I wish first to express my gratitude to the Koninklijk Instituut voor
Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, which has kindly arranged for this book to
be printed. My thanks also include Professor Dr. C. Hooykaas, who has
interested himself in this treatise and has accorded it his support. I
should like to render my sincere thanks to Dr. J. Noorduyn, Secre- tary
of the Institute, who has given me a miscellany of good suggestions for
the compilation of the editorship of the Introduction. Further I desire
to thank my former assistants, Mr. J. Tammu and Mr. L. Pak an, warmly
for their work in noting down the text of the Chants for the Deceased
and for their help in seeking for an explanation of various difficult
places in it. Once more I owe a very great debt of gratitude to Jeune
Scott-Kemball, who has been able to accomplish casting my Dutch
translation in prose of the lines in trochaic metre of the Chants for
the Deceased into a very elegant English verse form. This was not always
very simple in view of the metaphorical manner of expression in the
Toradja lines of verse.