Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book

Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
here the old religion is still found.Islam as a religion seems suited to the Indonesians, particularlythe Malays, who accepted it readily: it reached Acheh in Sumatra INDONESIA 10:^ in 1206, the Malay Peninsula in 127C), became the state religion inBrunei about 1400, and in Java in 1475, and obtained a footing inCelebes in 1495. To the Moros, the piratical Moslems of thePhilippines, allusion has already been made. Christianity is foundamong many of the Philippine tribes (notably the Tagal andVisaya). The acceptance of Islam or Christianity by no meansextinguished the old belief in spirits, and many of the ancientsuperstitions and practices still survive among converted tribes. Charms and anmlets are universal, and far too various todescribe ; it need only be mentioned that particular virtues areattached to peculiarl) shaped stones, especially in Bdi-neo. One ofthe distinguishing characteristics of Indonesian religion is theattention paid to omens—chiefly observed from the voices and

Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 86b. —B;uk ))ook witli charms written in native serijd.Batak of Sumatra. movements of birds. The tribes of Borneo in particular are slavesto this form of superstition. Other forms of divination are by con-sulting magic books of bark (fig. 86 b), or bamboo calendars (Batakof Sumatra), by casting bears teeth as dice (Kayans) and haruspica-tion with chickens (Igorot). Belief in lucky and unlucky daysis universal, and a form of sundial is used in Borneo to distinguishl)et\veen the two. Sickness is attributed to one of two causes :possession of the i)atient by a spirit, or the absence of the patientssoul, and the treatment applied by the witch-doctor is intendedeither to expel the intruder or recall the wandering soul. Insome cases the name of the sufferer is changed in the hope ofdeceiving malevolent spirits. Belief in transmigration occursamong the Sakai; elsewhere the disembodied soul is regarded asleading an indeterminate sort of existence in the aii\ or in a heavenwhich corresp

Note About Images