I have already spoken of a mixture of blood and turmeric being plastered on the head at the regular ceremonies. On these occasions also the cheek and forehead of those who take part in them are marked with blood. I have also spoken of bathing the patient in cocoa-nut water, and these comprise all the medical applications of which I am aware. In most tribes, there are five or six priests, and in some districts half the female population are included under the denomination of priestesses. In Western Sarawak they are not so numerous. The power of these women consists chiefly in their chanting, which is supposed to be most effectual in driving away spirits. Strange to say, some of the sentences they chant are not in their own language, but in Malay. These women are not necessarily impostors; they but practise the ways and recite the songs which they received from their predecessors, and the dignity and importance of the office enable them to enjoy some intervals of pleasurable excitement during their laborious lives. Their dress is very gay; over their heads they throw a red cloth, on the top of which they place a cylindrical cap, worked in red, white, and black beads, and their short petticoats are fringed with hundreds of small, tinkling hawk-bells. Around their neck is hung a heavy bead necklace, consisting of five or six rows of black, red, and white opaque beads strongly bound together. In addition, they hang over their shoulders, belt-fashion, a string of teeth, large hawk-bells and opaque beads. There are several stories concerning the origin of the priestesses. That which is current in the Quop district is as follows:-- Long ago, when the Dayaks were quite ignorant of religion, a certain man and his wife had two daughters. Both of them fell ill; the parents knew of no remedy, so they took a pig’s trough, placed the children within it, and sent them floating down the river towards the sea. The great “Iang,” from his lofty seat, saw them in this pitiful situation and crying helplessly, he had compassion on them and took them to his dwelling on the mountain of Santubong. There he cured them himself, and then taught them the mysteries of religion, the formulas they were to chant, the taboo they were to observe, and the rites and ceremonies they were to perform. This done, he transported them back to their own village, where they were welcomed and reverenced, and it was they who founded the sacred order of priestesses, as it now exists throughout these countries.