Religion--Belief in Supreme Being--Traces of Hinduism--Sacrifices--Pamali or Interdict--Mr. Chalmers’s Account of the Dayak Religion--A Future State--Spirits by Nature--Ghosts of Departed Men--Transformations--Catching the Soul--Conversion of the Priest to Christianity--Story--Other Ghosts--Custom of Pamali, or Taboo--Sacrifices--Things and Actions Interdicted--Not to Eat Horned Animals--Reasons for not Eating Venison--Of Snakes--The Living Principle--Causes of Sickness--Spirits Blinding the Eyes of Men--Incantations to Propitiate or Foil the Spirits of Evil--Catching the Soul--Feasts and Incantations connected with Farming Operations--The Blessing of the Seed--The Feast of First Fruits--Securing the Soul of the Rice--Exciting Night Scene--The Harvest Home--Singular Ceremony--Head Feasts--Offering the Drinking Cup--Minor Ceremonies--Images--Dreams--Love--Journeys of the Soul--Warnings in Sleep--Magic Stones--Anecdote--Ordeals--Omens--Birds of Omen--Method of Consulting them--Beneficial Effects of the Head Feasts--Languages of the Land Dayaks--Deer--The Sibuyaus free from Prejudice--Story of the Cobra De Capella--Names--Change of Name--Prohibited Degrees of Affinity--Heights--Medical Knowledge--Priests and Priestesses--Origin of the latter--Their Practices--Manufactures--Agriculture--Story of the Origin of Rice--The Pleiades. _Religion._--This principally consists of a number of superstitious observances. They are given up to the fear of ghosts; and in the propitiation of these by small offerings and certain ceremonies consists the principal part of their worship. But though this is the case, I am quite convinced that they have a firm, though not clear belief in the existence of one Supreme Being, who is above all, and over all; and in this lies the best hope of the missionary. If we could trace back the origin of their superstitions, we should probably find that many of their inferior spirits are simply heroes of old who have assumed the form of demigods; in fact, all my inquiries among the wild tribes confirm me in the opinion that they believe in a Supreme Being. I have mentioned in my _Limbang Journal_ old Japer saying,--“When I speak of the God of the Pakatan tribe, I mean Him who made the heavens, the earth, and man.” I have always thought that the three inferior spirits mentioned by Mr. Chalmers in the extract I will give, Tenabi, Iang, and Jirong are merely agents of Tapa, and occasionally their subordinate position is overlooked by the Dayak narrators. It reminds one of the three powers in the Hindu religion, “Brahma,” “Vishnu,” and “Siva,” issuing from the Godhead Bram--and, in the Dayak religion, “Tenabi,” the maker of the material world; Iang, the Instructor, and Jirong, the Renovator and Destroyer, emanating from the Godhead Tapa, the great Creator and Preserver. Before proceeding, I will give the substance of Mr.