240 SEA DYAK RELIGION. 
his father and they both see the mystic vision. From that time the 
father is sad and home-sick, and cannot eat food, and soon asks 
to be allowed to return to his own place. Singalang Burong dis- 
covers that they have looked under his magic pillow, but is not angry, 
and gives his consent to their departure. 
But before returning to the lower world, Szw and his son have 
several things to learn. They are taken on a war-expedition, that 
they may know how to fight an enemy with bravery and successful 
tactics; they are taught how to plant paddy, and wait until it is 
ripe in order to have a practical knowledge of every stage of rice- 
vrowing ; they are initiated into different ways of catching fish and 
are shown how to set traps for pig and deer and, above all, the obser- 
vance of all the omens good and bad is carefully explained to them. 
“ These birds,” says Singalang Burong, “possess my mind and spi- 
“rit, and represent me in the lower world. When you hear them, 
‘“remember it is we who speak for encouragement or for warning.” 
Some paddy seed is then given to them and a variety of other pre- 
sents and they depart. No sooner are they out of the house than 
they are suddenly transported through the air to their own home. 
This legend implies the belief that the primitive Dyak lived in 
the lowest state of barbarism, subsisting upon the fruits of the 
jungle, and plantains, and yams, ignorant of fishing and trapping, 
and of the great industry of rice-farming ; that the knowledge of 
these things with the omen system was brought from the higher 
world by Seragunting, the offspring of the spirits above, and, 
therefore, able to obtain the knowledge ; and that the working of all 
is to be carried on with the continual direction and assistance of 
the supernatural author of the whole. The sacredness of the omen 
birds is thus explained: they are forms of animal life possessed 
with the spirit of certain invisible beings above, and bearing their 
names; so that, when a Dyak hears a Beragai, for instance, it is 
in reality the voice of Beragai, the son-in-law of Singalang Bu- 
rong ; nay, more, the assenting nod or dissenting frown, of the great 
spirit himself, 
We may now conclude with a summary reference to those ele- 
ments of worship to which the Dyak clings for the support and 
satisfaction of the religious side of his life; and if we can see with 
