ANIMISTIC BELIEFS 



63 



remains to any one of the parties concerned. A 

 sore or abscess in any part foretells the speedy 

 death of one of the chiefs of the people of that 

 part. 



Fig. 79. 



Sketch of ventral side of pig's liver from which omens are read. The 

 several parts are taken to represent the several districts in which the augur is 

 interested, and the future relations between the communities inhabiting these 

 districts are foretold from the observation of the ligaments, fissures, and 

 prominences, etc. , connecting or separating these parts, and their good or bad 

 fortune is implied by the state of the surface of corresponding parts. On one 

 occasion the signs were read as follows : — Arti toh (right lateral lobe) stood 

 for the Tinjar district and people ; Arti arkat (the right central lobe) for the 

 Madangs ; Sunan (the left central lobe) for the main Baram and its people ; 

 Tokong (the left lateral lobe) for a particular Kayan village in thelBaram. The 

 shortness of the gall-bladder {Pedu) which separates the Baram and the Madang 

 districts was held to be of good omen, as also the large development of the 

 caudate lobe and the strength of the ligaments connecting Arti toh with Arti 

 arkat. A pit in the area Sunan was held to foretell the early death of some 

 Baram chief. 



It is obvious that this system of interpretation, 

 which is common to nearly all the peoples, gives 

 much scope for the operation of prejudice, sugges- 

 tion, and ingenuity. But the group of interpreting 



