CHAP. XIV IDEAS OF THE SOUL 29 



third and fourth are undertaken only by those who 

 have special powers and knowledge. 



Among the Kayans the professional soul-catcher, 

 the Dayong, is generally a woman who has served 

 a considerable period of apprenticeship with some 

 older member of the profession, after having been 

 admonished to take up this calling by some being 

 met with in dreams — often a dream experienced 

 during sickness. The Dayong does not necessarily 

 confine his or her activities to this one calling ; for 

 in a large village there are usually several DayongSy 

 and the occasions demanding their services recur at 

 considerable intervals of time. The relatives of the 

 sick man usually prefer to call in a Dayong from 

 some other village. The Dayong is expected to 

 make the diagnosis and to determine upon the line 

 of treatment to be practised. If he decides that 

 the soul or Blua of the patient has left his body, 

 and has made some part of the journey towards the 

 abode of departed souls, his task is to fall into a 

 trance and to send his own soul to overtake that of 

 his patient and to persuade it to return. The 

 ceremony is usually performed by torch-light in the 

 presence of a circle of interested relatives and 

 friends, the patient being laid in the midst in the 

 long public gallery of the house. 



The Dayong struts to and fro chanting a tra- 

 ditional form of words well known to the people, 

 who join in the chorus at the close of each phrase, 

 responding with ** Bali- Dayong,'' ^ i.e. '' Oh powerful 



•^ The word Bali is used on a great variety of occasions, generally as a form 

 of address, being prefixed to the proper name or designation of the being 

 addressed or spoken of. The being thus addressed is always one having 

 special powers of the sort that we should call supernatural, and the prefix 

 serves to mark this possession of power. It may be said to be an adjectival 

 equivalent of the Mana of the Melanesians or of the Wakanda or Orenda of 

 North American tribes, words which seem to connote all power other than the 

 purely mechanical. It seems not improbable that the word Bali has entered 

 the Kayan language from a Sanskrit source ; for in Sanskrit it was prefixed to 

 the names of priests and heroes. The word is even more extensively used by 

 the Kenyahs, who prefix it to the names of several of their gods ; and the 

 Klemantans use the word Vali in the same way. 



