Friday, June 22, 2012

BELIEF IN DREAMS (MIMPI) BY Revd. WILLIAM HOWELL

From the earliest times dreams were regarded as presaging the woes or foretelling the joys or good fortune of mankind. It was looked upon as almost impious to disregard a vision or dream for they were supposed to be sent by the Celestial Power for the guidance of man, and as such belief lingers even now amongst educated persons in civilized countries, how much more should we expect to find it among the uncivilized barbarians. So the lives of the Dyaks are strongly influenced by such hallucinations, dreams being looked upon by them as either the imperative commands of the gods or else warnings sent by them presaging good or evil, and their daily life and pursuits are necessarily guided by them to a great extent.

      We look upon a dream as a slight and ill arranged action of the thinking faculties during a state of partial sleep.The dream or thought is merely a momentary impression perfectly natural in its operation, the state of mind which causes it being produced by temporary functional derangement, the stomach being usually more or less out of order, and no dreams can take place during a sound sleep.

      The Dyaks affirm that the gods or spirits are instrumental in bringing about dreams and one can only come to the conclusion that they are not aware that they or their imaginations constitute their gods.

      The following are instances of the effect of dreams on the Dyaks:—


1.      If a medicine man (manang) has a dream ordering him to change his sex he must do so at once as in the case of Manang Bali in the chapter of Manang.

2.    It often happens that when Dyaks are accused of theft their defence is that they are the recipients of imperative commands from the gods. Once a man was fined six times for theft and he announced that he intended to steal once more in order to complete the number of times ordered by the gods, as after the last theft he would be a wealthy man.

3.      A woman was known to have committed adultery several times, saying that it was not her fault as she was only carrying out the instructions of the gods conveyed to her in dreams, and should she fail to do so she would come to an untimely end or else become a raving lunatic.

4.      Newly married couples often divorce as the result of bad dreams, and the same reason is put forward to account for the breaking of engagements or pledges.

5.      Cases are known of Christian Dyaks turning apostates and of heathens being converted as the result of dreams.

6.      If dreams are often the cause of houses being deserted and of farming lands already cleared being given up. It is not at all rare to hear either a man or woman relating a dream to the effect that the spirits have told them that they are hungry and are in want of food, with the result that the whole house at once organizes a feast with offerings for the spirits.I think that I have said enough to show what effect dreams have on all transactions amongst Dyaks, and though this subject would fill many volumes it is more or less confused, and I may draw my conclusion that the Dyak belief in both dreams and omens is most detrimental to the teaching of Christianity and that it is important to teach them to disregard both of these.



NAMPOK (VIGILS) by Revd William Howell


There are two uses for Nampok, one in which the Dyaks seek to be made brave, and the other in order to discover a cure for ailments, and this latter is practised only when the person who is suffering is beyond all human aid. The idea is religious, the person practising it betaking himself to some solitary place on mountains, hills, rivers or even in a cemetery or wherever there is any probability of meeting with the spirits, and before leaving the spirits must be approached with an ample offering. Some unfortunates have been known to have visited a dozen places and yet never had the chance of meeting a single antu or spirit. The undertaking is said to be dangerous and to require considerable pluck and self control; the spirit may either appear in person or else in visions and may take on themselves the forms of animals or reptiles in hideous shapes in order to frighten one. 
      Should the person give way to fright and run away he suffers death, but if he can control himself he obtains his desire and the spirits finally appear before him in human form bestowing kindly and caressing looks on him.
      The offering with which the spirits are approached must needs be stolen from other people and none is allowed to know when a person goes nampok.
      A few years ago an old man went nampok in a cemetery. The first night he was unvisited by the spirits but on his second visit the koklir—a ferocious female spirit—appeared and he ran for his life. This man lived for many years after that though the nampok did him no good. It seems difficult to understand how a Dyak can possibly  escape harm when going nampok, lying exposed as he does to the elements on the bare ground amongst rocks and stones.