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

§ 4. The Rice-mother in the East Indies. 221are driven from the house before the basket with its preciouscontents is brought in. 585Among the Kayans of the Mahakam river in Central Borneothe sowing of the rice is immediately preceded by a performanceof masked men, which is intended to attract the soul or rathersouls of the rice and so to make sure that the harvest will be agood one. The performers represent spirits; for, believing thatspirits are mightier than men, the Kayans imagine that they canacquire and exert superhuman power by imitating the form andactions of spirits. 586 To support their assumed character theywear grotesque masks with goggle eyes, great teeth, huge ears,and beards of white goat's hair, while their bodies are so thicklywrapt up in shredded banana-leaves that to the spectator theypresent the appearance of unwieldy masses of green foliage.The leader of the band carries a long wooden hook or rathercrook, the shaft of which is partly whittled into loose flutteringshavings. These disguises they don at a little distance from thevillage, then dropping down the river in boats they land andmarch in procession to an open space among the houses, wherethe people, dressed out in all their finery, are waiting to witnessthe performance. Here the maskers range themselves in a circleand dance for some time under the burning rays of the middaysun, waving their arms, shaking and turning their heads, andexecuting a variety of steps to the sound of a gong, which isbeaten according to a rigidly prescribed rhythm. After the dancethey form a line, one behind the other, to fetch the vagrant soul ofthe rice from far countries. At the head of the procession marchesthe leader holding high his crook and behind him follow all theother masked men in their leafy costume, each holding his fellowMasqueradeperformed bythe Kayansbefore sowing forthe purpose ofattracting the soulof the rice.585 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i. 118-121. Compare id., In Centraal Borneo(Leyden, 1900), i. 154 sqq.586 A similar belief probably explains the masked dances and pantomimes ofmany savage tribes. If that is so, it shews how deeply the principle of imitativemagic has influenced savage religion.