ANIMISTIC BELIEFS ^^ 



Baya." Wan has several times met this crocodile 

 in dreams. In one dream he fell into the river 

 when there were many crocodiles about. He 

 climbed on to the head of one, which said to him, 

 *' Don't be afraid," and carried him to the bank. 

 Wans father had charms given him by a crocodile 

 and would not on any account kill one, and Wan 

 clearly regards himself as being intimately related 

 to crocodiles in general. 



The Kayans regard the pig and the fowl in much 

 the same way as the Kenyahs do, and put them to 

 the same uses. The beliefs and customs with regard 

 to deer, horned cattle, dogs, and the tiger-cat, are 

 similar to those of the Kenyahs save that they will 

 not kill the last of these. They are perhaps more 

 strict in the avoidance of deer and cattle. One old 

 chief, who had been ailing for a long time, hesitated 

 to enter the Resident's house because he saw a pair 

 of horns hanging up there. When he entered he 

 asked for a piece of iron, and on returning home 

 he killed a fowl and' a pig, and submitted to the 

 process of having his soul caught by a dayong, lest 

 it should have incurred some undefined injury in 

 the neighbourhood of the horns. 



The Kayans avoid the skin of the tiger even 

 more strictly than the Kenyahs or any other tribe ; 

 even a great chief will not touch a tiger-skin, and 

 we have known one refuse to enter a house because 

 he knew that it contained a tiger-skin war-coat. 



Like the Kenyahs, the Kayans entertain a 

 superstitious dread of the Maias and the long-nosed 

 monkey, but the Dok [Macacus nemestrinus), the 

 coco-nut monkey of the Malay States, has special 

 relations to them. It is very common in their 

 district, but they will kill it only when it is stealing 

 their rice-crop ; and they will never eat it as other 

 peoples do. There is a somewhat uncertain belief 



