40 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



Ideas of Life after Death 



The soul of the dead man is supposed to wander 

 on foot through the jungle until he reaches the crest 

 of a mountain ridge. From this point he looks 

 down upon the basin of a great river, the Long 

 Malan, in which five districts are assigned as the 

 dwelling-places of souls, the destination of each 

 being determined by the mode of death. The 

 ghosts of those who die through old age or disease 

 go to Apo Leggan, the largest of these districts, 

 where they live very much as we do in this life. 

 Those who die a violent death, whether in battle or 

 or by accident, go to the basin of a tributary river, 

 Long Julan, where is Bawang Daha (lake of blood) ; 

 there they live in comfort, and become rich though 

 they do no work : they have for wives the ghosts of 

 women that have died in child-bed. Those that 

 have been drowned find a home beneath the rivers, 

 and are supposed to become possessed of all property 

 lost in the water by their surviving friends ; this 

 place (or places) bears the name of Ling Yang, 

 The souls of still-born children dwell in Tenyu 

 Lalu ; they are believed to be very brave, owing 

 to their having experienced no pain in this world. 

 Finally, suicides^ have assigned to them a special 

 district, Tan Tekkan, where they live miserably, 

 eating only roots, berries, and other jungle produce. 



Other districts of this great country are vaguely 

 assigned to the souls of Malays and other peoples. 

 It is generally said that the left bank of the river 

 is the place of the tribes of Borneo, while the right 

 bank is assigned to all other peoples ; and the soul 

 is especially warned by the Dayong to avoid the 

 right bank lest it should find itself among foreigners. 

 These beliefs seem to involve some faint rudiment 



1 Cases occur among the Kayans, though but rarely. The method most 

 employed is to stab a knife into the throat. 



