34 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



long as it remains in the house. This is one of 

 several indications that the Kayans vaguely dis- 

 tinguish two souls — on the one hand the ghost-soul 

 or shade, which in dreams wanders afar, on the 

 other hand the vital principle. It would seem that 

 so long as this vital spark remains in the body the 

 ghost-soul may return to it ; but that, when death 

 is complete, this vital spark also departs, and then 

 the ghost-soul will return no more. 



The use of the word urip further bears out this 

 interpretation. In common speech urip means 

 alive, but it is applied also as a prefix to the names 

 of those recently deceased, and seems to mark the 

 speaker's sense of the continuance of the personality 

 as that which has life in spite of the death of the 

 body. 



Thus blua and urip seem to mark a distinction 

 which in Europe in different ages has been marked 

 by the words soul and spirit, anima and animus^ 

 psyche and pneuma, and which was familiar also to 

 the Hebrews. In this, of course, Kayan thought 

 on this subject does but follow on the lines of many 

 other peoples of more advanced civilisation. 



When the Dayong has completed his instruc- 

 tions, the rattan lashings about the head of the 

 coffin are loosed. Since this is the moment at 

 which the soul is believed to take its final departure 

 from the body, it is probable that this custom of 

 unlashing the coffin is connected with the idea of 

 facilitating its escape, although we have obtained 

 no definite statement to this effect. At the same 

 time the fire that has been kept burning by the 

 coffin is allowed to die out. To the coffin, which 

 is shaped roughly like a boat, two small wooden 

 figures are attached — a figure of a woman at the 

 head, a male figure at its foot. These figures are 

 not improbably a vestige of a bygone custom of 

 killing slaves, whose souls would row the boat of 



