280 
THE BINUA OP JOHORE. 
was supernatural. When Pirman saw that the land abounded in men 
he considered it necessary to send a king' to rule over them. One 
day the sound of a human voice was heard to proceed from a bambu. 
It was split open, and the “ Rajah Binua” stepped out. 
Although recognizing the authority of the Malayan rulers they con¬ 
sider the country as being still their property, and do not tolerate the 
interference of the Malays in the actual government of the interior. 
There can be little doubt that the Binua have derived their theis- 
tic ideas from a Hindu or Islamised race. The basis of their religion 
and religious practices is Poyangism, in itself a species of milder 
Schamanism, and tins they have united in a very remarkable manner 
to a mixture of theism and demonism ; the one either of Hindu origin, 
as I incline to think, or borrowed from the Arabs through some parti¬ 
ally converted tribe of Malays ; and the other having a considerable 
resemblance to the primitive allied religions of the Dyaks of Borneo 
on the one side, and the Battas of Sumatra on the other. The mode 
in which the three systems have been united so as to be amalgamated 
into a consistent whole is deserving of consideration. Poyangism re¬ 
mains almost unimpaired, or rather the Poyang, while assuming the 
character of priest and to a certain extent abandoning that of wizard, 
retains in effect his old position. He still commands the demons by 
incantations and supplications, and their power rather than his own 
has been subordinated to the Deity. At the same time this idea of 
an ultimate and supreme creator has not greatly altered their con¬ 
ceptions of the demons. Originally impersonations of the Vital and 
Destructive forces of Nature,—or the recognition in nature, through 
the first union of reason and imagination in faith, of a spiritual pow¬ 
er which animates, destroys, survives, and perpetually renews the vi¬ 
sible forms and forces of the world,—their presence was still allowed 
to fill the sensible; and Nature herself, both material and spiritual, 
was subjected to God. That extramundane theism which pervades 
many higher religions, adapted to the ancient belief, left the demons 
in the possession of the world, and if it rendered their power deriva¬ 
tive instead of sell subsisting, it also entirely excluded men from 
t he presence of the Deity. While by his supreme power and omni¬ 
science he could control all things, he remained to them a God afar 
off. 
it is in this adaptation of different faiths, rather than in a specific 
agreement in any details, that the Binua religion may be compared 
with that of the Dyaks. The imagination of the latter has been more 
fertile and daring in proportion to their greater civilization and com- 
