Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

GENERAL REMARKS 177
its pristine vigour and simplicity even in the present
century,—untouched by the Buddhistic deluge which
has passed over the vast regions of south - eastern
Asia, and has sent so many waves to different parts ot
the Archipelago, and resisting the pressure of the
Islamism which surrounds it.^
The Poyang and Pawang of the various Jakun
tribes, the B'lians of the Dayaks, and the Dato' and
the Si Basso of the Bataks, are one and all the
Shaman, the Priest-medicineman, in different shapes."^
Analysis of Chief Deities of the Three Races.
The most important points in the description of
the character of the chief god of each of the three
races may be stated as follows :
I. KARI.^
(1) He is of supernatural size and has fiery breath, but is now invisible (?).*
(2) He is not described as immortal, though a belief of this kind may perhaps
be inferred from the fact of his having existed continuously from before
the creation.
(3) He created everything except the earth and mankind, and when Pie had
created the latter Kari gave them souls.^
(4) If not omniscient, he at least knows whenever men do wrong, and his will
is omnipotent.
(5) He is angered by the commission of certain acts, but sometimes shows
pity and pleads with Pie on man's behalf when the latter (their actual
creator) is angry.
1 The following remarks by Logan of the Mantra is the primitive heathen-
apply to the Jakuns in general:— "Here ism of Asia, which, spreading far to
I only remark, with reference to the the east and west, was associated with
incantations, charms, and other super- the religions of the eldest civilised
stitions of the Mantra, that the greater nations, for it flourished in ancient
part appear to be essentially native Egypt, before the Hebrews were a
[the Arabic portions having been added people, in Greece and Rome, and bids
or substituted by Malays]—that is, they fair to outlast Hinduism in many parts
have not borrowed from the Hindus or of India" (Logan mJ.I.A. vol. i. pp.
Arabs, but have assumed their peculiar 329* 330*, and cp. ibid. pp. 279-282).
form from the state in which the tribe ^ J. I. A. vol. i. pp. 282, 283.
has existed on the Peninsula from time ^ Another form is " Kare " (" Thunimmemorial,
while, in substance, they der"), but V.-Stevens has " Kayee "
have been transmitted directly from the ( = " Kayi ").
same common source to which a large * Vaughan-Stevens, iii. 132, 133.
part of the inhabited world must refer ^ Ibid. 117.
its earliest superstitions. The religion ^ \'ol. i. p. 421, supra.
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