I9I5-] I- H. N. Evans: Vai'iotis Aboriginal Tribes. 107 



for feasting, and the Serting people at the time of the writer's 

 visit were feeling rather sorry for themselves because the 

 tampoi trees had failed to fruit. 



RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



The Serting people say that they believe in a Supreme 

 Deity (Tuhan Allah) and that after death the good go to 

 Shurga (Heaven), while the bad are condemned to suffer in 

 Neraka (Hell;, but these ideas have obviously been adopted 

 from the surrounding Malays. Much more interesting were 

 the beliefs connected with the poyangs* methods of treating 

 the sick. The Jakuns said that their poyangs often worked 

 their spells for the recovery of the sick in a beehive hut of 

 palm leaves t in the depths of the jungle, the interior of the 

 hut being decorated with the long ceremonial hangings of 

 plaited leaves which are known as jari lipan or centipedes 

 toes. On being asked what was the use of the jari lipan, one 

 old man replied that in his conjurations the poyang made use 

 of a good spirit called the Mambang (not the same as the 

 Mambang of the Malays, the personification of the sunset 

 glow). "The Mambang lives on the hills and the shadows of 

 the jari lipan within the poyang's hut stretch out to the hill 

 tops and form a path for the Mambang to descend to the hut 

 at the poyang's request. When the Mambang has come down 

 into the hut the poyang tells him to go and look for the soul of 

 the sick man. The Mambang, obeying the poyang's command, 

 goes back to the hills by the road that he came, and when he 

 reaches them journeys to the houses of the evil spirits who 

 live on the hill-tops. Outside their houses are the souls 

 (semangat) of many people hanging up in cages, and if he finds 

 the soul for which he is looking the sick man recovers, but if 

 the evil spirit has carried the soul into his house he is unable 

 to release it and the sufferer dies." 



According to the same old man, people fall ill because 

 evil spirits lie in wait for them and strike their shadows with a 

 club as they pass. 



As among the Pertang Jakuns Punan is feared and propi- 

 tiated. Water in which rice is cooking is taken from the pot 

 and rubbed on the fore-arm, the man who is making this 

 offering calling out " Punan, Punan, Punan,''' and at the same 

 time stretching out the arm on which he has smeared the rice 

 water. 



The semangat padi is said to be taken occasionally when 

 they have a rice crop. 



The names of father or mother, father-in-law or mother- 

 in-law must not be mentioned. 



* The poyang among these southern tribes has the position of both the 

 Malay pa wang, magician, and the bomor, doctor. 



t This procedure is similar to that of the Ulu Langat and Ulu Kenaboi 

 poyangs. 



