Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/161

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the Home of the Dead in Indonesia. 1 5 1

In all these cases myths are present which connect the first ancestors with stones. The Kabul came out of a stone at Aqui'^^; the Tangkhul also originate from a stone,'^^ and the first ancestors of the Paivvan came out of a stone which burst.^^ The myth which connects the first ancestors of the race with stones occurs in different forms in Minahassa. Lumimuut, the oldest goddess, created Kareima, the first woman, who was also a priestess, out of a rock.^^ Among the Toumpakewa branch there is a myth that the first man was made by the union of the foam and the sand on the shore. One day while walking he heard voices in a heap of stones, and on approaching he found a girl : — " she had sprouted out of the stones." ^^ Again, on the hill Tonde- rukan are two stone figures, male and female, carved out of the rock. They are said to be Lumimuut and Toar, the first human pair in Minahassa.^^

Here, again, then is a similar correspondence between the myth of origin and the disposal of the dead.

To sum up — the land of the dead when situated on the earth is generally supposed to be in the same direction as the land whence the people in question believe themselves to have come. In these cases orientation of the dead in relation to the land of the dead is often found, and, if the journey be over water, a canoe is generally supplied. More- over, the body may actually be taken back to the homeland. When the land of the dead is on a mountain, it is believed that the race originated from a mountain. In this case too is found the practice of taking the dead back to some far distant mountain. It has also been found that tree-disposal

"T. C. Hodson, The Naga Tribes of Manipiir, 191 1, p. 14. ^^ Ibid., p. 14. ^'Fischer, op. cit., p. 241.

* Ilickson, A Natitralist in Celebes, pp. 240- 1.

  • 'J. Bodde, " Een Minahassisch scheppingsverhaal," i^/£</. Ned. Zend. Gen.,

-xlvii., 1903, pp. 222-3.

  • • Riedel, " De watu lerumeran de empung of de steenen zetel der empung 's

in der Minahassa," Tijd. taal land- en vol/;., xi., 1897, pp. 189-90.