The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-16
7 Z

MS own grandfather product OF
Inference rather than "A living memory,
the savage man exercises his intellectual
activity in inventing God that man may
be created Man has found many in
ventions, this is what the Toradjas have
Invented to satisfy their quest for the
infinite.
In the ancient times. they say. there
were no men. Then iai, the god Of
the world above the world. and Ndara,
the goddess of the world under the
world, determined upon an act Of crea-
ton. Taking stones on the mountain
they made two human figures. man and
woman. When their labor was COM
pleted they set the figures on the path
which led from the overworld to the
underworld so that all the spirits on
their way between the two worlds might
gaze upon the two human forms. This
work they did not do with their own
hands, but entrusted IL to Kombengi.
At night when Kombengi invited them
10 see the execution OF the project the
gods found the figures too thin. Kom-
bengi then made two more figures and
gave them the appearance Of corpu-
lence. This time the gods found the
fault that the figures were too fat. Kom-
bengi made yet third pair OF images
the gods were content with the product
except in one minor particular. by CHS
Cling redundancy from the male figure
and adding II to the female figure the
sculptor OF the gods established the
precedent for the ritual practice which
was customary in the archipelago ages
before the contact with Semitic religious
conventions. When finally the figures
satisfied the gods Lai. from his abode
in the skies. sent down the everlasting
spirit or breath of life. Kombengi let
the wind blow upon them and thus they
acquired life. Thus II is that when
man dies the breath returns to the air.
The gods thus invented are of the
simplest type of the eternal verities.
The learned authors have established
that Lai. god OF the overworld, means
no more than male, that Ndara OF the
underworld means female; they per-
sonify Father Heaven and Mother
Earth. Totally ASSOCIATED as are the
savages of Celebes from any possibility
OF contact with Indo-Germanic pro-
genitors. We see in this record
similarity in the theological evolution
Of a cosmogony. Jupiter Zeus, Dyaus
is the divine sky, even as I.ai of the
TOradjas. far more elemental than the
sun god. the earth mother Ndara Is the
same as &C. the wife of Chronos the
father OF the gods whose functions in
later growth have been added to De-
meter. the goddess of corn.
Lai and Ndara are Invented for one
specific purpose; they are the agents
OF the creation of man, this accom-
plished they keep hands on their pro-
duct, they instl no fear as OF powerful
deities,' to them no prayers arise, their
position relative to human life is in
rude terms that OF the Epicurean
arldity of the philosophy OF Lucretius.
1t called for three efforts of the
glyptic art OF Kombengl to produce
humankind to satisfy the upper and
the lower gods, yet the work was not
complete. the product did not meet
| forest conditions The first work OF
creation is supplemented by yet another
god. Pue by name. who is the par
| ticular patron Of such as work in iron.
| For the first of mankind he performed
the minor yet important services which
have done so much for the advance
ment OF the human race even TO the
ToradJa standard he Silt apart the
| ihk'io oii NIt anu the toes on the
feet 50 that man might walk and might
work for his livelihood and he sundered
the lips so that he might eat and spSak.
| He has also the gift of death. The
human souls hang on threads in the
house OF another god. Ngkai. who sits
ak day watching them sway in the
breeze. When Pue cuts one OF the
threads and the soul falls to the floor In
| . ha -
whose soul 1t Is falls down dead
Pue lives In house whose floor Stats
are the fingers OF men and whose
! scantlings are RIBS. whenever he makes
a man he draws upon this material. He
has two servants OF the name OF Indo,
male and female, who fly around the
earth nine times by day and yet other
nine times by night and report TO their
master what men and women have
wrought. II men have omitted the pro-
pitiations for their misdeeds, propitia-
tiops measured on a scale OF rhree- five
seven amends. Pue cuts the thread of
their souls in the house Of Ngkai and
they die
There are many interesting details of
this simple theology which the authors
have presented in an entertaining fash
ion, but we find II necessary to pass to
the intcrlacing Of this system of gods
| with the daily affairs of life, with the
means whereby man approaches the
gods above and the gods below in order
10 avert their wrath. Given gods in any
community we count upon the disclos-
ing of some system OF ecclesiasticism
whereby god and sinner may be recon-
cilcd.
The Toradjas of the BARGE negative
have no priestly class. Functions of this
nature pertain to the father of the
family or to some man ancient OF days
whose wealth OF experience has given
him the knowledge how gods and spirits
should be addressed Thus we see that
these Toradjls are at the stage of the
priest chief. yet socially so little or
ganized that they are far below the de-
velopment of this function into the
natural corollary of the god king
In the businesses of the mountains
the less advanced Toradjas have not
Vet attained To this sacerdotal function
Of the patriarchate. There we find a
triple series Of intercessors, one detail
OF which Is of peculiar moment in the
evolution of religion as practice of
humanity. In the mountains. are
priests whose services are intercessury