ANIMISTIC BELIEFS 85 



he seeks to call back the wandering soul of his 

 patient. 



Punans certainly ascribe significance to the 

 behaviour of a few animals other than those 

 observed by the other peoples. Thus, if they see 

 a lizard of any kind upon a branch before the 

 shelter in which they are encamped, and especially 

 if it utters its note, they regard this as a sign that 

 enemies are near. 



The Sea Dayaks or I bans 



The I bans do not seem to have any conception 

 that corresponds closely to the Supreme Spirit of 

 the races with which we have already dealt. Arch- 

 deacon Perham ^ has given an account of the Petara 

 of these people, showing how it is a conception of 

 one god having very many manifestations and func- 

 tions, each special function being conceived vaguely 

 as an anthropomorphic deity. He has described also 

 the mythical warrior-hero and demi-god Klieng, and 

 the god of war, Singalang Burong. As Archdeacon 

 Perham has said, this last deity has a material animal 

 form, namely, the white-headed hawk, which is the 

 Bali Flaki of the Kenyahs, and plays a somewhat 

 similar part in their lives. But Singalong Burong 

 is decidedly more anthropomorphic than Bali Flaki ; 

 he is probably generally conceived as a single being 

 of human form living in a house such as the I bans 

 themselves inhabit ; whereas Bali Flaki, even if 

 sometimes conceived in the singular as the great 

 Bali Flaki, is very bird-like. We have seen that 

 the Kayans describe their hawk-god, Laki Neho, as 

 dwelling in a house, which, though in the top of a 

 tree, has a landing-stage before it on the river-bank. 

 In the case of the Kayans, the conception is only 

 half-way on the road to a full anthropomorph ; 



* Journ. of Straits Asiatic Society^ Nos. 8, lo, and 14. 



