Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/149

 Myths of Origin. 139

the Badoej of Bantam place their land of the dead in the south of the island of Java, at a place called Lemah Bados, " the white spot "-: the inhabitants of the Babar archipelago place their land of the dead west of the group^: the Pangin of the Ella district of Borneo believe that the land of the dead is situated to the east of their present habitat*: and, in Savoe, an island to the south-west of Timor, the dead are supposed to go to the west.^ If the traditions of these peoples be examined, it will be found that the direction of the land of the dead in each case is the same as the direction of the land whence they believe themselves to have come. The Badoej came from the south ^ : the people of the Babar archipelago from the west'' : the Pangin from the east^: and the people of Savoe say that their ancestor settled on an island, Randjoewa, situated west of the group.^

Orientation. — I have elsewhere shown that in many cases where the dead are supposed to return to the land of the forefathers, the body is placed in a position that is in a direct relation to the direction in which the ghost has to travel.^'* The following cases will serve as typical examples

'A. C. Kruijt, Het Animisme in den Indischen Arihipel, 1906, p. 373; L. V. Ende, "Die Baduwi auf Java," yl/eo'. Geogr. Ges. Wien, xix., 1S89, p. II.

^J. C. F. Riedel, De sliiik- en kroeshaarigc rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, 1886, p. 338.

en volk., Ser. 6, iii., 1897, p. 74.
 * E. L. M. Kuhr, " Schetsen uit Borneo's Westerafdeeling," Tijd. iaal land.

^W. M. Donselaar, " Aanteekeningen over het eiland Savoe," vT/^^/. Ned. Zend. Gen., xvi., 1872, p. 309.

"Kruijt, op. lit., p. 373 ; V. Ende, op. cit., p. 11.

'Riedel, op. cit., p. 334. ^Kuhr, op. cit., p. 74.

''M. Teffer, " Naamlijsten van al hetgeen den Savoenees tot onderhoud en verangenaaming der levens wordt geschonken," Tijd. iaal land- en volk., xxiii., 1876, p. 351.

'*"The Orientation of the dead in Indonesia," y<?«;-. Roy. Anth. Insi., xliv., 1914, pp. 281 tt seq.