October 25, 1900] 



NA TURE 



635 



found to be observed by the people of the different tribe? in 

 their dealings with animals and plants. This paper was confined 

 to giving (l) a general account of the customs of one of the 

 inland tribes, the Kenyahs ; (2) to describing the " Nyarong," 

 or soirit-helper of the Sea-Dayaks, and some similar institutions 

 among the other tribes ; and (3) to pointing out the bearing of 

 our observations on the totem problem. 



The Kenyahs are a warlike, agricultural people living as iso- 

 lated communities of twenty to fifty or more families, each com- 

 munity inhabiting a single long house built on the river-bank. 

 Their religion is peculiar, in that they believe in a beneficent 

 Supreme Being and a group of departmental deities, while they 

 attriljute to every agent that affects their lives a spirit that must 

 be properly respected and, if necessary, propitiated. Most impor- 

 tant to them of all the animals is the common white-headed hawk. 

 He brings messages of warning and advice from the Supreme 

 Beingto those who know how to read the signs he give<, and he is 

 consulted before every undertaking of importance, and sacrifices 

 of fowls and pigs are made to him. A wooden image of the 

 hawk stands before every house. Several other birds give them 

 omens of lesser importance, and none of these may be killed or 

 eaten. The domestic fowl is killed as a sacrifice to the hawk 

 or other powers, and its blood is sprinkled on the altar-posts of 

 the gods and on the persons taking part in various ceremonies, 

 esprcially peace-making ceremonie.s. The domestic pig is 

 sacrificed in much the same way. The spirit of a pig is always 

 charged with some prayer lo be carried to the Supreme Being, 

 and the answer is read from the markings of its liver. The 

 crocodiles are regarded as a friendly and allied tribe, and may 

 be killed in retaliation only. No Kenyah will kill a dog, and 

 the dead body of a dog is regarded with fear. Kenyahs will 

 not eat the flesh of deer or horned cattle, and there are many 

 restrictions on touching or using any parts of them 

 Only old or renowned warriors will wear or touch the skin of a 

 tiger. One house is decorated with carvings of the gibbon on 

 every large beam, and all Kenyahs have a dread of the Miias 

 and the long-nosed monkey. There thus seems to be every 

 degree of regard paid to the different beasts, from the mere 

 uneasy feeling in the presence of the uncanny, long-nosed 

 monkey to the elaborate cult of the hawk, and the nature of the 

 respect paid to any species seems in nearly every case to be the 

 direct expression of the impression made on the barbarian's 

 minrl by the behaviour of the beasts.' 



The Spirit- Helper. — Every Sea-Dayak hopes to be guided 

 and helped all through his life by a spirit which announces itself 

 to him in dreams and takes up its abode in some peculiar 

 natural object or in some animal. In the latter case the Dayak 

 will never kill or eat one of the same species of animal, and will 

 lay the same prohibition on all his descendants, so that a whole 

 family may come to pay especial regard to one species of animal 

 for many generations. A similar institution occurs, though less 

 commonly, among the other tribes. In such cases we seem to 

 be able to trace sometimes the actual origin and growth of a 

 totem ; but neither among the Sea-Dayaks, nor the inland tribes of 

 Sarawak, could the people be said to be in a totemistic stage of 

 culture, nor was there sufficient evidence of an earlier totemistic 

 cult. Mr. Harlland complimented the author on his caution 

 and carefulness. He agreed with Dr. McDougall in regarding 

 these animal cults as affording little proof of totemism as a stage 

 in .social or religious custom. 



Dr. E. B. Tylor read a paper, by Mr. W. G. Aston, on the 

 Japanese ^0/4if/ and the Ainu inao." The leading idea of the 

 paper was the illustration of the principle in religious develop- 

 ment by which an object which was in the first instance simply 

 an offering to a god has in the lapse of time been conceived as 

 the embodiment of the god, or even as a distinct and indepen- 

 dent deity. In ancient Japan the offerings to the gods were 

 hemp and bark fibre, with cloth made from these materials. In 

 later times there was substituted a small quantity of paper made 

 of the same bark material and attached to a wand in the form 

 known to us as the <;ohei. With the change of form the original 

 character of the gohei as offerings was forgotten. They were 

 looked upim as receptacles of the god, or embodiments of him, 

 and honour was paid to them accordingly. At festivals it was 

 supposed that the god descended into the gokei on a certain 

 formula being pronounced by the priest. Hypnotic practitioners 

 also used these objects, through which the deity who inspired 

 them was supposed to enter their bodies. In other cases the 

 devotees went further, and constituted the object which was 



NO. 161 7, VOL. 62] 



originally an offering into a distinct and independent deity. 

 The Ainus of Yezo use in their worship whittled sticks called 

 indo, which have a general resemblance to an old form of the 

 gohei, and are doubtless a cheaper substitute. The inaoy like 

 the gohei, are primarily offerings, but in some cases they ulti- 

 mately gain direct worship as gods, having become, in short, 

 genuine fetishes. Another link between the inao and the 

 gohei is found in certain whittled sticks which a century ago 

 were in use in Northern Japan for striking women with, as at 

 the Roman Lnpercalia, in order to secure fertility. Similar 

 sticks, after consecration by the Shinto priests, were formerly 

 used at Kiota to kindle the household fire at the new year to 

 avert possible pestilence. 



Mr. David Boyle, curator of the Toronto Museum, read a 

 paper on the paganism of the civilised Iroquois of Ontario. 

 Notwithstanding the contact of the Iroquois, or Six Nation 

 Indians, with white people for more than three hundred years, a 

 very considerable number of the former have retained many of 

 their old time beliefs with the appropriate ceremonies. Of four 

 thousand Caniengas (Mohawks), Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, 

 Oneidas and Tuscaroras now residing in the Grand River 

 j Reserve, within sixty miles of Toronto, Ontario, fully one-fourth 

 continue to observe the ancient feasts or dances connected with 

 the growth and ingathering of corn and fruits, and for desired 

 changes in the weather, as well as for the curing of disease. 

 Some modification in the ceremonies was made abjut a century 

 ago by an Onondaga named Ska-ne-o-dy-o, who announced 

 himself as a prophet who had paid a visit to the abode ©f the 

 Great Spirit. The changes introduced by him, however, have 

 not by any means removed the pagan character of the native 

 beliefs, although he certainly did attempt to imitate some Christian 

 observances. Still the addresses of the medicine-men retain 

 most of the old-time forms, although their significance in many 

 cases is lost and even the meaning of numerous words is no 

 longer known. The leading idea of the present form of worship 

 is that of a great spirit ; hut this has been acquired from mis- 

 sionary sources, and although the Indians have adopted the idea 

 of a heaven, they do not believe in any hell. The quoted 

 examples of petitions addre.ssed to Rawen Niyoh, the Creator, 

 illustrated the lack of assimilation of the old and new forms. 

 One of the most characteristic ceremonies connected with the 

 Iroquois paganism is that of the .sacrifice or burning of the White 

 Dog at the new year feast during the February moon, when the 

 spirit of the dog, accompanied by offerings of tobacco, conveys 

 to Niyoh information respecting the condition of his " own 

 people " on the Grand River Reserve. 



III.— Ethnography. 



The Anthropology of West Yorkshire was the subject of a 

 communication by the venerable Dr. John Beddoe. He remarked 

 that the most .striking qualities of typical Englishmen had been 

 thought to be strongly developed in Yorkshire. Among these, 

 he feared, was the defect of imagination so often found in those 

 who called themselves, with some pride, practical men. Such 

 men entertained a positive dislike, and even contempt, for 

 knowledge of which they did not see the immediate use. This 

 character was not British, Celtic, or Welsh. 



Dr. Beddoe's impression, acquired by simple inspection, is 

 that in the central parts of the West Riding, and notably at 

 Leeds, a prevailing type is characterised by an oblong, or rather 

 trapezoidal, head, inclining to be broad rather than narrow, 

 with a vertical forehead, smooth and not prominent brows, and 

 a straight profile, with a straight or sometimes concave nose. 

 The smooth brows dissociated this type from that of the Bronze 

 race and the squareness from the smoothly elliptic or oval one 

 of the Southern Saxon. He was inclined to call it Anglian. 

 Light hair was prevalent hereabouts, and also in the mountainous 

 regions to the north and south. 



On the whole, he thought the eastern and central regions of 

 Yorkshire, judging by physique, less purely Teutonic than Tees- 

 dale or the Wapentake of Morley, though more so than Craven, 



The author discussed the question whether any considerable 

 British or pre-Anglian element remained in the country around 

 Bradford. Without coming to any positive conclusion, he was 

 disposed to consider the inhabitants of these parts as mainly 

 Anglian in type. More British blood remained further north, 

 in Craven. A prevalent type about Leeds seemed to him to 

 resemble the Burgundian Belair type of His and Rutimeyer. 



Mr. J. Gray read a paper on physical characteristics of the 



