THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE DTAKS, III 
seized it, and, turning' against Demang, laid him weltering in 
his blood. Before preparations could be made for defence 
or flight, two more of those present, near relatives of De- 
mang, fell under the strong arm of the madman ; at last the 
others seized the murderer and wrested the bloody weapon 
from his hands. His fate was soon decided. Bound by 
ropes to a tree before the house, he was assailed by the 
widow of the chief with the same instrument which a mo¬ 
ment before had pierced the heart of her husband. With 
the weapon plunged into his breast he expired. His corpse, 
covered with wounds, was interred the same day with those 
of his victims, though in a separate spot. 
The localities or trees, known to be inhabited by those 
spirits, are called Paheivan , which word signifies “ un- 
accessible.” Should they possess the finest wood no 
Dyak is daring enough to cut it down. One of the mis¬ 
sionaries here was once in want of nibongs, and it being 
then the dry season, it was not practicable to bring the 
wood down from the higher land. The nibongs growing 
on the river were all pahewan. He had no other resource 
but to take the nibongs from these pahewans, the wood of 
which besides was better than that found elsewhere. But 
notwithstanding his efforts to bring the Dyaks to reason, 
and although the highest rate of remuneration was pro¬ 
mised, no one could be induced to undertake the task. To 
convince them of the absurdity of their fears, he placed him¬ 
self at the head of a party of them and went to the dreaded 
spot. Taking the axe from one of them and applying it to 
one of the bewitched trees, his heroic companions retired to 
a respectful distance and stood in breathless expectation. 
Stroke after stroke was applied, and before the lapse of five 
minutes the tree came crashing to the ground, without the 
appearance of a ghost or any extraordinary accident. The 
leader of course supposed that he had for ever dislodged 
the fear of the ee pahewans” from the hearts of his Dyaks. 
But far from that! “ Ik an olo beputi, ikei olo ngaju” 
(you are a white man, but we are Dyaks) they said, mean¬ 
ing thereby, what you can do, it does not follow that we 
also can do. Several trees, it is true, were cut down, but, 
though nothing happened during the process, the old fear 
soon entirely returned, and on another occasion the same 
obstacle would be met with. At another time the Resident 
of Banjermassing, Mr Ondaadje, when on a visit to Pulo 
Petak, ordered some Banjerese to cut down a large tree 
which was known to be the rendezvous of several evil spirits. 
