1900] oil Influence of Superstition on Growth of Institutions. 457 



to sacrifice a pig and a goat ; after that they are made outcasts, for 

 their offence is inexpiable. 



The Battas of Sumatra, in Hke manner, think that if an unmarried 

 woman is found with child, she must be given in marriage at once, 

 even to a man of lower rank ; for otherwise the people will be infested 

 with tigers, and the crops in the fields will not be abundant. The 

 crime of incest, in their opinion, would blast the whole harvest, if the 

 wrong were not speedily repaired. Epidemics and other calamities 

 which affect the whole people are almost always traced by them to 

 incest, by which is to be understood any marriage that conflicts with 

 their customs. 



Similar views prevail among the tribes of Borneo. Thus in regard 

 to the Sea Dyaks we are told that immorality among the unmarried is 

 supposed to bring a plague of rain upon the earth as a punishment 

 inflicted by the god Petara. It must be atoned for with sacrifice and 

 fine, and the offenders are banished from their homes. The atone- 

 ment consists in purifying the earth with pig's blood, which appears 

 to many savages, as sheep's blood appeared to the ancient Hebrews, 

 to possess the valuable property of atoning for moral gilt. Not long 

 ago the offenders whose sin had thus brought the whole country into 

 danger would have been punished with death or at least slavery. 



The Bahau, another tribe in the interior of Borneo, believe that 

 adultery is punished by the spirits, who visit the whole tribe with 

 failure of the crops and other misfortunes. Hence, to avert these evil 

 consequences from the innocent members of the tribe, the two 

 culprits, with all their possessions, are placed on a gravel bank in the 

 middle of the river. Then pigs and fowls are killed, and with the 

 blood priestesses smear the property of the guilty pair in order to 

 disinfect it. Finally the two are placed on a raft and set floating 

 down the stream. 



Among the Macassars and Bugineese of Southern Celebes incest 

 is a capital crime : but the blood of the guilty pair may not be shed, 

 for the people think that, were the ground to be polluted by the 

 blood of sucli criminals, the rivers would dry up, and the supply of 

 fish would run short, the harvest and the produce of the gardens 

 would miscarry, edil)le fruits would fail, sickness would be rife among 

 cattle and horses, civil strife would break out, and the country would 

 suffer from other widespread calamities. Hence the punishment of 

 the guilty is such as to avoid the spilling of their blood. Usually 

 they are tied up in a sack and drowned in the sea. Some tribes of 

 Central Celebes believe that if the blood of persons guilty of incest 

 were to fall upon the ground, the rice would never grow again. So 

 they drown or throttle the culprits. "When it rains in torrents, the 

 Galelareese of Halmahera say that near kinsfolk are having illicit 

 relations with each other, and that every human being must be 

 informed of it, for then only will the rain cease to descend. The 

 superstition has repeatedlv caused blood relations to be accused of 



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