236 SEA DYAK RELIGION. 
Never be false, never tell lies. 
These I eall, these I beckon, 
That when I go on the war path, 
They may be with me to obtain a head ; 
When I farm, 
They may be with me to fill the paddy bins ; 
When I trade, : 
They may be with me to get a menaga jar. * 
These I cail, these I beckon, 
These I shout to, these I look to, 
These I send for, these I approach, 
These I invoke, these I worship. 
The birds are here contemplated as in company with the Dyak, 
ordering his life, and giving effect to his labour; and the invoca- 
tion and offering are to impetrate their favour. Another function 
in which the cultus of these winged creatures comes out distinctly 
is the festival which is described as mii burong makat, giving 
the birds to eat, that is, giving them an offering. It may be said 
to be a minor festival in honour of Singalang Burong and his sons- 
in-law, the omen spirit-birds. The sacrifice, which follows upon 
the usual invocation, is divided into two portions; one of which is 
suspended over the roof-ridge of the house, and the other upon tae 
edge of the tanju, or drying platform, which fronts every Dyak 
village- house. 
In answer to the question of the origin of this system of “ bird- 
’’ some Dyaks have given the following. Jn early times the 
ancestor of the Malays and the ancestor of the Dyaks had, on a 
certain occasion, to swim across a river. Both had books. The 
Malay tied his firmly in bis turban, kept his head well out of water, 
and reached the opposite bank with his book intact and dry. The 
Dyak, less wise, fastened his to the end of his strat, waist-cloth, 
and the current washed it away, for in swimming, the sirat was of 
course in the water. But the fates intervened to supply the loss, 
and gave the Dyak this system of omens as a substitute for the 
book. 
* Dyak property consists in, and is reckoned by, jars of certain recognised 
patterns. 
ing, 
