MANANGISM IN BORNEO. 103 
of the Shamanistic creed appears to have been that every ob- 
ject and force in nature has its ‘spirit,’ which could be in- 
voked by the worshipper to confer things either good or bad. 
This entirely corresponds with Dyak religion ; the Manang, in 
certain of his functions, calls upon the spirits of the sun and 
moon, the spirits in heaven and earth, spirits in trees, hills, 
forests, lowlands, and rivers, to come to his aid; and if they 
are not equal to the “ 300 spirits of heaven, and 600 spirits of 
the earth” of Shamanism, they are a goodly company which 
the Manang professes to bring from all quarters to the house 
of his patient. Again, the Shaman priest on particular occa- 
sions worked himself into an ecstasy ; the Manang runs round 
and round, and pretends to fall in a faint, at which time his 
greatest power is exercised. And then the seat of the Shaman 
deities was placed on ‘the summit of the mountains of the 
moon,’ the central pivot of the earth; the special deities of 
the Manangs, as before mentioned, dwell on Rabong and Sin- 
tong, Mountains in Central Borneo; and when waving the 
sacrificial fowl, the last and best wish the Manang expresses 
for his patient is that he may have ‘dreams of Rabong 
and dreams of Sintong.” 
But in these days, in practice, the Manang answers to the 
idea of the Doctor, rather than to that of the Priest; for 
his presence is not necessarily required for any purposes 
except that of treating the sick. At certain great religious 
functions of the Dyaks, such as the sacrifice of propitiation to 
the earth deities for a good harvest, or the greatest of all 
Dyak celebrations, the sacrificial festival to Singalang Burong, 
or at marriages, he is not of necessity the officiant. He may 
possibly be; but not because he is a Manang, but because he 
-has given his attention to that part of ancient Dyak customs, 
or because he has the credit of being a lucky man. Generally, 
other Dyaks are the ministers of the office on these occasions ; 
the one requisite qualification being ability to chant the tra- 
ditional story and invocations which accompany the offering 
and ceremonies. On the other hand, the fact that at his ini- 
tiation he obtains a new generic name, and is believed to 
enter into a new rank of being, looks like the idea of succes- 
sion to an ancient priesthood. 
J. PEREAM, 
