Seventeen years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo; a ... - Sabrizain.org

228 SONG AND MUSIC
round the sick man, and chant a pengap, invoking Salam-
pandai, the Great Spirit-Doctor, to come to their aid, and
make their charms efficacious in bringing about the cure
of the sick man.
Some of the Dyak pengap are of great length,
and the
singing of them occupies the whole night. The singer
or singers begin soon after 8 p.m., and go on till early
dawn, only resting for about half an hour, two or three
times during the whole night.
The song of mourning is among some tribes sung by
a professional wailer, generally a woman, who is paid to
lament the lost, and by her presence
and incantation to
assist and guide the soul in its journe}^ to Hades (Sabayan).
Her song is begun on the evening of the death, and lasts
the whole night. The sum of it is this :—She blames
the different parts of the house for allowing the soul to
depart, and she calls upon bird, beast, and fish to go to
Hades with a message, but in vain, for they are unable
to undertake the journey. Then in despair she calls upon
the Spirit of the Winds to go. At first the spirit is
reluctant, but at the earnest request of the wailer, who
calls his wife to her aid, he at length consents to do her
bidding. His journey through forests and plains, hills
and valleys, across rivers and the sea, is minutely de-
scribed till night comes on, and, tired and hungry, he
stops to rest for the night. He climbs a high tree to
see which is the proper road—on all sides there are roads :
the ways of the dead are very numerous— but all is dim,
misty, and uncertain. In his perplexity, he changes his
human form, and metamorphoses himself into a rushing
wind. He soon makes his presence in Hades known by
a furious tempest, which sweeps all before it, and rouses
the sleeping inhabitants. Startled, they ask each other