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It is true that on the arrival of honoured guests a pig is usually killed and given to them for food; but its spirit is then always charged with some message to Bali Penyalong. It is said that, when the pig's spirit comes to Bali Penyalong, he is offended if it brings no message from those who killed the pig, and he sends it back to carry off their souls.
Beside Bali Penyalong the Punans are aware of the existence of other divinities, which, however, are very obscurely conceived and seldom approached with prayer or rite. As regards the land of shades and the journey thither, Punan beliefs are closely similar to those of Kenyahs and some of the Klemantans. But they practice no burial and no funeral rites.
And it would seem that the fowls are kept in the main for ceremonial Purposes, and that their table use is of very secondary importance. Fowls are killed on many of the occasions on which pigs are sacrificed, and, as we have seen in the description of the ceremony at Tama Bulan's house, their blood may be poured upon the altarposts of Bali Penyalong.
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.
But we have seen that, after the ceremony in preparation for an expedition, the bodies of the young pigs whose blood was scattered on the altarpost of Bali Penyalong were fixed upon tall poles beside this altar-post and there left; and this seems to be the rule in ceremonies of this sort, though it is not clear whether the carcases are left there as offerings to the hawks or to Bali Penyalong, or because they are in some sense too holy to be used as food after being used in such rites.
The Kenyahs seem to feel that the purpose of fire is to carry up the prayers to heaven by means of the ascending flame and smoke, in somewhat the same way as the tall pole planted by the side of the image of Bali Penyalong facilitates communion with the spirit; for they conceive him as dwelling somewhere above the earth.
They pray to Bali Penyalong, who seems to be the principal object of their trust. This being is probably conceived anthropomorphically, but his human qualities are not so clearly marked as in the case of the gods of the settled tribes. They make no images in human form, and we do not know that Bali Penyalong is supposed by them to have a wife.
We were told by one very intelligent Kenyah that he supposed that the hawks, having been so frequently sent by Bali Penyalong to give them warnings, had learnt how to do this of their own will, and that sometimes they probably do give them warning or encouragement independently without being sent by him.
With the Kenyahs similar processes, we suggest, have led to the exaltation of BALI PENYALONG, the original god of war, into the position of the Supreme Being, and of BALI FLAKI, his special messenger, into the position, or almost into the position, of the god of war.
The substance of his address is a prayer to Bali Penyalong for guidance and knowledge as to the future course of the business in hand, and an injunction to the soul of the pig to carry the prayer to Bali Penyalong.
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