who had settled at Sarawak. They could not be taught
together. The people of the Kay tribe came on one evening, the Hokien
another, each having their own interpreter. On the third evening the
interpreters were instructed in the lessons for the following week. On
these nights our long dining-room was full of Chinamen, and a large tray
of tiny cups of tea was carried in, and consumed before the teaching
began.

CHAPTER XVIII.

LAST YEARS AT SARAWAK.

Mr. Chalmers' Merdang Dyaks once said to him, "See how many races of
people there are: Dyaks, Malays, Klings, Chinese, English. They have all
different religions: this is proper, for God has given to each the
religion suited to them."

I remembered this ingenious remark when I was reading Mr. Helms's
interesting book, just published, "Pioneering in the Far East." He says:
"Like most barbarous and savage nations, the Dyak identifies his gods
and spirits with the great phenomena of nature, and assigns them abodes
on the lofty mountains. Though, in his opinion, all spirits are not
equally malignant, all are more or less to be dreaded. The silent
surroundings of primaeval forests in which the Dyak spends most of his
time, the mountains, the gloomy caves, often looming mysteriously
through cloud and mist, predispose him to identify them with
supernatural influences, which in his imagination take the form of
monsters and genii. With no better guide than the untutored imagination
of a mind which in religious matters is a blank, who shall wonder that
this is so? I have myself often felt the influences of such
surroundings, when dark clouds deepened the forest gloom, and the
approaching storm set the trees whispering: if, at such a moment, the
shaggy red-haired and goblin form of the orang-outang, with which some
of the Dyaks identify their genii, should appear among the branches, it
requires little imagination to people the mystic gloom with unearthly
beings."

Mr. Helms is quite right--the religion which springs from circumstance
and surrounding nature is always one of fear; evil is so close to the
heart of man that the very elements and mysteries of nature seem his
enemies, so long as he is ignorant of the love of God. The great
creating Spirit, whose existence is acknowledged by all Dyaks, inspires
them with neither love nor trust; it is only malign spirits who are
active, who concern themselves with his affairs, and threaten his
happiness and prosperity, and who mu