“Threats,” he said, “have been heard and suspicions have been muttered. Some of the people spoke of the danger of receiving total strangers like yourselves in the kottas. Up to the present they have confined themselves to murmurs. But only let them broach the word antoeën and every mandauw will be unsheathed and you will soon be weltering in your blood, your heads in the hands of the Poenans.”
“What is the meaning of the word antoeën?” Schlickeisen asked.
“It means the power of changing into an evil spirit in order to steal the soul of a man and thus to make him ill,” was Dalim’s reply.
“I thought stealing a man’s soul was killing him?”
“Yes, but death only results when the soul remains away too long. With the Dayak illness is simply considered a temporary absence of the soul from the body and healing is therefore the restoration of the abstracted soul in due time. Our priestesses are quite experts in these matters. If you like I will tell you a legend relating to the subject.”
The four Europeans hereupon refilled their pipes and placed themselves round the Dayak, who commenced his narrative: [[255]]
“Once upon a time there lived a family of Dayaks who, while digging a hole in the ground to fix a stake for one of their houses in course of erection, found a large red water-snake which they killed and relished for their dinner. The snake, however, called Lendong, belonged to the family of Naga gallang petak and was a favorite with Mahatara. According to Dayak tradition the first living being created by Mahatara was a great water-snake upon which he gradually deposited mud and sand and thus made it carry the earth. Hence the name Naga gallang petak, or snake serving as the foundation of the earth. Each of its motions caused the earthquake. The part of the world towards which its head pointed had prosperity—that towards which its tail pointed misfortune.
“The God, incensed at the foul slaughter, turned everyone of those who had partaken of the snake into an antoeën. The father of the family was created chief of the antoeën and received the horrible title of radja antoeën batoelang dohong, or king of the antoeëns with bones like warriors’ swords. Thenceforward all that family remained antoeëns.
“I may add for your information, that once a person is suspected by the Dayaks of being an antoeën, his life is not worth a day’s purchase. Not only for the public safety is it considered compulsory to destroy him, but the one who kills him is looked upon as a hero, to whom everybody owes obligation and gratitude. I have good-naturedly advised you not to pretend to be capable of causing illness to anybody.”
“No indeed, never more,” Johannes said solemnly. “But can this joke with the Poenan lead to any evil result?” [[256]]