ANIMISTIC BELIEFS 53 



the hawk, a tiny speck in the sky, sailed slowly out of sight 

 behind a hill on the right, and the men settled themselves 

 to watch for a second hawk which must fly towards the 

 left, and a third which must circle round and round. In 

 the course of about half-an-hour two hawks had obligingly 

 put in an appearance, and behaved just as it was hoped and 

 desired that they should behave ; and so this part of the 

 business was finished, and about a score of men bustled 

 about preparing for the next act. They brought many 

 fowls and several young pigs, and a bundle of long poles 

 pointed at either end. Before the house stand upright two 

 great boles of timber ; the upper end of each of them is 

 carved into a rude face and crowned with a brass gong 

 (PL 157). These are two images of the one Supreme 

 Being, Bali Penyalong, and they seem to be at the same 

 time the altars of the god. A tall young tree, stripped of 

 all but its topmost twigs, stands beside one of them, and is 

 supposed to reach to heaven or, at least, by its greater 

 proximity to the regions above, to facilitate intercourse. 

 As to the meaning of this and many other features of these 

 rites it is impossible to form any exact idea, for the opinions 

 of these people in such matters are hardly less vague and 

 diversified than those of more civilized worshippers. Tama 

 Bulan, in his character of high priest,^ took his stand before 

 one of these images, while a nephew, one of the three men 

 who had watched the hawks, officiated before the other 

 and went through exactly the same ceremonies as his uncle, 

 at the same time with him. Tama Bulan held a small 

 bamboo water-vessel in his left hand, and with a frayed 

 stick in his right hand sprinkled some of the water on the 

 image, all the time looking up into its face and rapidly 

 repeating a set form of words. Presently he took a fowl, 

 snipped off its head and sprinkled its blood upon the 

 image, and so again with another and another fowl. Then 

 he held a young pig while a follower gashed its throat, 

 and as the blood leapt out he scattered it on the image, 

 while the score of men standing round about put their 

 hands, some on him, some on one another ; maintaining 

 in this way physical contact with one another and with 

 their leader, they joined in the prayer or incantation which 

 he kept pouring forth in the same rapid mechanical fashion 

 in which many a curate at home reads the Church service. 



^ '• Romulus is represented to have been the best of augurs, and from him 

 all succeeding augurs received the chief mark of their office. " 



