HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



hyadara, by which these sky-maidens are known sometimes in early 

 Indian literature. An added element, not occurring in the Sumatran 

 forms, is the magic power of providing food which the captured maiden 

 possesses. The Javanese tale, on the other hand, lacks both the carry- 

 ing off of the child and the husband's quest. As is well known, Indian 

 influence in Java had already become strong perhaps as early as the 

 beginning of the Christian era, and later, Hinduized kingdoms such 

 as that of Modjopahit dominated the larger part of the island. At 

 first Buddhist and later Brahmanistic religious ideas held sway, to 

 which the sites of Boroboedoer and Prambanan, etc., bear witness 

 today. From this long contact with Indian culture and the fact that 

 the name used for the sky-maidens is the same as that often used in 

 Indian literature, we may be confident that the tale as it now occurs 

 is either wholly of Indian origin or greatly metamorphosed by con- 

 tact with Indian culture. 



From Borneo the available material is rather limited, especially as 

 regards the interior tribes, such as the Kayan, whose possible relations 

 with the Javanese Hindu culture are becoming better established. 

 One version, however, is given from the Sarawak coast. 1 In this form 

 of the story, which is told to account for the origin of an interior tribe, 

 a man who had taken refuge for the night in a tree in the jungle, heard 

 ravishing music, and, looking down, beheld seven maidens bathing in 

 a pool. The man desired one of the girls as a wife for his son, so he 

 let down a noose, and drew one of them up into the tree. The others 

 all flew away and the captive was taken home and became the wife of 

 the old man's son. She told her husband not to make her cry, for if 

 he did, she would leave him. One day he was in a rage, and beat her, 

 pulling off her jacket to strike her. She wept, and immediately another 

 jacket dropped from the sky with a noise like thunder. She put this 

 garment on and vanished upward, leaving her child, who became the 

 ancestor of the tribe. It is obvious that we have here a garbled ver- 

 sion of the story. 



Among the Toradja 2 in central Celebes the theme forms part of 

 a long tale. Magoenggoelata, angered by the wind blowing away some 

 of his rice, determined to seek the place whence the wind came, and 

 stop up the hole through which it blew. In the course of his quest, 

 after other adventures, he descends to the underworld, the home of 

 the ghosts. While there he saw seven parroquets, which flew down 

 daily to bathe. He hid and watched them, and saw that they laid 

 aside their bird garments and became beautiful maidens. Hiding the 



1 McDougal, H., Sketches of our Life at Sarawak, pp. 87 sq. 



2 Adriani, Bijd. TaaU, Land- en Volkenkunde Ned.-Indie, vol. lii, pp. 296 sq. 



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