106 
THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE DYAKS. 
shot,just when he was occupied preparing his fare; “Hau 
matei kea iii V* (ha, he is dead indeed !) they exclaimed aloud 
when a little Chinese boy dragged him out of the long grass. 
b. in the water . 
The Jatas are as numerous as the rivers and brooks in 
the island, i. e. legion, and the power they exercise is so 
great, that were their rule abolished the whole population of 
Borneo would become extinct, since it is they who grant 
children. Many a wife who has passed years in solitary re¬ 
treat, her eyes reddened by weeping for grief and for shame, 
if she sacrifice to Jata a goat, or what is better, a buffalo 
( ie hadongan”), and give him a good’piece of it to relish in a 
remote and quiet creek of the river, where he generally stands 
watching in the depth with watering mouth, adding to this 
repast sometimes a ravishing concert by the Blians, who on 
such occasions do not spare their Jungs, she may be sure that 
her loneliness will soon pass away, and her grief and shame 
be changed into the joys of a mother. 
The following are some of the names of those Jatas:— 
The Jata of the river Pulopetak fhas the name of “Sultan 
Kuningj” those of the two ends of the antasan (channel) 
Lopak are called “ Raden Kudong” and “Radeo Panamba- 
hrin;” and he of the Kapuas river, Andin maliug guna. To 
judge from the etymology of these names the Djatas have been 
introduced amongst the Dyaks by the Malays, which opinion 
gams ground by the accounts of several travellers who prove 
that the Djatas are entirely unknownjin the interior of the 
country. 
II. Evil Spirits. 
a. of the higher regions , 
c-^TTT- 1 ® m r ost . f ! ared ah the evil spirits is the “ JU\i 
fi Ia L l.V ng , of misfortune] who has his seat direcily Opposite 
the Raja ontong, on the left branch of the same river inhabitec 
bj the latter. The Raja Sial visits men with adversity, al 
kmds of calamity, sickness &c, and it is thus not to be won- 
}. d 11 ile raen lrl awe, who endeavour to conciliate 
favou^btairkKhlr 0ffel ' ed “ the of * 
n J*T A S t eCC ! nd ras ? al is the “Kamiak,” who flies like a bird 
n p d . d '' eds his malignity chiefly towards pregnant women 
lie shuts the incipient citizens of the earth so closely up in tin 
P aC „ e ..° tl, * ,r 1 ' 1(klen abode > that none would ever come fortl 
were it not for the precaution of the women with child, wht 
judiciously prepare an offering of rice and the flesh of pigs 01 
