It is contained in a series of papers
entitled RELIGIOUS RITES AND CUSTOMS OF THE IBANS OR DYAKS OF SARAWAK,
BORNEO, written by Leo Nyuak (an Iban educated in a mission school),
and translated by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn (ANTHROPOS, vol. i. p. 182,
1905). In this account the guardian spirit is called TUA, and we are
told that ,The TUA or guardian spirit of an Iban has its external
manifestation in a snake, a leopard, or some other denizen of the
forest. It is supposed to be the spirit of some ancestor renowned
for bravery, or some other virtue, who at death has taken an animal
form ... it is revealed in a dream what animal form the honoured dead
has taken."
CHAPTER 16
Magic, Spells, and Charms
Magic is in a comparatively neglected and backward condition among the
Kayans and Kenyahs, Punans, Ibans, and the more warlike up-country
Klemantans. On the other hand, some of the coastwise tribes of
Klemantans, especially the Malanaus and Kadayans, cultivate magic
with some assiduity.
The Kayans dislike and discourage all magical practices, with the
exception of those which are publicly practised for beneficent purposes
and have the sanction of custom.
In the old days they used to kill those suspected of working any evil
by magic.
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