226 SEA DYAK RELIGION. 
society, is not altogether obsolete as a disputed matter in the pre- 
sent day. 
An important element of many sacrifices is the sprinkling of 
the blood of the slain victim, ginselan, ov singkelan. The per- 
sons on whose behalf the sacrifice is offered, is sprinkled with 
the blood of the fowl, and not only persons, but farms of growing 
paddy: the persons, I imagine, to atone for some infringement of 
pemali, the paddy, to make it grow. Sacrificing on behalf of 
farms isa vital part of their agricultural system, and no Dyak 
would think his paddy could possibly come to maturity without 
continual application of the fowl’s blood. The bird is killed and 
waved about over the farm, but on some occasions, when the grow- 
ing is supposed to need only a slight application of sacrificial 
virtue, the comb of the fowl is just slit to allow a Ale blood to 
ooZe out. 
On most occasions when a victim is slain, it is afterwards eaten, 
be it pig or fowl; but in some cases, it is otherwise disposed of. 
If it be a sacrifice to Pulang Gana at the commencement of the 
farming, the pig and other elements of the offering are conveyed 
with great. pomp, the beating of gongs and streamers flying in the 
breeze, to the land to be prepared for receiving the seed; the pig 
is then killed, its liver and gall examined for divination, and the 
whole put into the ground with some twak (native drink) poured 
upon it, and dedicated with a long invocation to the great paddy 
producer. This is the function which is called buja. If the 
sacrifice be for the crime of adultery, the victims are thrown into 
the jungle, and on the occasion of a marriage, I remember the 
offering was cast into the river. For all ordinary sacrifices, a fowl 
suffices; but a pig, being the largest animal which the Dyak 
domesticates, is naturally selected as the highest victim: should 
pigs, however, not be procurable at the time, two fowls can be sub- 
stituted. And why? Iasked. Because the legs of two fowls are 
equal to those of a pig! * 
These sacrifices are not bound up with any priestly order; any 
~* Among the Dyaks of whom I am specially writing, I find no memory 
of human sacrifices: but the Melanos were once addicted to the practice, 
and I question if, even yet, they have died out amongst the Kayans of the 
interior. 
