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.