SEA DVAK RELIGION. 80l 



This belief in reciprocal good offices between the dead and the 

 living comes out again in those cases where the remains of the 

 dead are reverently preserved by the living. On every festival 

 occasion, they are presented offerings of food, etc., in return for 

 which these honoured dead are expected to confer substantial 

 favours upon their living descendants. 



Their notions of the relationship of this world to the 

 next, and of the dead to the living, will be further illustrated 

 by the story of Kadawa ; which may also be taken as a 

 specimen of their folklore. 



Kadawa was a great cock-fighter, but had suffered suc- 

 cessive defeats from his fellow Dyaks. Irritated at being 

 beaten in a sport he so dearly loved, he started off to seek a 

 cock of a particular white and red plumage, called hiring 

 grunggang, which he believed would bear down all others 

 before it. But a chanticleer of this peculiar plumage was a 

 " rara avis" among fowls ; and village after village was visited, 

 and neither for love or money could the coveted bird be got, 

 for the simple reason that there were none. Nothing daunted, 

 he started off again to go further afield, and determined not 

 to return till he had succeeded in his quest. He travelled 

 hither and thither in the land of the Dyaks until he knew not 

 where he was, and at length arrived at the land of Mandai 

 idup. the borderland between Hades and this world, the 

 inhabitants of which can visit one or the other as they wish. 

 Here a long village house appeared in sight. He went up the 

 ladder into it ; and to his astonishment it showed all the signs 

 of being inhabited, even to the fires burning on the hearth 

 and the sounds of surrounding voices ; but not a person could 

 be seen ; so he shouted out : " Ho, where are you all ? " 

 Whereupon an unembodied voice answered : " Is that you, 

 " Kadawa ? Sit down and e&tpinang and sirih. What do you 

 " want ? " fi I am come to beg or buy a hiring grunggang ; 

 " fighting cock.''' There is not one to be had here; but if you 

 " go on to the next village, you will find one/'' So Kadawa 

 trudged on, greatly wondering at the strangeness of a place 

 peopled by bodiless beings, talking working phantoms of men 

 and women. Soon after, he came to a populous place, where 

 many village-houses were clustered together — Mandai mati } 



