The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

120 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[099]with livelier interest, and the meaning of all ceremonies andgames can also be traced much better there. On the Mendalamriver I came to the false conclusion that the popular games whichtake place at the festivals are undertaken quite arbitrarily at theseasons of sowing and harvest; but on the Mahakam river, onthe contrary, I observed that even the masquerade at the sowingfestival is invested with as deep a significance as any of theceremonies performed by the priestesses.” 322“The influence of religious worship, which dominates thewhole life of the Dyak tribes, manifests itself also in their games.This holds good chiefly of pastimes in which all adults take parttogether, mostly on definite occasions; it is less applicable tomore individual pastimes which are not restricted to any specialseason. Pastimes of the former sort are very rarely indulged inat ordinary times, and properly speaking they attain their fullsignificance only on the occasion of the agricultural festivalswhich bear a strictly religious stamp. Even then the recreationsare not left to choice, but definite games belong to definitefestivals; thus at the sowing festivals other amusements are invogue than at the little harvest festival or the great harvest festivalat the beginning of the reaping, and at the New Year festival.... Isthis connexion between festivals and games merely an accidentalone, or is it based on a real affinity? The latter seems to me themore probable view, for in the case of one of the most importantgames played by men I was able to prove directly a religioussignificance; and although I failed to do so in the case of theothers, I conjecture, nevertheless, that a religious idea lies atthe bottom of all other games which are connected with definitefestivals.” 323322 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i. 163 sq.323 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, ii. 130 sq. The game as tothe religious significance of which Dr. Nieuwenhuis has no doubt is themasquerade performed by the Kayans of the Mahakam river, where disguisedmen personate spirits and pretend to draw home the souls of the rice from the