APPENDIX. 



THE PA WANG. 



WHEN a man, and more especially when a nation, is 

 converted, it is not a question of the exchange of one 

 religion for another. The new belief forms a stratum 

 that covers, more or less deeply, the old one. The 

 teachers of the new beliefs refer, with pity or contempt, 

 to the convert's old beliefs as his superstitions some- 

 thing, they say, that stands upon his religion ; and 

 thereby go as far wrong as it is possible to do, inasmuch 

 as the truth, which they fail to see or refuse to admit, 

 is that the things which they term a superstition are 

 really a substratum. 



When a nation accepts a third religion, the three 

 strata of beliefs may sometimes be discerned; and of 

 this formation, if I may so call it, an excellent example 

 is found in the Malays of the Malay Peninsula. Until 

 perhaps six or seven hundred years ago they were nature- 

 and spirit - worshippers, holding beliefs very similar to 

 those of the Dyaks of Borneo at the present day. Then 

 a wave of Hinduism swept down from India over Sumatra 

 and Java. It reached the Malay Peninsula, but with 

 such greatly diminished force that its traces there are 

 but faintly discernible ; whereas it has left its mark 

 deeply and permanently in Java, and still survives in 



