“I am able to catch the soul and restore it. I will catch your soul if you like.”
“Do so,” said the boy. “I would like you very much to do it.”
The foolish manang pretended to faint; then he woke up in the orthodox manner with one hand clenched, and when he opened it, lo and behold! there was something there which he declared was the boy’s soul.
The boy sat and looked on while all this went on.
“Here is your soul,” the manang said, “which I have succeeded in catching after much troubled. Let me restore it to you, so that you may be in good health.”
“Call that my soul?” said the boy. “I make a present of it to you. I do not want it. You can keep it. I have a soul which you cannot touch.”
The manang was puzzled. He had never known such a thing as anyone daring to refuse to have his own soul. He spoke to the parents, and said that something terrible would happen to the boy if he persisted in not having his soul returned to his body. The parents wished the boy to do what the manang desired, but he was determined, and did what all Dyak boys do when they are disobedient—ran off into the jungle, where he knew he would not easily be found.
When this boy came back to my school, he told me all about it, and later on, when he and I went to his people, they spoke about it. As the boy was in very good health, they all had a laugh at the manang’s expense. If, however, anything had happened to the boy, no doubt the manang would have made much capital out of it.
I have sometimes argued with a manang that if the soul has already left the body of the patient when he is called in, then the man ought to be dead. The answer to this is that a man has more than one soul. It is only when all his souls leave the body that the man dies. Some Dyaks assert that a man has three souls, and others seven. Their ideas on this matter do not agree.
Though the manang is supposed to be able to defeat the evil spirits which cause disease, there are some diseases which are too terrible for even his mystical powers. The epidemic scourges of cholera and smallpox are said to be caused by the direct influence of evil spirits. Smallpox is said to be caused by the King of Evil Spirits, because it is such a terrible disease. The name by which it is known among the Dyaks is Sakit Rajah (the sickness of, or caused by, the King of Evil Spirits). But the manangs will not go near a case of either. Probably a consciousness of their own powerlessness, combined with a fear of infection, has made them assert that those diseases do not come within reach of their powers. Other means, such as propitiatory sacrifices and offerings, must be resorted to.