bar the door of the house against them if they are
unsuccessful."

"I believe the Malays are generally Mohammedans. What is the religion of
the Dyaks?" inquired Louis.

"It has been said by some travellers that they have no religion of any
kind; but I don't think this is quite true, though it is not far from
it," replied Mr. Eng. "Religion is a very indefinite idea among the
Dyaks, and they are chary in speaking of what there is of it. Some who
have been among them maintain that they believe in a Supreme Being, who
has a great many different names among the various tribes. They have
almost as many inferior deities as the Hindus.

"They are very superstitious; and there are all sorts of omens, among
which there is a particular bird which has obtained the name of the omen
bird. His cry on the right of, or behind, a person engaged in any
enterprise is an unlucky sign, and he abandons his object; while the cry
heard on the left is a favorable omen, and the individual is duly
encouraged to go forward.

"I had a story from a Kyan head man which had come down to him as a
tradition. A great head-hunting expedition, consisting of a thousand
warriors, had set out many years ago. It had not gone far when a little
muntjac, which you know is a kind of deer, ran across the path of the
warriors. This was a bad omen; and they gave up the enterprise, and
returned to their villages.

"I know of a couple just married who separated because they heard a
deer-cry within three days after their union, which was a sign that one
of them would die within a year. Even little insects intimidate doughty
warriors, or assure them that they are far from danger, by their
appearance or their cry."

"There is not a little of similar superstition in enlightened nations,
though there is vastly less of it than formerly," added Louis.

"I have heard my grandfather say that the ticking of a death-watch used
to scare him so that he could not sleep when he was a boy," said Morris.

"What is a death-watch?" asked Scott.

"It is a kind of beetle that conceals itself in the walls of old
houses," replied Louis. "The noise it makes is really the call of the
bug for his mate, and is the cry of love instead of death, as many
ignorant people believe. The breaking of a looking-glass is also a sign
of death in the family."

"Mrs. Blossom wouldn't break a looking-glass for a fortune," added
Felix. "She says she broke one nine years before her husband died, and