Hans Scharer was born at Wadenswil (near Zurich), Switzerland, in 1904. After his school years, he was trained for (Protestant) mis­ sionary work at the Missionshaus in BiHe. For seven years, 1932-1939, he lived among the Ngaju in southern Borneo; first with the Ngaju­ speaking people of the Katingan river area, later, for a shorter period. with those living along the Barito. He was granted European leave in 1939, and spent the years 1939-1944 studying Ethnology (as it then was called) under Professor J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong at Leiden University. He went home to Switzerland in 1944, but returned to Leiden in 1946 to complete his studies and defend his Ph. D. thesis on Die Gottesidee der N gadju Dajak in Sud-Borneo. It is this thesis which. published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, in 1946, is now being re-issued in English translation. Soon after, he left once more for the Ngaju territory, as Praeses of the Baseler Mission in south Borneo. He died there suddenly on December 10th, 1947, of blood-poisoning. These few biographical data are not merely of some slight historical interest: they help us to understand the man and his work. The present book is Scharer's only major work to have been published, and for Scharer himself it was, in a way, an experiment.

I. Introduction.- 1. The Ngaju people.- 2. The significance of the conception of God.- II. Sources for the Knowledge of the Ngaju Conception of God.- 1. Sacred literature.- 2. Religious drawings.- III. Names of the Supreme Deities.- 1. The Deity of the Upperworld.- 2. The Deity of the Underworld or the primeval waiters.- IV. The Dwelling Places of the Supreme Deities.- 1. The habitation of Mahatala.- 2. The habitation of Jata.- V. Natures and Manifestations of the Supreme Deities.- 1. Duality and unity.- 2. Manifestations of the deities.- 3. Sacred colours and numbers.- 4. Emblems and goods of the supreme deities.- VI. The Act of Divine Creation.- VII. The Divine Order.- 1. The sacred people.- 2. The sacred land.- 3. The sacred house.- 4. The sacred life.- 5. The sacred era.- VIII. The Divine Justice.- 1. Consequences of transgressing the hadat.- 2. Restoration of order.- IX. Divine Gifts.- 1. Beneficent gifts.- 2. Maleficent gifts.- X. The Sacred Service.- 1. Cosmic disaster.- 2. The renewal of the world and its well-being.- XI. The Sacred Dead.- 1. Good and bad dead.- 2. Modes of existence of the dead.- 3. Worship of the dead.- 4. The relation of the sacred dead to the supreme deities.- XII. The Essence of Da Yak Religion.- 1. The deities.- 2. Upperworld and Underworld.- 3. The creation.- 4. The sacred dead.- 5. Conclusions.- Appendix I: Creation Myth of the Ngaju.- Appendix II: The Myth of Silai.- Plates III to XXVI and Map (at back).