53YAKS Ott BASJAIUlASSlNtf. 
tfver side, and the whole campong re-cchoed with its screech, the 
sweetest music to the ear of the Dvak. 
There exist many other reasons for sacrificing besides these. 
The barrenness of Avomen, a bad fall, getting wounded by the 
felling of trees, seeing ghosts &c. cost many pigs their lives. All 
these offerings are made to Djata (water god) or Sangiang 
(a higher good being) or to the Tdlopapa (bad spirits.) The 
greatest number are generally offered to these last, for, said one 
of the Dvak priests to me lately, we have nothing to fear from 
the good beings and Hat alia (God), and avc do not need to 
make any offerings to them, but we must Iced the bad spirits 
to keep them away from us, 
In the interior, men arc still occasionally sacrificed, principally 
on the death of chiefs and other considerable persons. _ In Sind, 
the furthest inhabited point of the Kapus river, where I, some 
years ago, made a journey of investigation, they had, a short time 
before our arrival, sacrificed two women. An acquaintance, who 
had been present, gave me the following account of the horrible 
event. One morning at Sirat there gathered a great number of 
people Avho streamed in from all sides to celebrate a great feast. 
There Avas firing of guns; the open plain before the kotta (tort) was 
prepared for the occasion, and adorned with branches, flowers and 
cloths; a number of hogs Avere killed; and when,finally, by mid¬ 
day everything had been arranged according to use and wont, 
the real objects of the festival were brought forward,—two wo¬ 
men, still young, who had been purchased for the purpose from 
another race in the Duson* They had to seat themselves on the 
side of the ready-dug graves, and contemplate for some time the 
noisy rejoicing of the feasters. A lance of about thirty feet in. 
length was then brought and laid on one of the Aictims. All 
now hurried to take a part in the impending detestable deed. 
A hundred hands seized the long lance, and, the instant the cus¬ 
tomary sign was given, they threw themselves, amidst the loud 
acclamations of the multitude, on the unfortunate wretch, and pierc¬ 
ed her through, even transfixing her to the ground. They then 
cut off the head of the fallen victim, and carried it during the 
rest of the day, dancing and singing round it. The same fate also 
befell her unfortunate companion. Those who are thus offered 
