ABSTRACT
After dreams, omens also furnish the primitive with data concerning the influence of the mystic forces by which he feels himself surrounded. The noting of omens was a custom of ancient times, and it was specially practised in the Roman republic, where it was an official institution. Primitive mentality is not equilibrated by the conception of a fixed order of the universe. The type of causality which it habitually conceives is quite different. The custom of noting omens and regulating conduct by them is met with in many uncivilized peoples. But nowhere does it seem to be more fully developed than among the Dayaks and most other native tribes of Borneo. The chapter presents facts that shed a good deal of light on the nature of omens. The signs given by birds or certain animals are not only indications, warnings, announcements of what is about to happen.
