294 SEA DYAK RELIGION. 



they do not recognize the visitant, and inquire where it comes 

 from and why : " Do you come to look at the widows? We 

 " have thirty and one ; but only one is handsome. Do you 

 " come to seek after maidens ? We have thirty and three ; 

 <e but only one is pretty." "No," says the bird, " we have 

 " widows and -maidens plenty in the land of the living, all 

 " beautiful and admired of men/' " What is that you have 

 " brought with you so securely covered up V 9 " Get a basin, 

 " and I will pour the contents of my burden into it/' The 

 basin is brought and receives the pana, and lo ! the eatables 

 and the tears and the sobs of the living mourners have become 

 gold and silver and precious stones wondrously beautiful. 

 But neither the men or the women know what they are ; and 

 mutual accusations of ignorance and stupidity are bandied 

 about, and a noisy quarrel is the result. At this juncture, an 

 ancient native of Hades appears, one, that is, who never was 

 an inhabitant of this world ; 



Dara Hahai Gruda* 

 Dayang Sepang Kapaiya. 

 She chides their unseemly squabbling, and explains to them 

 that the bird has come from the realms of the living with 

 presents from their friends; whereupon they are seized with a 

 passionate desire to return, but are told that this is impossible. 



" The notched ladder is top downwards. 



"' Their eyes see crookedly. 



" Their feet step the wrong way. 



"' Their speech is all upside down." 



Their capacities are no longer adapted to the world they 

 have left, and their destiny is irreversible ; but still they urge 

 their request to accompany the bird, and all the ingenuity of 

 Hades is called in requisition to devise means of amusing the 

 souls as yet unaccustomed to their new dwelling. Meanwhile, 

 the bird takes its homeward flight. Thus far the w r ailer. 



Until this pana is made, say the Dyaks who observe it, the 

 soul is not thoroughly conscious that it has departed from the 

 world, and Hades will not give it food or water; but after this, 

 it is received as a regular denizen of deathland. 



* Garuda, the eagle of Vishnu ? See No. 7 of this Journal, p. 13.— Ed. 



