Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. VI GENERAL REMARKS 187
Upper tiers, which are regarded as the Paradise of the
blest, being filled with wild fruit-trees, whilst the third
or lowest tier contains the low and brooding clouds ^
that bring sickness to mankind.
All three races have versions of the widely-spread
tradition of the Paradise-bridge, which leads across a
boiling lake into which the souls of the wicked are
precipitated.
The entrances of heaven and hell (according to the
Semang legends) are close together in the west, and a
third place (a species of Hyperborean region) which is
also found in them, is described in the traditions of
some Jakun tribes as well. There are separate hells
for various races of mankind, and yet others for
animals and snakes.
As might be expected, a good deal of the mythology
of these tribes is taken up with the traditions of the
heavenly bodies, all of which are alike personified,
many of the stories dealing with the marriages or
conflicts of the sun and moon, and the chequered
fortunes of their children the stars.
In one of the Mantra stories the sun is described
as not having been created till after one of the floods
to which 1 have referred.
The moon is by some of these tribes {e.g. the
Besisi) identified with the Island of Fruit (the Jungle
Paradise),^ which, if we take the evidence of one of
the songs of the same tribe, is preceded by a " Garden
* "Kelonsong Awan"(p. 207,/;//;-a). Sakai. Among the Besisi he is called
'^ A form of this Bridge-myth is found "Gaffer Engkoh" or Jongkoh. Its
among the Andamanese, who describe guardians take different shapes accord-
it as a bridge of invisible cane through ing to the imagination of each particular
the sky (see Man's And. p. 94). tribe—a baboon, or demon, among the
' The chief of the Heaven of Semang, a dog among the Jakun, etc.
Fruit-trees is called Penghulu by the The choicest heaven is reserved not
Semang, but this clearly corresponds for the good, but for the old and
to the Granny Long -breasts of the wise.