Note 75 — Chapter I · TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS

Betara, otherwise petara, is the ordinary Sea Dyak name for deity. The word is incorrectly translated as “Great Spirit”; in general belief there are many petara. These gods, it may be noted, are separated by no distinct line of demarcation from the thousands of antu, or spirits, with which the Dyak has peopled his universe. See J. Perham, “Petara, or Sea Dyak Gods,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1881, no. 8; H. L. Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, London, 1896, i, 168-182.