PET Alt A, OR SEA Dl'AK GODS. I4i7 



bowels of the earth, and has sovereign rights over it. Other 

 offspring of Simp ang -imp ang were ordinary human beings, who in 

 course of time began to cut down the old jungle to make farms. 

 On returning to their work of felling trees the second morning, 

 they found that every tree which had been cut down the day before 

 was, b} r some unknown means, set up again, and growing as firmly 

 as ever. Again they worked with their axes, but on coming to 

 the ground the third morning they found the same extraordinary 

 phenomenon repeated. They then determined to watch during the 

 following night, in order to discover, if possible, the cause of the 

 mystery. Under cover of darkness Pulang Gana came, and began 

 to set the fallen trees upright as he had done before. They laid 

 hold of him, and asked why he frustrated their labours. He 

 replied : " Why do you wrong me, by not acknowledging my 

 " authority ? I am Pulang Gana, your elder brother, who was 

 " thrown into the earth, and now I hold dominion over it. Before 

 " attempting to cut down the jungle, why did you not borrow the 

 " land from me ?" " How? " they asked. " By making me sacri- 

 " flee and offering " Hence, Dyaks say, arose the custom of sacri- 

 ficing to Pulang Gana at the commencement of the yearly farming 

 operations, a custom now universal among them. Sometimes these 

 yearly sacrifices are accompanied by festivals held in his honour — 

 the Gawei Bat a, and the Gawei BeniJi, the Festival of the Whet- 

 stones and the Festival of the Seed. 



In the Dyak mind, spirits and magical virtues are largely associ- 

 ated w r ith stones. Any remarkable rock, especially if isolated in 

 position, is almost sure to be the object of some kind of cultus. 

 Small stones of many kinds are kept as charms, and I have known 

 a common glass marble inwrought with various colours passed off 

 as the " egg of a star," and so greatly valued as being an infalli- 

 ble defence against disease, &c. The whetstones, therefore, 

 although made from a common sandstone rock, are things of some 

 mysterious importance. They sharpen the chopper and the axe 

 which have to clear the jungle and prepare the farm. There is 

 something more than mere matter about them, and they must be 

 blessed. At the Gawei Batu, the neighbours are assembled to wit- 

 ness the ceremony and share in the feast, and the whetstones aro 

 arranged along the public verandah of the house, and the per- 



