Nov. 1, 1867.

were away, living in their own farm huts, so we resolved to remain here for a quiet Sunday morning service on the next day. In the afternoon Apai Balai and I had a long talk together. They had come here from Sabarong, on the Sakaran river, where Rentap threatened to attack them fourteen years ago, and were very well content to remain here permanently. He listened for some time to my words about GOD, our Creator, Lifegiver, with scarcely a remark, until after a pause he exclaimed, 'Now I will tell you what I heard from our ancestors when a young man.' He then told me a story

Legends.

of how two birds, named Irik and Arah, who dwelt

inland, had framed first the earth and then the sky by the help of a horn of earth given them by King Minchi Mantallah, who dwelt on the sea! Long ago I had heard a similar story from Linggi, a Sakaran Tuah, but I had not heard it from our Balow Dyaks. I asked Buda, who is the son of the late Baiang, the famous chief of the Sarebas, whether the Sarebas Dyaks knew it. He replied that they did not, and as many of the old traditions of the race are related in almost the same words by the various tribes, he inclined to my opinion that this story was an invention after the Sakarans had separated from the original Dyak stock. He made some remark about the little truth they had jointly received from their common ancestors being much corrupted through the influence of Satan,' adding, 'Satan it was who taught us to add the names of Putangganah and Grandmother Inda to that of GoD (Batara) in our invocations to Him. But we cannot serve God and Satan.' 'Oh,' said Apai Balai, 'I will not serve Satan!' 'But you do,' replied Buda, ' if you do not worship GoD only.'

Conversation now turned upon dreams. The only explanation which Apai Balai had conceived of the appearances which he saw in his dreams was, either that his spirit travelled whilst his body slept, or that the spirits or shades of other persons and objects came before him. The appearance of his deceased friends in his Dreams. dreams was a proof amounting to a demonstration of the existence of Hades (Subaian). But the fact that when they met him they wore the same dress, were engaged in the same occupations, and looked altogether the same as when they lived in

this world, was an obstacle to his receiving what revelation informs us respecting the world to come.

Laba, who was with us, and whose simple earnest faith seemed to tell everywhere throughout the excursion, afterwards mentioned a fact which reminded me of a well-known story in early medieval Church history. Lidih, an old man living in the same house with him, had frequently heard the Gospel, and on his death-bed, when I frequently visited him, professed to believe it. if this were so, he did not ask for Baptism. would, for I should like well enough to live with the LORD JESUS, but for one thing. Three of my children died after they were grown up, and I want to go to them.'

Laba asked him why,
Lidih answered, ‘I

Apai Balai further explained his theory thus, When we dream of falling into the water we suppose that this accident has really befallen our spirit, and we send for the Manangs, who fish for it and recover it for us.' Bujang Brani had told me a dream the previous day, which he imagined presaged my arrival. 'I was going down your way in a boat which upset; whilst my spirit was struggling with the waves, the spirit of a great fish approached; the spirit of the fish tried to swallow me, and my spirit tried to destroy it,' &c. I now attempted to give a simple explanation of the nature and cause of dreams. This I did more for the satisfaction of my own friends than with the expectation of convincing Apai Balai, or of helping him to distinguish between the objective and the subjective. I afterwards asked Manang Bali, who had been

How to recover a drowned

spirit.

This is the spirit which falls We place a platter filled with

listening to this conversation, How do you profess to recover a drowned spirit?' 'We hold,' he replied, that in addition to the true spirit given by GOD to man, there is another spirit, the shadow, which ordinarily attends every man wherever he goes. into the water. We are sent for. water before us. After incantations we fish in this platter with hawkbells. We pull these out a few times with no result. At length the spirit comes up, is captured, and restored.' How is it you see this spirit when others cannot?' Oh! we are the Illuminated (Bakliti). At our initiation gold is put into our eyes, hooks are

stuck into our finger-nails, our skull is cleft openme any more lies.'

'Don't tell

In the evening, several people who had heard the news of our arrival came home, and we had a fair number for instruction. The next morning Apai Balai asked about my dreams. I told him that according to his theory my spirit must have travelled several thousand miles in the night, since I had dreamt that I was with my friends in my own country. This he admitted was improbable. He then told me that he had dreamt I was leading him on a path no wider than a plank, with steep precipices on either side. I inquired, 'Did not you say last night that the road to Satan lay on the left hand?'

After dropping eye-wash into the inflamed eyes of a whole row of people, I walked out along the ridge of the hill and sat down to read, undisturbed except by the whirring flight and hideous cries of a rhinocerous hornbill which alighted on the branch of a leafless, lifeless tree above me. Returning I met Buda with the Gospel of St. Mark in his hand, which he had been reading to two men on the road. We went into the house together, and had morning service with our party. In the afternoon we started for the house of Manok, on the plain at the foot of Ngkrabang. I sent my party by the nearer route, whilst I, with Buda and the Manang, followed a circuitous one for the sake of seeing Tumudak Hill. On the highest point of the hill we came on the site of an old Dyak house covered with granadilla. As we were about to descend the hill we fell in with a son of Manok's, and some women belonging to his house, returning thither laden with fruit. As we followed them down the steep ascent, assisted in the worst places by notched trunks of trees, the women turned to ask me if I had heard of the Moving Stone.' When I confessed my ignorance they told me should soon come to it, that their people had recently feasted it, and called it Klapong sirat Bunga Nuiang' (the tail end of Bunga Nuiang's waistcloth). They took me to the stone; on either side of it was the framework of a hut, and the whole was inclosed by a palisade. The stone is about five feet high, six long, and two broad. It is the same red sandstone as the

The moving stone.

Field

66

adjoining hill. On it was tobacco, sirih, and betel-nut, recently placed there by some Undup Dyaks. The women asked me to make it some offering. When I had declined, saying, 'I did not worship stones,' Buda leapt upon it and struck it with his stick in token that he did not. In Manok's house, and from Manang Bana, I heard more about this stone. 'Five months ago it suddenly appeared in its present place. As there was no track in the grass nor mark of trees injured in its course, we made sure that it could not have fallen from the hill. For some time we were in doubt about it: some said it had fallen from the sky, others that it was given by Batara. At last Manok dreamed that it had happened thus, Bunga Nuiang, commonly called in our traditions Simpurai, was racing with Pungga" (these are the two great friends of Nating in the story I have alluded to); "they leapt together from Mount Rabong, in Bugow-land, and alighted on Mount Sadok, in the Sarebas country; whilst Simpurai was in mid-air the end of his waistcloth dropped, and this is it." After Manok had declared his dream some still doubted, so we killed a pig, having first uttered over it this incantation, "If this stone be truly a moving stone, and the waistcloth of Simpurai, let the heart of this pig be good; if otherwise, let the heart be bad!" The heart proved good, the enemy's part of it alone being bad. This decided the matter, and two months ago we held a ceremonial feast for three days over the stone.' Manok, unfortunately, was absent, so I could not learn how a dream could yield him the information he pretended to have. However, I assured the people the idea was a delusion, and that the stone had bounded down from the adjoining precipitous hill so rapidly as not to injure the grass, which had probably had time to resume its usual appearance before they observed the stone. In the evening, when the whole house, together with six Mbalo smiths from a neighbouring hut assembled around us, we, with zeal rekindled by the occurrence, 'preached unto them that they should turn away from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are therein.’ When we were teaching them that there is one God who calls us to draw near to Him, and to tell to Him all our sorrows, needs, and

Preaching.

Nov. 1, 1867

Field

wishes, and to Him alone, a man objected, 'But surely there must be another, a different God, who makes us steal, kill, and do evil.' 'You are right,' was our answer, in supposing that he who tempts us to wickedness is quite another and different being; but he, though he would usurp the name, is in no sense God at all, never helping, but only injuring men. This being is neither to be cajoled, nor coaxed, nor conciliated; every attempt thus to please him only gives him greater power of injuring us.' After the conclusion of a long conversation there was a general expression of their intention to serve God only if we would teach them the way.

The following morning we reached Sabu, about nine o'clock. Very pleasant it was to come again upon civilization and Christianity at this station of my brother Missionary, Mr. Crossland. With him

Christian
Dyaks.

and with his Undup Christian Dyaks I spent an

agreeable day. The next morning he accompanied me to Simanggang, where, amidst the improvements and new cultivations set on foot by the Tuan Muda, I would willingly have made a longer stay. Here, amongst others, I met Pungara Imang, who invited me to teach his people up the Batang Lupar. Here also I found a letter from Lampin, our Balow Dyak catechist, who had been fetched by one of the Sarebas chiefs to teach his people ' letters and religion.' It informed me he had been wrecked at sea and lost his belongings, and that he had been welcomed by the people, who were eager to learn. As we were about to leave in the morning for Stumbin, who should come up but Bujang Brani. I had only time to give him an invitation to come after harvest and stay with me at Banting. I called at a house below Simanggang, of which Gading was Tuah during his lifetime, in consequence of a message I had received the previous evening, asking me to doctor a man who two years ago had severely injured himself by a fall from a tree! Short as was the time I stayed here, it so delayed us that when we arrived at mid-day at Stumbin mouth, our crew had an hour's toil in the mud and water dragging our boat up the river, so miserable at low water. We passed the afternoon in teaching in the three houses here. At night the chief people from them collected in the central house for teaching and prayers. With the high water