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A man suffering from chronic disease may himself pray to Laki Tenangan. He lights a fire and kills a fowl, and perhaps a pig also, and calls upon Laki Neho to be his witness and messenger.
He is a giver of omens and a bringer of messages from Laki Tenangan. The following notes of a conversation with an intelligent Kayan chief will give some idea of his attitude towards Laki Neho.
The Kayans have a hawk-god, Laki Neho, but seem to regard the hawk as the servant of the chief god, Laki Tenangan. Singalang Burong, the hawk-god of the Dyaks, is completely anthropomorphized.
Beside or above all these is LAKI TENANGAN, a god more powerful than all the rest, to whom are assigned no special or departmental functions. He seems to preside or rule over the company of lesser gods, much as Zeus and Jupiter ruled over the lesser gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Kayans seem to have no very clear and generally accepted dogmas about these gods.
At the quickening she sacrifices a young pig and charges it to convey her prayer to Doh Tenangan; and on the occurrence of any untoward incident, such as a fall, the prayer and sacrifice are repeated.
Protect us from whatever sickness is abroad. If I put you above my head, all men look up to me as to a high cliff." Similar rites are observed on addressing DOH TENANGAN. The following was given us as an example, "Oh! DOH TENANGAN, have pity upon me; I am ill make me strong to-morrow and able to find my food." The Kayans are not clear whether Laki Tenangan is the creator of the world.
In our chapter on animistic beliefs concerning animals and plants, and in the chapter on religion, we have shown that the Kayans believe in a multiplicity of anthropomorphic deities which, with Lake Tenangan at the head of a galaxy of subordinate gods and goddesses presiding over special departments of nature, strangely resembles the group of divine beings who, in the imagination of the fathers of European culture, dwelt in Olympus.
On the other hand, none of the facts, noted in connection with the minor gods as indicating their ancestral origin, are found to be true of LAKI TENANGAN, except only his bearing the title LAKI, which, as we have seen, is the title by which a man is addressed as soon as he becomes a grandfather.
At first our informant said that help is asked directly of Laki Neho; but, when pressed, he said that Laki Neho may carry the message to Laki Tenangan. Some things Laki Neho does of his own will and power; for example, if a branch were likely to fall on a Kayan boat he would prevent it, for Laki Tenangan long ago taught him how to do such things.
While some gods, those of war and life, of harvest and of fire, are distinctly friendly, others, namely, the gods of madness and fear, are terrible and malevolent; while the god of thunder and those that conduct the souls to Hades do not seem to be predominantly beneficent or malevolent. LAKI TENANGAN seems to be the supreme being of the Kayan universe.
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