42 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



persons who are believed to have died and to have 

 come to life again. This belief seems to have 

 arisen in every case from the person having lain 

 in a trance for some days, during which he was 

 regarded as dead. The Kayans accept the cessation 

 of respiration as evidence of death, and they assert 

 that these persons cease to breathe.^ 



It seems that such persons usually give some 

 account of their experiences during the period in 

 which they have deserted their bodies. They 

 usually allege that they have traversed a part of the 

 road to the land of shades, and describe it in terms 

 agreeing more or less closely with the traditional 

 account of it current among the Kayans. Since in 

 these cases the person is thought to be dead, no 

 efforts are made by the Dayong to lead back his 

 departing soul, and its return has to be explained 

 in some other way. In some cases the returned 

 soul describes how he was turned back by Maligang, 

 the awful being who guards the bridge across the 

 river of death. ^ 



Mr. R. S. Douglas, Resident of Baram, has 

 recently reported a similar belief held by the Muriks, 

 a Klemantan tribe, where it is supported by the 

 following legend. The soul or spirit of a certain 

 man, Uku Pandah by name, left his body two years 

 before the time appointed as the term of its in- 

 corporate life, and gained admittance to the land 

 of shades in the shape of a pig. It was, however, 

 recognised by the ruler of that land, and ordered by 

 him to return to its mortal body. The command 

 was obeyed, and Uku Pandah, having been dead for 



^ In one such case the body was laid out in the gallery of the house and 

 preparations for the funeral were far advanced, when one of us (C. H. ) arrived. 

 On glancing at the alleged corpse he suspected that life was not extinct, and 

 succeeded, by the application of ammonia to the nostrils, in restoring the en- 

 tranced Kayan to animation, and shortly to a normal condition of health. 



2 The man mentioned in the foregoing footnote had given to a Dayong (no 

 doubt in response to leading questions) a circumstantial account of adventures 

 of this kind, before we had an opportunity of questioning him after an interval 

 of some ten days. He then admitted that he could remember nothing clearly. 



