[88] — The following statement, which was written by us of the Kenyahs in a former publication, holds good also of the Kayans: "They may be said to attribute a soul or spirit to almost every natural agent and to all living things, and they pay especial regard those that seem most capable of affecting their welfare for good or ill. They feel themselves to be surrounded on every hand y spiritual powers, which appear to them to be concentrated in those objects to which their attention is directed by practical needs; adopting a mode of expression familiar to psychologists, we may say that they have differentiated from a 'continuum' of spiritual powers a number of spiritual agents with very various degrees of definiteness. Of these the less important are very vaguely conceived, but are regarded as being able to bring harm to men, who must therefore avoid giving offence to them, and must propitiate them if they should by ill-change have been offended. The more important, assuming individualised and anthromorphic forms and definite functions, receive proper names, are in some cases represented by rude images, and become the recipients of prayer and sacrifice" (JOURN. OF ANTHROP. INSTITUTE, vol. xxxi. p. 174).
[89] — If the dead man possessed no sufficiently presentable garments, these may be supplied by friends. This last act of respect and friendship has not infrequently been permitted to one of us.
[90] — See vol. ii. p. 29.
[91] — See vol. ii. p. 61.
[92] — See vol. ii., p. 137.
[93] — For the views of an individual Kayan on Laki Tenangan, see vol. ii., p. 74.
[94] — See vol. ii., p. 53.
[95] — See Chap. X.
[96] — The idea of giving up a valued possession to the god or spirit in order to appease or propitiate him seems to underlie a curious rite formerly practised by the JINGKANGS, a Klemantan sub-tribe living on the great Kapuas river. These people, like most of the peoples of Borneo, value their male children more highly than their female children. If a boy seems to be at the point of death, and if all other efforts to restore him have proved unavailing, the relatives would kill an infant sister of the boy, and would cause the boy to eat a small bit of the roasted flesh. The intention seems to be to appease some malevolent spirit that is causing the sickness; and the eating of the flesh seems to be considered necessary in order to connect the sacrifice clearly with the sick child.
[97] — Cf. vol. ii., p. 75, for the statement of a Kayan on this question.