As Archdeacon
Perham has written of the Ibans, there are traces of the belief in
one supreme God which suggest that the idea is one that has been
prevalent, but has now almost died out. We are inclined to suppose
that the tribes of the interior, such as the Kenyahs and Kayans, have
evolved the conception for themselves, and that in fact Bali Penyalong
of the Kenyahs is their god of war exalted above all others by the
importance of the department of human activity over which he presides;
for we have seen that they had been led to conceive other gods --
Balingo, the god of thunder, Bali Sungei, the god of the rivers,
whose anger is shown by the boiling flood, and Bali Atap, who keeps
harm from the house, while the Kayans have gods of life, a god of
harvesting, and other departmental deities. It seems to us that the
only difficult step in such a simple and direct evolution of the idea
of a beneficent Supreme Being is the conception of gods or spirits that
perform definite functions, such as Bali Atap, who guards the house,
and the gods that preside over harvesting and war, as distinct from
such gods or nature-spirits as Balingo and Bali Sungei. But there
seems to be no doubt that this step has been taken by these peoples,
and that these various gods of abstract function have been evolved by
them.
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