134 PETARA, OB, SEA DYAK GODS. 



Tuhan Allah. "What the Malays call Allah Taala, we call 

 " Petara" is a very common saying. And it is true in so far as 

 both mean Deity ; but when we investigate the character repre- 

 sented under these two terms, an immense difference will be found 

 between them, as will appear in the sequel. What Allah Taala is, 

 we know ; what Petara is, I attempt to show. 



I have not unfrequently been told by Dyaks that there is only 

 one Petara, but I believe the assertion was always made upon 

 very little thought. The word itself does not help us to determine 

 either for monotheism or for polytheism, because there are no 

 distinct forms for singular and plural in Sea Dyak. To us the 

 word looks like a singular noun, and this appearance may have 

 suggested to some that Dyaks believe in a hierarchy of subordi- 

 nate supernatural beings with one God — Petara — above all. I 

 have been told, indeed, that, among the ancients, Petara was repre- 

 sented as : — 



Patu, nadai apai 



Endang nadai indai. 



An orphan, without father, 

 Ever without mother. 



which would seem to imply an eternal unchangeable being, with- 

 out beginning, without end. And this idea is perhaps slightly 

 favoured by a passage in a pengap. In the song of the Head 

 Feast, 0) the general object of the recitation is to "fetch," that is, 

 invoke the presence of, Singalang Burong at the feast, and certain 

 messengers are lauded, who carry the invitation from the earth to 

 his abode in the skies. Now these are represented as passing on 

 their way the house of Petara, who is described as an individual 

 being, and who is requested to come to the feast. There may be 

 here the relic of a belief in one God above all, and distinct from 

 all ; but this belief, notwithstanding what an individual Dyak may 

 occasionally say, must be pronounced to be now no longer really 

 entertained. 



The general belief is that there are many Petaras; in fact, as 

 many Petaras as men. Each man, they say, has his own peculiar 

 Petara, his own tutelary Deity. "One man has one Petara, 



( x ) Straits Asiatic Journal, No. 2, p. 123. 



