XV ANIMISTIC BELIEFS 57 



throw a morsel of food towards it, exclaiming, ** Bali 

 Flaki ! " 



We have seen that during the formal consulta- 

 tion of the hawks the women are sent to their rooms. 

 Nevertheless many women keep in the cupboards in 

 which they sleep a wooden image of the hawk with 

 a few feathers stuck upon it. If the woman falls 

 sick she will take one of these feathers and, waving 

 it to and fro, will say, ** Tell the bad spirit that is 

 making me sick that I have a feather of Bali Flaki." 

 When she recovers her health Bali Flaki has the 

 credit of it. 



Although Kenyahs will not kill a hawk, they 

 would not prevent us from shooting one if it stole 

 their chickens ; for they say that a hawk who will 

 do that is a low-class fellow, a cad, in fact, for there 

 are social grades among the hawks just as there are 

 among themselves. 



Although the Kenyahs thus look to Bali Flaki 

 to guide them and help them in many ways, and 

 express gratitude towards him, we do not think 

 that they conceive of him as a single great spirit, 

 as some of the other tribes tend to do ; they rather 

 look upon the hawks as messengers and inter- 

 mediators between themselves and Bali Penyalong,^ 

 to which a certain undefined amount of power is 

 delegated. No doubt it is a vulgar error with 

 them, as in the case of professors of other forms of 

 belief, to forget in some degree the Supreme Being, 

 and to direct their prayers and thanks almost 

 exclusively to the subordinate power, which, having 

 concrete forms, they can more easily keep before 

 their minds. They regard favourable omens as 

 given for their encouragement, and bad omens as 

 friendly warnings.^ We were told by one very 



^ *' It was from Jupiter mainly that the future was learnt, and the birds 

 were regarded as his messengers." 



^ "The Roman auspices were essentially of a practical nature ; they gave 

 no information respecting the course of future events, they did not inform men 



