1. 11. X. Evans: Beliejsofthe Behrang-V 'alley Sen 



Animals shot with not be < aten w it h 



turmeric, or acid fruits : otherw ise the poison used on the darts 

 will prove ineffective when I xt go hunting. ' 



Double banana an not eaten b) young women a il it 

 thoughl th l1 ti 'I" so would entail their giving birth to twins. 



Varioi -> Beliefs. 



Diseases are thought to be caused by spirits which come 



from the direction oi the sea, and, in the case of epidemic 



; mj i te, the idea is parti) supported by reason, 



since small-pox, one of thi ded disorders, reaches 



the Sakai through the Malays. 



Spirits, of course, are, according to Sakai ideas, responsible 



for most of the misforti ncountered by mankind: it is, 



therefore, necessary to avoid places which they are known to 

 frequent. Thus, travellers in the jungle should not sleep for 

 the night in p? en hills, these being spirit-paths. 



When a child is horn, the after-birth, with part of the 

 ird ittachi I, is frequently hung on the branch of a 

 on a bush. Th< Sakai say that within three days it 

 becomes a seal)- ant-eater, the navel-cord forming the tail. 



The Behrang Sakai b< lieve that the rainbow is the shadow- 

 that arises fro i, which lives in the 

 earth. The red of the rainbow is it- body, the green its liver, 

 mil the yellow its stomach. 



They say that tigers set snan s for people in the jungle. II 

 a man cuts through the spring-sti these (probably 



ina) he must <. b\ that path, or he will be 



caught in an invi ;ible 



If blood is seen on leaves in the jungle it must not be 

 ti ''H hed, i 'i ■ he pe ho doi > rill be taken b) 



A spirit is thought to exist, which the Sakai call the 

 Dana Sirloh I Dana meaning " spirit " and Sn lok promise). This 

 attacks pers' ais to wh n I broken. 



Thus, if a man has agreed with i on a journey, 



and subsequen friend in the lurch, the Dana 



Sirloh will accompany the traveller in his companion's place 

 (being pn umablj t first invisible) and will attack and kill 

 him in the shape ol an eli phant, a tiger, or a snake. 



K ; l ible to throw i on iderable light on a que; tion 



with regard to Sakai beliefs which had been ;.b ing mi trouble 

 for some time. I I ned, in formei papers on the 



aborigiu; md custom in i onnexion 



with the word punan. I knew that there was a belief, common 

 to both the Sakai, Sakai -Jakuns and many of the Malays, that 

 i going out into the jungle without having satisfied a 

 desire 1 I, ■ ould meet with some mis- 



fortune, but I had not been able to find out whether evil 



Katil, howevei , lold 



