ANIMISTIC BELIEFS loi 



selves, the practical assumption that the mental 

 processes of animals — their passions, desires, 

 motives, and powers of reasoning — are of the same 

 order as, and in fact extremely similar to, their own. 

 That the Kenyahs entertain this belief in a very 

 practical manner is shown by their conduct when 

 preparing for a hunting or fishing excursion. If, 

 for example, they are preparing to poison the fish 

 of a section of the river with the ** tuba " root, they 

 always speak of the matter as little as possible, and 

 use the most indirect and fanciful modes of ex- 

 pression. Thus they will say, '* There are many 

 leaves floating here," meaning, '' There are plenty of 

 fish in this part of the river." And these elaborate 

 precautions are taken lest the birds should overhear 

 their remarks and inform the fish of their inten- 

 tions — when, of course, the fish would not stay to be 

 caught, but would swim away to some other part of 

 the river. 



Since this belief seems to be common to all or 

 almost all savages and primitive peoples, it would 

 be a strange thing if prohibitions against killing 

 and eating certain animals and various superstitious 

 practices in regard to animals were not practically 

 universal among them. Bearing in mind the 

 reality of this belief in the minds of these peoples, 

 it is easy to understand why they should shrink 

 from killing any creature so malignant - looking 

 and powerful for harm as a snake, and why they 

 should feel uneasy in the presence of, and to 

 some extent dread, the maias and the long- 

 nosed monkey, creatures whose resemblance to 

 man seems even to us somewhat uncanny. Their 

 objection to killing their troublesome and super- 

 fluous dogs seems to be due to a somewhat simi- 

 lar feeling — a recognition of intelligence and 

 emotions not unlike their own, but mysteriously 

 hidden from them by the dumbness of the animals. 



