224 SEA DYAK RELIGION. 
man of the place, who was also chief of the district. 
In many regions of idolatry, the dread which animals inspired in 
man, more or less defenceless against their attacks, may have led 
to their being regarded as objects of worship This has been 
urged of ophiolatry. “If the worship perpetuated itself,” says 
Mr. B. Gouxp,* “long after other forms of idolatry had disap- 
“peared, it was because the serpent was that creature against 
“ which weapons and precautions were of least avail.’ Whether this 
dread of the beast be accepted as the true account of the origin of 
the eultus or not, all trace of the idea of propitiating an angry 
deity in the snake worship of the Dyak has long disappeared. One 
Dyak with whom I am acquaimted keeps a cobra in this house, and 
regards it as his tutelary spirit, and everywhere among them these 
spirit-possessed reptiles are regarded as friendly visitors sent by 
some higher power for good; and the sacrifice becomes an acknow- 
ledgement of obligation, and a gift to keep theur in good humour, 
according the maxim—“ Presents win the gods as well as men.” 
But ophio-worship needs to have no special cause assigned for its 
existence. It is a natural outcome of that primitive system of 
thought which has everywhere personified inanimate nature, and 
attributed human intelligence to the animal creation, one of the 
many fruits which has grown up from the wonder, the awe, and 
the dependent feeling with which uncivilised races have looked 
upon the mysteries of the great natura naturans; one more ele- 
ment to complete the circle of nature-worship which has had charms 
for many of the world’s primitive races. | 
To this account of spirit- worship, manifested in many forms, I 
may add, that the extreme anxiety to obey the dictates of the 
spirits, especially when made known in dreams, led, in one instance, 
to an act of anthropolatry. A certain village-house was preparing 
a grand celebration in honour of Singalang Burong, when a Dyak— 
not very respectable in character—gave out that an antu had in- 
formed him in a dream, that this house must offer a sacrifice to 
himself (the man), or bear the brunt of the antu’s displeasure. 
This alternative, of course, could not be borne, and they fetched 
the man, in a basket, put him in a place of honour, presented 
<COrioin and Developement of Religious Belief,” Volk I., p. 138. 
