BY THE RE YD. W. HOWELL. 
19 
cooked rice to announce that the tie of fasting for the 
dead is severed. The waiter might have finished the 
dirge before, or just finished it towards the end of 
the fasting day, for—as noted above—the length 
of the dirge depended entirely on the wishes of the 
bereaved persons. If the dirge is prolonged, the dead 
is made to go through many incidents and adventures. 
Before the waiter begins the dirge the same present 
is given, as for the Nyuran , and with the same object. 
Scibak Nerengkah means “A dirge to settle the dead 
in Hades.” The universal belief of the Sea-Dayak is 
that the souls of the dead pass on to Hades to remain 
there for ever. Hades is the original home of man, 
whence all come and whither all must go, vast in extent; 
while this world, to use a Dayak expression, is merely 
a “borrowed one”. Those tribes that use this dirge aver 
that, unless the dirge is formally recited on behalf of the 
dead, the soul of the dead person will get lost in Hades 
and will not be able to find the house or room of its 
parents, relations and friends. The dirge therefore is 
to guide it to its own proper room. 
Again, before the waiter begins the dirge, an offering 
is first set aside for the people in Hades. The offering 
comprises all sorts of eatables and chewing ingre¬ 
dients. The wailer then requests the Wind-Spirit 
(Antu Ribut) to give the alarm to the people in Hades to 
announce the arrival of a new-comer. The wind blows 
so boisterously that it blows down nearly every tree. 
The wailer then asks empanyat, a kind of beetle, to 
take the offering to Hades, but he, after making a lot 
of excuses, refuses to go. The bird kuang kapong is 
then asked ; but he also makes many excuses and will 
not go. At last the bird burorig ray a is asked, and 
without the slightest hesitation it takes the offering to 
Hades and places it before the people there. With the 
offering is a small roll of cotton, meant to be used for 
wiping away their tears. This offering thus placed 
before them adds to the astonishment of the inhabit¬ 
ants of Hades. According to the idea of the Balau 
tribe, infants that died before they cut their teeth, 
were not buried but hung on trees ; and they are said 
to inhabit the intermediate region between this world 
and Hades. Boys are betitled Ulup Tekup Tendai 
