r 
282 THE BINE A OP JOliQliE* 
marks of such an origin which the religion of the B&ttas and T)f* 
aks bears, (both recognize a supreme God under the same name 
Diebata, Jubata, Dewatfi,) it is most reasonable to think that the Bi- 
nufi had acquired the idea of God before the introduction of Mahomed- 
anism, whether the name under which he is known at present be a 
Corrupt Hindu one like Jubata, or a corrupt Mohomedan one like 
Ha T&akt. A Sanskrit name for the supreme being has some resem¬ 
blance to it,* but that to which I am most inclined to refer it is Fir¬ 
med, (which indeed may be considered the same word, for the l and 
71 are permanently convertible in some, and easily convertible in many 
languages) a name under which Vishnu is known in southern India, 
who with Poliar (Ganeslia) is followed by the old Hindu colony of 
Malacca, and whose name is borne by many Hindu immigrants in 
Singapore, and occurs also in Tamulian history. According to Ma¬ 
layan history, Hindu Malays colonized Singapore and southern Jo- 
hore in the twelfth century, hut there was au earlier Hindu commu¬ 
nity on the Johore river which was in a flourishing condition in the 
ninth century. From them the Binufi may have learned to know a 
Supreme God under the name of Pirmal or Pirman-t I shall re¬ 
turn to this subject when I come to consider the language. 
A complete parallel exists between the religions of the Dyaks, 
Binuas and B&ttfis, and the elaborate and luxuriant imaginations with 
which the primary and essential ideas have been overrun by the first, 
and the simplicity in which they have been retained by the second, 
are directly referable to the difference in the characters and develop¬ 
ments of the two people. The primitive religion of the Archipelago, 
—a variety of the Schamanisn which probably prevailed before Bu- 
clhism over all eastern Asia, which lingers around the mosque, and has 
not entirely faded away in the West in the presence of nearly 2000 years 
of Christianity,—is still the essential belief of the Dyak, the Binua 
and the Bdtta. In it they repose a practical faith. By it they seek 
to defend themselves from diseases and other misfortunes, to secure 
the ministry of good spirits, and counteract the maleficence of evil ones. 
It is one of the living springs of their habitual thoughts and actions, 
and as such remains a prominent link between the extreme south 
and the north of Eastern Asia. 
Amongst the Bermun tribes we recognize a pure Schamatoism 
* Compare also the modern Bengali Param, supreme, Paramatma , 
God, the Tamil Para Brahma , Paraveran &c. ■ 
+ Many sects in Southern India believe that there is one«5upreme God, 
_Vishnu, Narayana, Para Brahma, Pirmal 1 who is too elevated ta 
attend to the personal requests of mortals. 
