition to the wild deer. In their refusal to touch the flesh of cows and bulls they add another illustration of the theory that their religion is indirectly derived from the Hindu, or if not actually derived, greatly influenced by their intercourse with its disciples. They say that some of their ancestors, in the transmigration of souls, were formerly metamorphosed into these animals; and they slily, or innocently add, that the reason why the Mahomedan Malays will not touch pork is, that they are afraid to eat their forefathers, who were changed into the unclean animal. It has often struck me that the origin of many of their superstitions arose from the greediness of the elders; as in some of the tribes they, together with the women and children, but not the sturdy young men, may eat eggs. In other instances the very old men and the women may eat of the flesh of the deer, while the young men and warriors of the tribe are debarred from venison for fear it should render them as timid as the graceful hind.

The taboo which prevents certain families from consuming the flesh of snakes and other kinds of reptiles, most probably arose from some incident in the life of one of their ancestors, in which the rejected beast played a prominent part. It is religiously forbidden to all those intending to engage in a pig-hunt from meddling with oil before the chase, for fear the game should thus slip through their fingers. I may add, if a certain kind of bird flies through a house the inhabitants desert it; as they likewise do if a drop of blood be seen sprinkled on the floor, unless they can prove whence it came.

In addition to the incantations (Beruri) which accompany every feast (Gawei), there are special ones on occasions of sickness both in men and rice. The Dayak idea of life is this, that in mankind, animals, and rice there is a living principle called “semungat” or “semungi;” that sickness is caused by the temporary absence, and death by the total departure of this principle from the body. Hence the object of their ceremonies is to bring back the departed souls; and some of the feasts are held to secure the soul of the rice, which, if not so detained, the produce of their farms would speedily rot and decay. At sowing time, a little of the principle of life of the rice, which at every harvest is secured by their priests, is planted with their other seeds, and is thus propagated and communicated.

Sickness among mankind is occasionally caused by spirits inflicting on people invisible wounds with invisible spears; indeed, they themselves sometimes enter men’s bodies and drive out the soul. As a rule, to be ill is to have been smitten by a spirit,[8] for it is these implacable foes of mankind who under all circumstances entice forth and endeavour to carry away the souls of men. If any one in his wanderings through the jungle is wounded or killed by the spring traps[9] set near the farms to destroy pigs who may attempt to break through into the fields, it is because the spirit of the trap has caused darkness to pass over his eyes, so that he should not see the regular warning mark, consisting of two bamboos crossed, which tells of the neighbourhood of danger.

To return, however, to the incantations by which the inimical spirits are propitiated or foiled in their machinations. They are three: “Nyibaiyan,” or the ceremony for restoring health. At this only one fowl is killed; two priestesses are the actors, and they spend their time chanting monotonously; the taboo lasts two nights. The invalid and the person who prepares the magic ointment (a near relative of the patient) are the only persons subject to its restraints.

“Berobat Pinya” is also for sickness. At this one priest and four or five priestesses attend, the interdict lasts four days, and one pig and one fowl are killed. Outside the door of the family apartment in which the incantation is held are gathered together, in a winnowing basket, an offering of fowls, yams, and pork, fowl and pig’s blood in a cup, boiled rice and sirih-leaf, and areca-nut: these are for the various spirits. On the first day of the incantation two priestesses pretend to fight with each other with drawn swords, which they wave and slash about in so furious a manner, as at once to put to flight the trembling ghost. After this display of valour, chanting begins, accompanied by the music of a small gong and a drum, the latter beaten by the priest; this continues for a day and night. Towards midnight he proceeds to get the soul of the patient. Carefully wrapping up a small cup in a white cloth, he places it amidst the offerings before mentioned, then, with a torch in one hand and a circlet of beads and tinkling hawk bells in the other, he stalks about shaking his charms. After a little time he orders one of the admiring spectators to look in the cup previously wrapped up in white cloth, and sure enough there the soul always is, in the form of a bunch of hair to vulgar eyes, but to the initiated in shape and appearance like a miniature human being. This is supposed to be thrust into a hole in the top of the patient’s head, invisible to all but the learned man. He has thus recovered the man’s soul, or, as it may be called, the principle of life that was departing from him.

The Land Dayaks of Sarawak say they have only one soul; the “Sibuyaus” talk of several; but their souls, as shown by the priest to the friends of the patient, bear a suspicious resemblance to the seeds of the cotton plant.

“Berobat Sisab” has a similar aim to the above. At this, one priest, but no priestess, is present. The priest first makes a bamboo altar[10] in the common verandah outside the door of the patient’s room, round which are placed offerings, and a pig and a fowl are killed. The interdict lasts for eight days. For two there is beating of gongs and drums, and dancing by the man who makes the charm, usually some relation of the sick person. On the first night the soul is recovered, and the patient washed in the milk of the cocoa-nut. I have often been present when these ceremonies were going on; it is astonishing that any patient should recover, stunned as he must be by the beating and clanging of these ear-splitting instruments close to him. It has effectually prevented my closing my eyes; and the melancholy wail of the priestesses is sufficient, one would imagine, to drive hope itself from the bedside of the sufferer.

The feasts and incantations connected with farming operations are as follows:—First, in the midst of cutting down the jungle; second, when it is set on fire. These are small affairs, the interdict lasting but one day, and only a fowl being killed. They are called “Mekapau,” only one gong and one drum are beaten; and also “nyirañgan,” because a bamboo altar is built by the roadside, and upon it a small offering of rice and blood is placed for the spirit. The second feast is to drive away all evil influences from the earth, when ready for the seed.

The third feast[11] is the blessing of the seed before planting. It is brought out, and the priestesses wave over it their flat brush-like wands, which consist of the undeveloped fruit of the areca palm, stripped of its sheath, and is in itself one of the prettiest objects in the world, and in its natural bursting spreads around the parent stem a delicious perfume that scents a whole grove. They thus expel all malign influences; the interdict lasts two nights, one fowl is killed, and there is music and dancing.

During the growth of the rice, if the rats be making havoc among it, or the pale green leaf appear blighted, there are similar ceremonies to awe the vermin, and charm back the colour to the plant. But the harvest feasts are the great days; there are three:—The feast of first fruits,[12] when the priestesses, accompanied by a gong and a drum, go in procession to the farms and gather several bunches of the ripe padi. These are brought back to the village, washed in cocoa-nut water, and laid round a bamboo altar, which at the harvest feasts is erected in the common room of the largest house, and decorated with white cloth and red streamers, so as to present a very gay appearance, and is hung around with the sweet-smelling blossom of the areca palm. This feast and interdict last two days; only fowls are killed; dancing and gong-beating go on night and day; and when it is over, the Dayaks may set themselves to repair their bamboo platforms outside the houses, on which the rice is trodden out from the ear, and then dried in the sun. They may now also gather in their crops.

The second feast[13] is a more important affair: it is held about the middle of harvest, and lasts four days; fowls and a pig are killed, and dancing and beating of gongs go on almost continually. The first part of this feast is celebrated, not in the village, but in a shed at some distance from it, frequently built by the roadside, and sometimes on the very summits of the hills on which the villages are situated. Although strangers are forbidden to approach the place during these ceremonies, yet at Sirambau I have often been invited to be present during this and the other feasts. They choose a lovely spot for the erection of their shed, which is tastefully decorated with green boughs and climbing plants, and situated under the loftiest fruit-trees I have ever seen; and here as in other villages, around the spot where the shed was erected were planted yellow bamboos, and their golden tapering stems and graceful feathery tufts are a charming and pleasing contrast to the rude leaf walls and roof of the neighbouring building.

At this, and at the third and last harvest feast, the soul of the rice is secured. The way of obtaining it varies in different tribes. In the Quop district it is done by the chief-priest alone; first, in the long and broad verandah where the altar is erected, and afterwards in each separate family apartment. Sometimes it is performed by day, sometimes by night; and the process is this: the priest, fixing his eyes on some object visible only to him, takes in one hand his bundle of charms and in the other a second composed of pigs’ and bears’ and dogs’ tusks and teeth, and large opaque-coloured beads; a little gold dust is also necessary in this ceremony, during which he calls aloud for white cloth; when it is brought and spread before him, he waves his charms towards the invisible object in the air, and then shakes it over the white cloth, into which there fall a few grains of rice, which Tapa, in reward for their offerings and invocations, sends down to them. This is the soul, and it is immediately wrapped up with great care and laid among the offerings around the altar.

The gold dust and white cloth are generally furnished at their earnest request by the government, as the Dayaks think it exercises a beneficial effect to receive it from white men. It used to be supplied by the Malay rulers.

In some tribes it is a far more exciting spectacle, especially when done at night. A large shed is erected outside the village, and lighted by huge fires inside and out, which cast a ruddy glow over the dense mass of palms surrounding the houses; while gongs and drums are crashing around a high and spacious altar near the shed, where a number of gaily-dressed men and women are dancing with slow and stately step and solemn countenances, some bearing in their hands lighted tapers, some brass salvers on which are offerings of rice, and others closely covered baskets, the contents of which are hidden from all but the initiated. The corner-posts of the altar are lofty bamboos, whose leafy summits are yet green and rustic in the wind; and from one of these hangs down a long, narrow streamer of white cloth. Suddenly elders and priests rush to it, seize hold of its extremity, and amid the crashing sound of drums and gongs and the yells of spectators, begin dancing and swaying themselves backwards and forwards, and to and fro. An elder springs on the altar, and begins violently to shake the tall bamboos, uttering as he does so shouts of triumph, which are responded to by the swaying bodies of those below; and amid all this excitement, small stones, bunches of hair and grains of rice, fall at the feet of the dancers, and are carefully picked up by watchful attendants. The rice is the soul sought for, and the ceremony ends by several of the oldest priestesses falling, or pretending to fall, to the earth senseless; where, till they recover, their heads are supported and their faces fanned by their younger sisters.

The third feast[14] is held after the end of the harvest, when the year’s crop has been carefully stowed away. A pig and fowls are killed, for four days gong-beating and dancing are kept up, and the taboo lasts for eight days. Sometimes no stranger may approach the village for sixteen days. At this period also the soul of the rice is likewise secured, which is to ensure the non-rotting of the crop. At this feast there is a general physicking of the children. They are washed with cocoa-nut water, and then laid down in a row in the common room where the feast is held, and scarcely suffered to move about for four days. At this time also the elder priestesses physic their younger sisters, and children of a tender age are entered among the number of this learned and accomplished body; partly because admission into it is supposed to secure them against violent sickness. For each one who is now to be initiated, a young cocoa-nut is obtained, and their elder sisters cause those on whom they are to exercise their power to lie down in a line along the room, and to cover themselves with long sleeping sheets. The cocoa-nuts belonging to the patients are then taken into the hands of the priestesses, and with them they run violently about the long room, tossing them up and down and to and fro. In some villages they are rolled in soot and oil, and then kicked furiously about from one priestess to the other. During this part of the process the room presents a curious scene. Here some six or seven gaily-dressed women are rushing frantically up and down, tossing in their hands the heavy young cocoa-nuts; there a dozen old women are moving to and fro on a rude swing suspended from the rafters, and howling dolefully round the altar. A number of others are shrieking and dancing; while from the farther end of the room beyond the line of prostrate patients resounds a clatter of gongs and drums, beaten as vigorously as twenty pair of young hands can apply themselves to the work.

One by one the old priestesses cease their wild running backwards and forwards, and each in succession presents herself before an elder of the tribe, who stands, chopper in hand, over a mortar, into the hollow of which each in turn places her cocoa-nut. With one blow the old man splits the nut, and out gushes the water. If it simply fall into the mortar, the prospect is good, but if it shoot up towards the roof, then evil is the lot of the patient whose cocoa-nut it may be, for there is sickness before her in the coming year. When a cocoa-nut is split, she to whom it belongs is raised from her recumbent position and the water is poured over her; she is then laid down again and carefully wrapped up in her sheet. When all have been so treated a lighted taper is waved over the prostrate, motionless patients, and a form of words chanted, and then the ceremony is concluded by the head priestess going round and blowing into the face of each of the patients; after which they are allowed to chatter and amuse themselves, but are confined to the long room, in company with the elders and such of the children as had been previously subjected to the ceremony, until the close of the interdict.

Head Feasts.—These are held only after some new heads have been added to the ghastly trophies of the bachelor’s house; consequently among the Dayaks of Sarawak there has not been a feast for many years, except those celebrated over the heads of the rebellious Chinese killed in 1857, who, confident in their fire-arms, attempted to capture the villages on the mountain, their chief object being to burn down Sir James Brooke’s cottage. They offered to cease their attack if the Dayaks would put fire to it themselves; but they refused, and defended their steep paths by the aid of barricades. The Chinese were foiled and driven back to the plain, and were pursued by the mountaineers, who inflicted heavy loss upon them. Chinese heads, however, are esteemed of little value in comparison with those of their ancient enemies. The head feast is the great day of the young bachelors. The head-house and village are decorated with green boughs, and the heads to be feasted are brought out from their very airy position, being hung from one of the beams, where they rattle together at every breath of wind, and are put into a rice measure in some very prominent place. The whole population are robed in their best, the young men in red jackets, yellow and red head-dresses, and gay waist-cloths or trousers.

For four days and four nights an almost incessant beating of gongs and drums is kept up, and dances are performed by the young men only. The priestesses are decked out in their usual style, but upon this occasion their occupation is gone. Strong drinks, made from rice or the fruit of the tampui-tree, and also from the gomuti palm, flow freely; shrieks, yells, laughter, and shoutings, are heard in all directions, and the whole village seems given up to riot and dissipation. The interdict lasts eight days, two pigs are killed, and as many fowls as they can afford. An offering of food is made to the heads, and their spirits, being thus appeased, cease to entertain malice against, or to seek to inflict injury upon, those who have got possession of the skull which formerly adorned the now forsaken body.

A curious custom prevails among the young men at this feast. They cut a cocoa-nut shell into the form of a cup, and adorn it with red and black dye. Into one side of it they fasten a rudely carved likeness of a bird’s head, and into the other the representation of its tail. The cup is filled with arrack, and the possessor performs a short wild dance with it in his hands, and then with a yell leaps before some chosen companion, and presents it to him to drink. Thus the “loving cup” is passed around among them, and it need not be said that the result is in many cases partial, though seldom excessive, intoxication.

Before leaving the subject of feasts and incantations, I will mention some of their occasional ceremonies. They perform some on account of a bad dream, any threatening evil, or because of actual sickness; sometimes also by way of precaution, but this is only after harvest when they have nothing better to do. The theory of their ceremonies appears to be this: that the offering of food made to the spirits assuages their malice and secures their departure, these spirits being considered the proximate cause of nearly all the evils to which they are subjected.

The minor ceremonies are called “nyirañgan,” because a bamboo altar[15] is erected by the roadside, and a fowl killed near it, part of which, with rice and betel-nut, is offered upon it: the taboo is only for a day. If any one meets with an accidental death in the jungle, a ceremony is gone through near the spot; at this a pig is occasionally killed, but in all such cases the taboo lasts only one day. If during farming time a tree fall across the path, a ceremony is held, and all whose farms are in that direction are tabooed. If during harvest the basket into which the ears of rice are cut be upset, a fowl is killed, and the family to whom the basket belongs is tabooed. Again, when the Government rice-tax is paid, there is a ceremony. On this occasion a shed is erected just at the entrance to the village, and in addition to the offerings of food, it is hung with a number of split cocoa-nut shells, which the spirits are supposed to appropriate as gongs.

Images.—Although the Dayaks adhere with great strictness to the command not to make any graven image for purposes of worship, yet in some tribes they are in the habit of forming a rude figure of a naked man and woman, which they place opposite to each other on the path to the farms. On their heads are head-dresses of bark, by their sides is the betel-nut basket, and in their hands a short wooden spear. These figures are said to be inhabited each by a spirit who prevents inimical influences from passing on to the farms, and likewise from the farms to the village, and evil betide the profane wretch who lifts his hand against them,—violent fever and sickness are sure to follow.

Among the tribes of Western Sarawak the priestesses have made for them rude figures of birds. At the great harvest feasts they are hung up in bunches of ten or twenty in the long common room, carefully veiled with coloured handkerchiefs. They are supposed to become inhabited by spirits, and it is forbidden for any one to touch them, except the priestesses.

Dreams.—The Dayaks regard dreams as actual occurrences. They think that in sleep the soul sometimes remains in the body, and sometimes leaves it and travels far away, and that both when in and out of the body it sees, and hears, and talks, and altogether has a prescience given it, which, when the body is in its natural state, it does not enjoy. Fainting fits, or a state of coma, are thought to be caused by the departure or absence of the soul on some distant expedition of its own. When any one dreams of a distant land, as we exiles often do, the Dayaks think that our souls have annihilated space, and paid a flying visit to Europe during the night. Elders and priestesses often assert that in their dreams they have visited the mansion of Tapa, and seen the Creator dwelling in a house like that of a Malay, the interior of which was adorned with guns and gongs and jars innumerable, Himself being clothed like a Dayak.

A dream of sickness to any member of a family always ensures a ceremony; and no one presumes to enter the priesthood, or to learn the art of a blacksmith, without being, or pretending to be, warned in a dream that he should undertake to learn it. I have known a man with only two children give his younger child to another who was no relation, because he dreamed that he must give it to him or the child would die.

In dreams also “Tapa” and the spirits bestow gifts on men in the shape of magic stones, which, being washed in cocoa-nut milk, the water forms one of the ingredients in the mass of blood and turmeric which is considered sacred, and is used to anoint the people at the harvest feasts. They are ordinary black pebbles, and there is nothing in their appearance to give an idea of their magic power and value. The ones in the Quop village were procured in a dream by the late “Orang Kaya Bai Malam,” in order to replace those lost in the civil wars which desolated the country before Sir James Brooke’s arrival. He dreamt that a spirit came unto him and gave him a number of these sacred stones; and lo! when he awoke, they were in his hand. In some villages they are kept in a rude kind of wooden bowl covered and fastened down, then fixed to the top of an iron-wood post in the middle of the outside platform. In others they are deposited in a small house built in the jungle, at some distance from the village, and all around it is sacred. I will relate an anecdote Mr. Chalmers told me:—

A Quop woman who had turned Malay was staying at her village when the clergyman was there; he had a number of coloured-glass marbles, and one of these this woman got hold of, and no doubt thought it very strange and wonderful. Next morning, when she awoke, she called loudly for white cloth, declaring at the same time that the late Orang Kaya had appeared to her in the night and given her a sacred stone, at the same time producing the marble, and expected, no doubt, a good price for it from the Dayaks. But they are wiser now than of yore, and would have nothing to do with it; and the young fellows, hearing how she had procured the marble, teased her on the subject until her departure.

Ordeals.—One of the ordeals practised among them is the following: When a quarrel takes place which the elders find it impossible to settle, from conflicting evidence, the disputants are taken to a deep pool in a neighbouring stream, and both standing up to their necks in the water, at given signals plunge their heads below the surface: the first that rises to take breath, loses the case. Among the Land Dayaks, these ceremonies are not often practised. Another is by listening to the night-birds: if their cry be such as to be considered a favourable omen, the accused is declared not guilty; if a bad omen, he is pronounced guilty and must pay the fine demanded of him. The most common ordeal, however, is this: two wax tapers of equal size and length are prepared, they are lighted, and the owner of the one that is first extinguished, or burnt out, loses his case.

Omens.—If a man be going on a war expedition, and has a slip during his first day’s journey, he must return to his village, especially if by the accident blood be drawn, for then, should he proceed, he has no prospect but wounds or death. If the accident occur during a long expedition, he must return to his last night’s resting-place. In some tribes, if a deer cry near a party who are setting out on a journey they will return. When going at night to the jungle, if the scream of a hawk, or an owl, or of a small kind of frog be heard, it is a sign that sickness will follow if the design be pursued; and, again, if the screech of the two former be heard in front of a party on the warpath, it is an evil sign, and they must return. Omens derived from the cry of birds are always sought previously to setting out on a journey, and before fixing on a spot to build new houses, or to prepare their farms.

The birds which give the omen for a journey are three, the “Kushah,” “Kariak,” and “Katupung.” The traveller goes to a spot near the village where the feast sheds are usually erected, and sometimes a stage of bambu is also made ready for the purpose. There he waits till he hears the ofttimes long-awaited cries. When the “Kushah” or “Katupung” are heard on the right or the left only, or in front, no success will attend the journey; but if their cry be heard on the left and then answered on the right, the traveller may start in peace. The “Kariak’s” omen, however, is more important still. If heard on the right hand, the omen is good; if on the left, some slight inconvenience may follow; if behind, sickness or death awaits him in the place to which he is bound. How common is the saying used, “I had a bad bird,” to excuse every breach of engagement!

In house-building and farm-making all the birds of night are consulted. During the day, a place in the forest, which appears suitable, is fixed upon, and a small shed erected near. Some boiled rice, stained yellow with turmeric, and other offerings, are prepared, and at night a party takes them to the hut already built. This they enter, and an elder having invoked the spiritual powers, and cast the yellow rice in all directions, they await the omen. If a bird cry and twitter in front, and if it then fly past the hut towards the village, it is a good omen; but if the birds fly and alight near the hut, and there cry and twitter, evil and sickness await those who build or farm there, for many spirits have made that their dwelling-place.

The reason assigned for using these bird omens is that they are half Dayaks. Long ago, a spirit married a Dayak woman, and the result of the intercourse was the production of birds. These were tenderly cared for and cherished by the Dayaks, and, in return, from that time to this, they have ever warned their former protectors of impending evil, if duly consulted according to the customs which have descended to the tribes from their ancestors.

Having thus given a brief account of Dayak ceremonies, and feastings, and omens, I may conclude with a remark, that, of all the feasts and ceremonies, the most beneficial in its influence is the “Head Feast.” The object of them all is to make their rice grow well, to cause the forest to abound with wild animals, to enable their dogs and snares to be successful in securing game, to have the streams swarm with fish, to give health and activity to the people themselves, and to ensure fertility to their women. All these blessings, the possessing and feasting of a fresh head are supposed to be the most efficient means of securing. The very ground itself is believed to be benefited and rendered fertile, more fertile even than when the water in which fragments of gold, presented by the Rajah, have been washed, has been sprinkled over it; this latter charm, especially when mixed with the water which has been poured over the sacred stones, being, next to the possession of a newly acquired head, the greatest and the most powerful which the wisdom of the “men of old time” has devised for the benefit of their descendants. It may, therefore, be understood what importance Orang Kaya Mita attached to his request that permission should be given to him to seek another victim, and what influence he would have gained with the tribe had they secured these blessings by his means.

Language.—The vocabularies printed in the Appendix will, as Mr. Chalmers observes, show that there is a great affinity betwixt the Dayaks of Sarawak, Sadong, and some Sambas tribes. This connection is not so visible in the dialects of others, as, for instance, the Silakau tribe, who formerly lived on a stream of the same name between the Sambas and Pontianak. In the dialects of the Sea Dayaks, there are perhaps a few words radically the same as their correspondents in Land Dayak, but only a few which are not derived in common from Malay. In the dialect of the Dayaks of Banjermasin, I have also noticed words the same in form and meaning, but they are not very frequent.

My own experience has led me to the conviction that it is very difficult to draw any safe conclusion from the vocabularies generally collected, because the best are usually made through the medium of the Malay, and the worst by merely showing articles and guessing that the response is the name of the thing shown. I made a list of Bisaya words on the Limbang, another among the Idaán at the foot of “Kina Balu.” I was certain of a great affinity between the languages, as men from one tribe could freely converse with those of the other, though their dwellings were a hundred and fifty miles apart; but on comparing the written vocabularies, I found a surprising difference. Just before I left Borneo, I spoke to a Bisaya on the subject: he said, “Repeat me a few words of the Idaán that are different.” I did so. He answered, “I understand those words, but we don’t often use them,” and he instantly gave their meaning in Malay, to show that he did understand them.

My sudden and unexpected return to this country prevented my pursuing the investigation. I mention this circumstance to show that differences are often more apparent than real. Mr. Chalmers’s vocabularies are trustworthy, as he can speak the Land Dayak freely.

Deer.—The Dayaks of the Quop district do not refuse to eat deer. The custom of doing so, however, obtains in Western Sarawak, but chiefly in the Singgi tribe, and then only among the young men.

As will be found mentioned in my account of Samarahan, they do so because deer’s flesh produces in those who eat it faint hearts; and as I have elsewhere observed, the interdict on certain kinds of food to the young people is merely selfishness on the part of the elders to secure to themselves a greater share of articles that are not plentiful. The Silakau and Lara Dayaks who have emigrated from Sambas into Lundu, do not eat the flesh of the deer, from an opinion that they descended from Dayak ancestors, but Mr. Chalmers, in his experience of the Sarawak Land Dayak, never heard of any prejudice existing against killing or even eating any animals except the faint-heartedness supposed to be produced by venison; nor did he notice that the serpent had any sacred character. Many people eat it; some, however, refuse, considering it foul-feeding.

The Sibuyau Dayaks of Lundu, from their greater intercourse with Malays and Chinese, and from the advantages they have derived from local self-government, and freely trading with the surrounding districts, have lost most of their old superstitions, as I have noticed in my account of the Sea Dayaks: nor must I omit to mention that their intercourse with a succession of able European officers, and the constant presence among them of Mr. Gomez, a missionary of singular tact, have had a remarkable effect upon their characters, and rendered them a very superior tribe. They kill the cobra and other reptiles, but the Land Dayaks of Lundu, as well as the Silakaus, consider it wrong to destroy it. They say that in former times one of their female ancestors was pregnant for seven years, and ultimately brought forth twins, one a human being and the other a cobra de capella. They lived together for some time, the snake always keeping his head well out of the way for fear of hurting his brother with his venomous teeth, but allowing him to amuse himself with his tail. When they grew up the cobra left the house to dwell in the forest, but before leaving he told his mother to warn her children, that should, unfortunately, one of them be bitten by the hooded snake, not to run away, but remain a whole day at the spot where the injury was received, and the venom would have no poisonous effect. Not long after he was met in the forest by his brother, who, under the effect of surprise, drew his sword and smote off his tail, which accounts for that blunted appearance observable in all his brethren. The superstition of the snake curing the bite is believed; the wounded person being still allowed to remain twenty-four hours in the jungle. During my fourteen years’ residence in Borneo, I have only heard of two persons dying from the effects of snake bites.

Names:—

Names of Men.