XV ANIMISTIC BELIEFS 8i 



deer of this species. This superstition is still rigidly- 

 adhered to, although these people have been con- 

 verted to Islam of recent years. 



On one occasion another chief resolutely refused 

 to proceed on a journey through the jungle when a 

 mouse-deer, Plandok, crossed his path ; he .will not 

 eat this deer at any time.^ 



The people of Miri, who also are Mohammedan 

 Malanaus, claim to be related to the large deer, Cervus 

 equinuSy and some of them to the muntjac deer also. 

 Now, these people live in a country in which deer 

 of all kinds abound, and they always make a clearing 

 in the jungle around a tomb. On such a clearing 

 grass grows up rapidly, and so the spot becomes 

 attractive to deer as a grazing ground ; and it seems 

 not improbable that it is through frequently seeing 

 deer about the tombs that the people have come 

 to entertain the belief that their dead relatives 

 become deer, or that they are in some other way 

 closely related to the deer. 



The Bakongs, another group of Malanaus, hold 

 a similar belief with regard to the bear-cat [Artictis) 

 and the various species of Paradoxurus ; in this case 

 the origin of the belief is admitted by them to be 

 the fact that, on going to their graveyards, they 

 often see one of these beasts coming out of a tomb. 

 These tombs are roughly constructed wooden 

 coffins raised a few feet only from the ground, and 

 it is probable that these carnivores make their way 

 into them, in the first place, to devour the corpse, 

 and that they make use of them as lairs. 



The relations of the Klemantans to the crocodiles 

 seem to be more intimate than those of other tribes. 

 One group, the Long Patas, claim the crocodile as 

 a relative. The story goes that a certain man 

 named Silau became a crocodile. First he became 



* Of the Romans it is said : " When a fox, a wolf, a serpent, a horse, a dog, 

 or any other kind of quadruped, ran across a person's path or appeared in an 

 unusual place, it formed an augury," 



