Chapter VI

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LAND DAYAKS--_Continued_.

Religion--Belief in Supreme Being--Traces of
Hinduism--Sacrifices--Pamali or Interdict--Mr. Chalmers’s
Account of the Dayak Religion--A Future State--Spirits by
Nature--Ghosts of Departed Men--Transformations--Catching
the Soul--Conversion of the Priest to Christianity--Story--Other
Ghosts--Custom of Pamali, or Taboo--Sacrifices--Things
and Actions Interdicted--Not to Eat Horned Animals--Reasons for
not Eating Venison--Of Snakes--The Living Principle--Causes of
Sickness--Spirits Blinding the Eyes of Men--Incantations to
Propitiate or Foil the Spirits of Evil--Catching the Soul--Feasts
and Incantations connected with Farming Operations--The
Blessing of the Seed--The Feast of First Fruits--Securing
the Soul of the Rice--Exciting Night Scene--The Harvest
Home--Singular Ceremony--Head Feasts--Offering the Drinking
Cup--Minor Ceremonies--Images--Dreams--Love--Journeys
of the Soul--Warnings in Sleep--Magic
Stones--Anecdote--Ordeals--Omens--Birds of Omen--Method
of Consulting them--Beneficial Effects of the Head
Feasts--Languages of the Land Dayaks--Deer--The
Sibuyaus free from Prejudice--Story of the Cobra de
Capella--Names--Change of Name--Prohibited Degrees of
Affinity--Heights--Medical Knowledge--Priests and
Priestesses--Origin of the latter--Their
Practices--Manufactures--Agriculture--Story of the Origin
of Rice--The Pleiades 168