PETAEA, OE SEA DTAK GODS. 141 



To the verandah do not cast your eyes ; 



Lest they should think you are seekiug a husband. 

 Into the room do not peep ; 



Lest they should think you are seeking a jar. 

 To the attic do not look up ; 



Lest they should think you are seeking rice. 



After this they are supposed to enter the house, of course an 

 invisible company ; and to partake of the good things of the feast 

 together with the Dyaks, gods and men feeding together in har- 

 mony. After all is over they return to their respective abodes. 



It is a miserable, low and earthly conception of Grod and gods ; 

 hardly perhaps to be called belief in gods, but belief in beings 

 just like themselves : yet they are supposed to be such as can bes- 

 tow the highest blessings Dyaks naturally desire. The grosser the 

 nature of a people, the grosser will be their conception of deities 

 or deity. We can hardly expect a high and spiritual conception 

 of deity from Dyaks in their present intellectual condition and low 

 civilization. Their's is a conception which produces no noble aspi- 

 rations, and has no power to raise the character ; yet it has a touch- 

 ing interest for the Christian student, for it enshrines this great 

 truth, that man needs intercommunion with, the Deity in order to 

 live a true life. The Dyak works this out in a way which most 

 effectually appeals to his capacities and sympathies. 



I turn now to a sampi, an invocation often said at the commence- 

 ment of the yearly rice-farming; in other words, a prayer to those 

 superior powers which are supposed to preside over the growth of 

 rice. First of all, Pulang Gana is invoked ; then the Sun. who is 

 called JDaiu Pat'uujgi Mata-ari, and his light-giving, heat-giving 

 influence recounted in song. After the Sun comes a bird, the 

 Kajira ; then the padi spirit (Saniang Padl), then the sacred 

 birds, that is, those whose flight and notes are observed as omens ; 

 all these are prayed to give their presence. Leaving the birds, the 

 performer comes to Petara " whom he also calls, whom he also 

 " invokes." " What Petard," it is asked, " do you invoke ? " The 

 answer is : " Petara who cannot be empty-handed, who cannot be 

 " barren, who cannot be wrong, who cannot be unclean ; " and 

 thereupon follow their names : — Sanggid Labong, Pinang fyong, 



