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Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering
Ranjith Dissanayake
Priyan Mendis Editors
ICSBE 2018
Proceedings of the 9th International
Conference on Sustainable Built
Environment
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering
Volume 44
Series Editors
Marco di Prisco, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Sheng-Hong Chen, School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Ioannis Vayas, Institute of Steel Structures, National Technical University of
Athens, Athens, Greece
Sanjay Kumar Shukla, School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup,
WA, Australia
Anuj Sharma, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
Nagesh Kumar, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Chien Ming Wang, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering (LNCE) publishes the latest developments in
Civil Engineering - quickly, informally and in top quality. Though original research
reported in proceedings and post-proceedings represents the core of LNCE, edited
volumes of exceptionally high quality and interest may also be considered for
publication. Volumes published in LNCE embrace all aspects and subfields of, as
well as new challenges in, Civil Engineering. Topics in the series include:
• Construction and Structural Mechanics
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• Concrete, Steel and Timber Structures
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Earthquake Engineering
• Coastal Engineering
• Hydraulics, Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering
• Environmental Engineering and Sustainability
• Structural Health and Monitoring
• Surveying and Geographical Information Systems
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Indexed by Scopus
Editors
ICSBE 2018
Proceedings of the 9th International
Conference on Sustainable Built Environment
123
Editors
Ranjith Dissanayake Priyan Mendis
Department of Civil Engineering Department of Infrastructure Engineering
University of Peradeniya University of Melbourne
Kandy, Sri Lanka Parkville, VIC, Australia
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Preface
It is with great pleasure that we present the proceedings of the 9th International
Conference on Sustainable Built Environment (ICSBE) 2018. This is the ninth
consecutively organized conference following a series of International Conference
since 2010, keeping its tradition of adhering to engineering excellence.
Taking a step forward from the last seven events, the coverage of specialty areas
in this conference has been diversified. This book contains the manuscripts of
research work from many different sub-specialties. We expect that all these
manuscripts will be presented at parallel sessions from 14 to 15 December 2018.
We would like to express our appreciation to all keynote lecturers for their
invaluable contribution to the development of a sustainable world. We are also very
grateful to the authors for contributing research papers of high quality. The
manuscripts in this proceeding book have been reviewed by a panel of academic
and professional experts who have vast expertise in their respective fields. The
enormous work carried out by these reviewers is gratefully appreciated as well. We
are also pleased to acknowledge the advice and assistance provided by the members
of the international advisory committee and members of the editorial committee
along with many others who volunteered to assist to make this very significant
event a success. Furthermore, we acknowledge the financial sponsorship provided
by many organizations that has been extremely supportive towards the success of
this international conference.
It is the earnest wish of the editors that this proceeding book would be used by
the research community and practicing engineers who are directly or indirectly
involved in studies related to sustainability.
v
vi Preface
Contents
vii
viii Contents
Sustainable Manufacturing
Properties of Portland Blast Furnace Slag Cements Affecting
Their Autogenous Shrinkage Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
S. Suntharalingam and Y. Takahashi
Fire Performance of CFRP Strengthened Steel I Beams Cured
at Elevated Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
E. R. K. Chandrathilaka and J. C. P. H. Gamage
Treatment of Wastewater with High Nitrogen Loading by Moving
Bed Biofilm Reactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
H. K. D. T. Karunarathne, L. K. U. De Silva, and K. B. S. N. Jinadasa
Experimental and Analytical Study of Residual Yield and Tensile
Strengths in Partially Corroded Structural Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
P. A. K. Karunananda, K. A. D. D. T. Kariyapperuma, R. P. Weeraratne,
and H. D. M. Sanjeewani
Mathematical Modeling of the Hydrolysis Phase in Anaerobic
Digestion of Solid Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
D. I. U. Edirisinghe, S. M. W. T. P. K. Ariyarathna, and C. S. Kalpage
Design of a Robotic Firefighting Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
R. Munzara, S. M. Ganyani, and T. Mushiri
Design of a Portable and Sustainable Bicycle Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
T. Mushiri, R. Gumbo, and C. Mbohwa
Design for Manufacture and Assembly of an Automated Dish
Washing Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Tawanda Mushiri, Rutendo F. Solomon, and Charles Mbohwa
xii Contents
Abstract. Sri Lanka is a tropical island in the Indian Ocean which has suffered
from various disasters in the recent past. Flood events which occurred in the last
three consecutive years clearly shows that the country is affected from climate
change. During a disaster event, evacuation of vulnerable and affected com-
munities is necessary to reduce the number of deaths. In the Sri Lankan per-
spective, most of the recent disasters severely damaged the coastal belt of the
country. This study was carried out to evaluate the different aspects of evacu-
ation planning with respect to the coastal districts in Sri Lanka. Some of the
aspects considered are early warning dissemination, evacuation routes, shelters,
drills and training and the effects of having a family vehicle, disabled people,
neighbours and domestic animals. During this study, an online questionnaire
survey was distributed after carrying out an in-depth literature survey to gather
data. The lack of trust in authorities who disseminate early warnings and limited
knowledge on evacuation routes and shelters in the residential areas are some of
the key issues which were identified during this study. Furthermore, it was
identified that social media plays a pivotal role in disseminating the early
warnings in the urban areas. Increasing the number of awareness campaigns
related to evacuation and using social media wisely are some of the recom-
mendations made, which will build the coastal community resilience via
proactive measures.
1 Introduction
Extreme weather events and natural hazards have been identified as the top two global
risks in terms of likelihood (WEF 2018). When looking at Sri Lanka, it is visible that
this statement is highly applicable considering the frequent disasters after the 2004
Indian Ocean Tsunami. During 2016, 2017 and 2018, the country witnessed extreme
rains which triggered flooding in several urban areas. The number of affected people
from the 2018 floods were around 150,000 which shows a significant decrease com-
pared to the events in 2016 and 2017 (DMC 2018a, b). The 2017 flood event which
damaged both the infrastructure and communities of the densely populated districts in
Sri Lanka raised the number of affected families up to 630,000 (MoNPEA 2017a, b).
These three consecutive events show that Sri Lanka should undertake quick resilience
measures in order to reduce the number of affected people. Evacuation planning is an
aspect which should be given due recognition when building community resilience. Most
of vulnerable communities face several problems during the evacuation process after an
early warning is disseminated. There is always a set of individuals who will not respond to
the EW messages and evacuation orders following the guidelines, but will act on their
own (Sakamoto et al. 2016). Hence the respective authorities, in the Sri Lankan case, the
tri-forces sometimes must persuade them. The lack of awareness and trust in authorities,
unawareness on evacuation plans, shelters and shortest routes, minor experience in drills
and training, increasing number of deaths and deficiencies in capacity has led to the need
to carry out this research to find out the challenges and barriers in evacuation planning to
provide recommendations to reduce the disaster risk of the coastal communities. The
study is focused mainly on the evacuation scenarios of floods and Tsunamis since the
coastal belt of the island is more vulnerable to these hazards.
2 Methodology
To evaluate the different aspects in evacuation planning for the coastal communities in
Sri Lanka, initially, an in-depth literature review was carried out to identify the existing
status by referring to several plans and programmes prepared by various national and
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). In addition, online databases like JSTOR,
Google scholar ad ScienceDirect were used to search for peer-reviewed articles across
the world. Combinations of keywords: evacuation planning, coastal hazards, emergency
management, disaster resilience and climate change were employed in the searches. The
preliminary materials were screened further to obtain a shortlist of materials relevant to
the research. These were used for snowball sampling to find further literature. Finally,
after a discussion with the Sri Lankan academics involved in the Disaster Management
sector, three main themes, namely; early warning dissemination, evacuation routes,
shelters, drills and training and the effect of having a family vehicle, disabled people,
neighbours and domestic animals were selected to identify gaps.
Then, an online questionnaire survey was distributed to gather the community
perception on evacuation planning in coastal communities. The Survey was distributed
via social media and emails. This was done to gather the opinions of the people who
have frequent internet access in the urban areas. Thematic content analysis method was
used to analyse the data under the above aspects. Finally, after the analysis, several
recommendations were provided to address the gaps and challenges identified in the
above themes.
Important Aspects of Evacuation Planning for the Coastal Communities 5
Looking at the general opinions about hazards, more than 40% of the respondents
think that storms, floods and lightning strikes will affect their area while 15% were
confident that their area is hazard free. This fact confirms that most of the respondents
are aware that they are vulnerable to floods. When rating the trust placed on the
authorities towards the notices issued by the authorities to evacuate for disasters more
than 70% rate it below 3, on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being worse and 5 being excellent).
This is a critical issue which needs to be addressed, which shows that communities do
not take evacuation notices seriously.
6 G. P. Jayasiri et al.
During a disaster, sometimes, access to the internet might not be possible. Fur-
thermore, a statistical analysis was done to identify the correlations between the above
responses. According to the Shapiro – Wilk normality analysis done to find a correlation
between the respondent’s district and social media, all the selected variables have a
significance less than 0.05, which depicts that the data significantly variates from a
normal distribution. From the analysis, it was visible that there aren’t any correlations
between the respondent’s districts and preferred way of getting EW messages. But it was
visible that there are weak positive correlations between Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter
and other social media. This shows that a selected individual respondent has a slight
similarity on their opinion of social media. Furthermore, WhatsApp and media channels
have a weak negative correlation which shows a tendency in the respondents to prefer
either one of them to get EWs. In addition, from the District and Social Network cross
tabulation, it was observed that more than 80% of the respondents either use Facebook
or WhatsApp as a social media network. Hence, this shows that when using social media
to disseminate EW messages Facebook and WhatsApp can be more effective. The
Facebook page which was launched recently and is managed by the Disaster Man-
agement Centre shows that they have undertaken this initiative (DMC 2018b).
Important Aspects of Evacuation Planning for the Coastal Communities 7
Knowing the safest and fastest ways to the evacuation shelters helps the residents to
get out of their houses and reach a more convenient place in time. In addition, iden-
tification of the safest place in the relevant area which can provide shelter is important.
During the survey, 37% of the people said that they know the evacuation routes while
others were either not sure or thought there aren’t any. Out of the 37% who said they
know about the evacuation routes, 74% firmly said that there are no evacuation signs
along the routes. Due to the significant damage caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean
Tsunami, most of the evacuation signs in the country are for Tsunamis. But for other
disasters, there are hardly any.
In addition, only 18% of the respondents know the evacuation shelters in the area.
This is a significantly a low value which the authorities should take immediate action to
remedy by conducting awareness programmes. Religious places, schools and hospitals
can be taken as evacuation shelters since most of them are on a higher ground.
According to the survey, respondents said that it will take around 5–10 min to reach the
nearest shelter in their areas. All of the 18% who said they know the evacuation shelter;
were confident that they know the shortest routes as well.
Furthermore, 60% of the respondents said that they don’t have any personal
experience of a disaster. Most of the remaining 40% have experiences related to the
Tsunami, strong winds and floods. More than 70% of them rated their evacuation
experience by giving a value greater than 3 within a scale of 1–5 where 1 being poor
and 5 being excellent.
The analysis of the information led to several conclusions regarding the evacuation
planning for coastal communities in Sri Lanka. Even though Sri Lanka has a properly
established EW mechanism, the lack of trust in authorities who disseminate early
warnings is an issue. Social media plays an important role when informing the general
public about evacuation notices. DMC and other relevant authorities should consider
this fact and should use social media wisely for EW processes. If the authorities can
develop a mechanism where only vulnerable people get an evacuation notice to their
mobile phones as an SMS, that would be a perfect scenario. Limited knowledge and
awareness on evacuation routes and shelters in residential areas are some of the key
issues which were identified during this study. Local authorities should undertake
necessary actions to establish sign boards which will guide people to evacuation
shelters quickly. In addition, they can conduct smaller-scale awareness campaigns and
scenario-based evacuation drills. Most people who live in towns have a family vehicle
which helps them evacuate quickly. For those who need transportation assistance, local
authorities, with the help of NGOs, can arrange those facilities during an evacuation
process. Even though we should always care about our neighbours and other vulnerable
people we have to make sure that we are safe first.
Proper evacuation notices, well-established guidelines and clear signboards to
evacuation shelters will always help affected communities evacuate safely which will
reduce the number of deaths during a disaster.
Acknowledgement. This research was conducted in collaboration with the Faculty of Engi-
neering of University of Moratuwa and University of Peradeniya with the financial aid from
CABARET (Capacity Building in Asia for Resilience Education), a project of the European
Union’s Erasmus+ programme – Key action 2 – Capacity building in the field of higher
education.
10 G. P. Jayasiri et al.
Disclaimer. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not
constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflects the views only of the authors, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information
contained therein.
References
Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CEDMA) (2017)
Sri Lanka disaster management handbook
Department of Education (DoE) (2008) National guidelines for school disaster safety. http://
www.preventionweb.net/files/9252_srinatguilines.pdf
Disaster Management Centre (DMC) (2015) National emergency operations plan, vol I
Disaster Management Centre (DMC) (2018a) Summary situation report - southwest monsoon
Disaster Management Centre (DMC) (2018b) DMC Sri Lanka. https://www.facebook.com/
dmc.gov.lk/
Jayasiri GP, Siriwardena CSA, Hettiarachchi SSL, Dissanayake PBR, Bandara CS (2018)
Important aspects in building community resilience of Coastal Districts in Sri Lanka. In:
International conference on disaster management
Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs (MoNPEA) (2017a) Floods and landslides.
Integrated risk assesment
Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs (MoNPEA) (2017b) Post-disaster recovery
plan
Owens JK, Warner Stidham A, Owens EL (2013) Disaster evacuation for persons with special
needs: a content analysis of information on YouTube. Appl Nurs Res 26(4):273–275
Sakamoto M, Kuri M, Iguchi M, Maki N (2016) Disaster governance in disaster management
planning—analysis of the evacuation planning process for Kuchinoerabujima Volcano
Eruption. J Nat Disaster Sci 37(2):105–117
Vásquez A, Marinkovic K, Bernales M, León J, González J, Castro S (2018) Children’s views on
evacuation drills and school preparedness: mapping experiences and unfolding perspectives.
Int J Disaster Risk Reduction 28(June 2017):165–175
World Economic Forum (WEF) (2018) The global risks report. ISBN 10.978-1-944835-15-6
Application of GPS/GIS Based Travel Mode
Detection Method for Energy Efficient
Transportation Sector
G. W. H. A. Chandrasiri(&), K. A. G. G. K. Kumarasinghe,
and H. K. Nandalal
1 Introduction
ecosystem. The detection of travel modes plays a key role while designing energy
efficient transportation system. Household travel surveys have been used as a tool since
1970’s to collect data to build transportation models such as transportation networks
and parking facilities (Zong et al. 2016). The Travel diary method is one of the
conventional methods to carry out travel surveys. It has many drawbacks as it is a more
time consuming and respondent burdening practice. Consequently, the use of Global
Positioning System (GPS) devices for collecting travel mode data became popular in
the recent years. It reduces the respondent burden while researcher uses the respondent
as a passive data collector. Though the GPS records accurate location, time, elevation
information, it cannot record details like travel modes and trip purposes. Therefore, in
this study Geographical Information System (GIS) was used with GPS data to detect
travel modes. Gong and Chen (2011) have studied GPS/GIS method for travel mode
detection in New York City using GPS devices. At present, smartphones have GPS
facility and therefore accuracy and applicability of GPS facility in the smartphones has
become an alternative to GPS devices-based travel mode detection method. However,
information on use of smartphones-based GPS in travel mode detection is scarce.
Therefore, a study has been designed to investigate the applicability of GPS/GIS
method using mobile GPS applications for travel mode detection in the University of
Peradeniya. The objectives of the study are; (i) to detect the travel mode using smart
phone-based GPS applications (ii) to compare the results of modal shares (iii) to
evaluate the success rate of smart phone-based travel mode detection compared to that
of travel diary-based travel mode detection method (iv) identify and compare the travel
modes of students in the Faculties of Engineering and Science using novel smartphone-
based travel mode detection method.
GPS based travel surveys have many advantages over traditional paper-based travel
surveys or travel diary method. Because, in traditional paper-based surveys, respon-
dents have to fill many pages manually. It is reported that respondents often forget to
enter the trip segment and it is a time-consuming procedure. In GPS based travel
surveys, respondents are acting as passive data collectors and therefore respondent
burden is comparatively lower. The GPS method shows the traveller’s exact route and
because of the accuracy of the data, sample size can be reduced. Moreover, travel
speeds can be calculated for the particular route at particular time period. It is a good
indicator to assess the level of service for a given transportation network. Due to the
easiness of the method, length of the survey can be extended from traditional single day
survey to multiple day survey. Accuracy can be validated for the daily routine of the
same respondent through this multiple survey. Though the advantages of the GPS
based travel survey are higher compared to traditional methods, it has few drawbacks
like any other method. Since GPS traces the respondent’s exact route, it minimizes the
privacy concern. Signal loss and degradations in shopping malls, tunnels, and urban
canyons are the other drawback in this method as well as the fact that GPS cannot
directly identify travel mode and trip purposes. In this research, the main focus is on
combining GPS and GIS methods to give a solution for travel mode detection.
Application of GPS/GIS Based Travel Mode Detection Method 13
3 Literature Review
Shalaby and Chung (2005) developed a trip reconstruction software tool that auto-
matically identifies the travelled road links and modes used by the respondent using
GPS traces. Conventional GIS map matching algorithm was adopted in this method to
identify road links while rule based algorithms were used to identify four travel modes
(walk, bicycle, bus and passenger car). GPS travel data and the multimodal trans-
portation network model of downtown Toronto has been used for the evaluation of the
developed software tool. It is reported that said method correctly matched 79% of all
links travelled and 92% of all trip modes. However, they only allowed for one-purpose
trips and maximum of two possible modes per trip.
Zong et al. (2016) developed a hybrid procedure for travel mode detection and it
was presented using large-scale origin-destination survey conducted in Beijing in 2010.
They determined the subway mode separately from other modes and used two methods
to detect the subway mode. It is reported that 53.8% success rate for multinomial logit
model while 97.8% success was for GIS algorithm. Results revealed that the GPS/GIS
method provides higher accuracy for subway modes. Nested logit model was employed
to determine the modes of Walking, Bicycle, Car and Bus. Combined success rate of
the hybrid procedure was 86%.
Gong and Chen (2011) developed a GIS algorithm to automatically process data
that was traced from GPS based travel surveys. They have detected five travel modes
(Walk, Car, Bus, Subway and commuter rail) and those detected results from GIS
algorithm were compared against conventional travel diaries. They have conducted two
small GPS surveys and success rates of that combined survey was 82.6%. In their
research, they allowed an unlimited number of mode transfers within a trip. Further-
more, they built connectivity into their multimodal transportation network in GIS to
find the right link for matching the GPS traces, or interpolate the underground subway
mode. In their multi modal transportation network, the success rate for the subway
mode detection equals to 65.6%.
Clifford et al. (2008) used set of developed heuristic rules to determine both travel
modes and trip purposes. Heuristics based on speed and route of travel, as well as some
demographic information. In this study, four different travel modes (walk, bicycle,
private vehicle and public transport) have been considered. They compared results with
respective travel diaries.
4 Methodology
style. Under location of stay category both students in hostels and residential students
were selected. The final sample of 100 students was selected using stratified random
sampling technique from both Science and Engineering faculties. Of these 100 stu-
dents, 79 students were selected for data collection as others have shown problems in
data recording using mobile application.
ða bÞ 100
Accuracy ¼ ð1Þ
a
Where,
a = Traced data points
b = Erroneous data points
16 G. W. H. A. Chandrasiri et al.
Then the data set was further categorized into 300 s intervals and average velocities
were taken in each 300 s intervals. Using those average velocities Vehicle mode was
categorized as below.
Most frequent travel mode for the points in the 300 s interval was used as the travel
mode in that 300 s interval. Then detected travel modes for each 300 s intervals were
plotted against time. Mode changes can then be identified from that plot. But the
drawback in the plotting method is that sometimes due to traffic congestions motor
Application of GPS/GIS Based Travel Mode Detection Method 17
vehicles can be categorised from time to time in the bus category as presented in Fig. 2.
Therefore, to differentiate motor vehicles from bus category, a bus halt layer was
created in Google earth around the University of Peradeniya area as presented in Fig. 3
and points representing standstill, walk and vehicle in each dataset were separated in
ArcGIS. Then, that bus halt layer was exported to Arc GIS and 75 m buffer zones were
created around the bus halt. After that, standstill and walk points inside the buffer zones
were clipped as shown in Fig. 4. If more than 90% of standstill and walk points near
the bus halts coincide with the buffer zone, it was filtered as a Bus Mode. Filled
questionnaires were used to differentiate motor bicycles from the motor vehicles.
Finally, one day mode changes in each respondent were tabulated.
Migratie-legende
48. der Creek-Indianen van Georgia.
De Geschiedenis van Haboeri (No. 1), een der mythische helden der
Warraus, die door hen den „vader der uitvindingen” wordt genoemd.
Aan dezen cultuurheld dankt de Warrau zijn zoo voortreffelijke
vaartuigen (korjalen), waarom hij hem in dit verhaal eert. Behalve dat
wij hier ook reeds met willekeurige transformaties van menschen in
dieren en omgekeerd kennis maken, en er de herhaaldelijk in hunne
vertellingen voorkomende verklaring van de eigenschappen van
diersoorten in aantreffen, wordt er ook van een der vele bij
verschillende stammen heerschende meeningen omtrent den
oorsprong van het menschdom in gewag gemaakt. [17]
Hier wordt deze n.l. op de aarde gedacht, en daar de Indianen in het
algemeen zich geen ontstaan kunnen denken uit iets, wat te voren niet
bestond, zoo gelooft de Warrau, dat de mensch, of liever de eerste
voorvader van zijn stam, hetzij uit verschillende dieren, hetzij uit een of
andere plant (in No. 1) of ook wel uit rotsen, steenen of rivieren is te
voorschijn gekomen.
De volgende mythe van dezen bundel (No. 4), getiteld: „De oorsprong
der Caraïben”, doet de menschen uit dieren geboren worden. Zij schijnt
van de Warraus afkomstig te zijn, die haar naar de Caraïben hebben
overgebracht. Hier treffen wij dus het omgekeerde aan ten opzichte van
de mythe, die het menschdom buiten de aarde ontstaan denkt. Voor de
lezers, voor welke deze bundel bestemd is, geven wij de voorkeur aan
de Caraïbische lezing.
Bij vele Indianenstammen, ook van Guyana, treft men sporen aan van
een geloof aan een voortbestaan van het lichaam en de daarin
huizende geesten. Zoo vertelt de Nederlandsche onderzoekingsreiziger
C. H. de Goeje (G.), dat een Ojana-vrouw hem vroeg, als hij terug
mocht komen, voor haar een teremopüillatop (hetgeen beteekent een
werktuig, dat een eeuwig leven kan bezorgen) te willen meêbrengen,
opdat haar zoontje met het eeuwige leven gezegend zou worden.
In een hooger stadium van het geloof aan een voortbestaan na den
dood wordt het lichaam vergankelijk gedacht, maar de geest of de
geesten, die er in huizen en die bij den dood vrijkomen,
onvernietigbaar. In alle deelen, waarin een slagader klopt, meenen de
Indianen, zetelt een geest, van welke de in het hart huizende de
voornaamste is.
Dat in tal van dieren, volgens het geloof der Indianen, geesten huizen,
blijkt niet alleen uit verschillende hunner mythen, sagen enz., maar ook
uit hun geloof aan kwade en goede voorteekens en uit hunne talrijke
bekoringsmiddelen, om de geesten dezer dieren gunstig te stemmen
(zie later). Ook komen onder de Indianen talrijke sporen voor van een
geloof aan geesten, die in planten huizen, (zie verder) ja, de geheele
natuur wordt door de Indianen als bezield gedacht.
Nu eens kan een geest zich aan een ander lichaam verbinden, om een
geestelijke vriend of een raadgever [22]te worden, dan weêr kan hij in
zijn nieuwe verblijf kwaad willen stichten. De geesten kunnen in de
bosschen, velden en bergen blijven ronddolen, hun verblijf in boomen,
steenen, onderaardsche holen opslaan, ja, ook wel met sterren,
rivieren en de zee in verbinding treden.
De geest van een doode is altijd, ook bij de Indianen, een onderwerp
van vrees. Bij doodenfeesten moet men dan ook den geest van den
overledene gunstig trachten te stemmen, en hem vriendelijk
toespreken.
Daarna kwam de moeder van het kind, en zei als in een treurzang:
„Mijn kind, ik bracht je ter wereld, om je alle goede dingen te laten zien
en te laten genieten. Deze borst”, (daarbij toonde zij een harer borsten)
„heeft je gevoed, zoolang je er behoefte aan had. Ik maakte mooie
doeken om je te kleeden; ik verzorgde je en gaf je eten. Ik speelde met
je en heb je nooit geslagen. Je moet ook goed voor ons zijn en nooit
ongeluk over ons brengen”.
„Mijn jongen, toen ik je zei, dat aarde je zou dooden, heb je niet willen
luisteren, en zie, nu ben je dood. Ik ging uit en bracht een mooi
doodkistje voor je meê. Ik zal moeten werken, om het te kunnen
betalen. Ik heb een graf voor je gemaakt op een plek, waar je zoo
dikwijls hebt gespeeld. Ik zal er je behaaglijk inleggen en wat aarde er
bij doen, om ze te kunnen eten; want nu kan je dit geen kwaad meer
doen, en ik weet, dat je er zooveel van houdt. Je moet geen ongeluk
over mij brengen; maar zie naar hem, die je aarde deed eten”.
Het waren tot het Christendom bekeerde Arowakken die zoo spraken,
waaruit blijkt, hoezeer het animistische geloof hen nog beheerschte.
Bij Caraïben bestaat de overtuiging, dat zij zelf de oorzaak zijn van de
kwade bedoelingen der geesten, [24]zooals het verhaal „Hoe
lichaamspijnen, dood en ellende op de wereld kwamen” (No. 7) leert.
Hoewel wij ons hier ter plaatse in dezen strijd niet kunnen mengen,
mag toch worden opgemerkt, dat laatstgenoemde meening, om
gelijksoortige verhalen bij verschillende volken te verklaren, in dit geval
zeer onwaarschijnlijk is en dat vele Afrikaansche elementen, die in de
Indiaansche folklore voorkomen, onmogelijk door een ontstaan,
onafhankelijk eener aanraking met de negerbevolking, kunnen
verklaard worden.
Waar volgens het geloof der Indianen, zooals boven reeds werd
opgemerkt, alles in de natuur bezield gedacht wordt, is het niet te
verwonderen, dat in verband met de wonderlijke rotsvormen, die in het
binnenland van Guyana voorkomen, zij daarin eveneens bepaalde
geesten denken 8 waarvoor zij zich steeds in acht hebben te nemen, en
[28]steeds een zekere vrees aan den dag leggen—zoodat zij het
gevaarlijk achten hunne namen te noemen, wanneer zij ten minste
onder een bepaalden naam bekend staan (No. 29). Walter E. Roth
geeft van deze vrees verschillende voorbeelden, deels uit de litteratuur,
deels uit eigen ondervinding. Het wordt bijv. als hoogst gevaarlijk
beschouwd, met den vinger naar een geest te wijzen, dus ook naar
diens verblijf. Meer in het bijzonder wordt dit vermeld ten opzichte van
den Ouden man’s val (de beroemde Kaieteur-val in de Essequibo). Im
Thurn (T.) verhaalt, dat toen de op gepotlood ijzer gelijkende
verweeringskorst* van vele rotsen in het droge rivierbed zijn aandacht
had getrokken en hij er de Indianen naar vroeg, zij plotseling hem het
zwijgen oplegden en hem waarschuwden, aan die steenen geen
aandacht te schenken, daar deze zich zouden kunnen wreken en
ongelukken zouden kunnen veroorzaken. Een Indiaan, die op
Schomburgk’s reizen door Engelsch Guyana in 1847–48 eene
verzameling gesteenten droeg, wierp ze weg, uit vrees, dat ze kwaad
zouden kunnen stichten.
Ook het omgekeerde, nl. het geboren worden van [29]menschen uit
steen, komt in de Indianen-verhalen meermalen voor. Wij zagen
immers reeds, dat de mythen-cyclus der Arowakken als leidend
kenmerk het ontstaan van alle levende wezens uit een hol in den grond
heeft, dat in menschelijke gedaante, ook wel als een steenen vrouw
wordt voorgesteld. (E. en K. b.).
Bij alle stammen, zoowel van het Noordelijk als het Zuidelijk deel der
Nieuwe Wereld, moesten deze hemellichamen, door hetgeen
aangaande hun voor hen zoo geheimzinnig gedrag werd
waargenomen, tot bezielde wezens worden, die als menschen
handelen, strijd voeren, verslonden worden enz.
Kan het verwonderen, dat de Zon met zijn 9 stralenkrans [31]die aan
veeren, pijlen of haren doet denken, in hooge mate op hunne phantasie
moest inwerken; kan het bevreemden, dat ook de Maan met hare zoo
geheimzinnige vlekken, waarin de Indianen menschelijke en ook wel
dierlijke wezens zien, met hare steeds wederkeerende phasen, aan
welke zij de voorstelling van verbrokkeling, lichamelijken groei en
afname of afknaging verbinden, en van welke de maansikkel hen aan
een wapen 10, een arm of aan een waterrad doet denken, het
uitgangspunt der mythenvorming is geworden? En was het ook niet
natuurlijk, dat het opkomen en ondergaan van beide hemellichamen
voorstellingen van verslonden worden door de aarde of de zee schiep,
evenals de terecht zoo gevreesde zons- en maansverduisteringen
slechts aan een verslonden worden konden worden toegeschreven?
Een voor dezen bundel geschikte mythe, die de Zon zelve tot
onderwerp heeft, heb ik niet kunnen vinden. No. 19, getiteld: „de Zon
en zijne tweelingzoons”, kan deze leemte eenigermate vergoeden.
„Evenals Zon en Maan stelt elke ster, die om een of andere reden de
aandacht van den Indiaan trekt, een voorwerp op aarde voor. Voor een
kenner staat de levensgeschiedenis van dieren en planten”, zeggen de
Penards, „met vurige letters aan de hemel geschreven”. De namen,
die de Indianen aan bepaalde sterren en sterrebeelden geven, zijn òf
ontleend aan het, in een tijd, waarin zij verschijnen, veelvuldig optreden
van dieren, òf aan het dan rijp worden van bepaalde vruchten. Ook hier
laten de Indianen [33]zich weêr kennen als uitmuntende
natuurwaarnemers.
Is het te verwonderen, dat het geluid van den uil in de eerste plaats bij
de Indianen als een slecht voorteeken geldt?
Ook kleinere dieren, zooals insekten kunnen, voor den Indiaan kwaad
of goed beteekenen. Een merkwaardig voorbeeld van dit geloof is bijv.
de Lichtkever*, een der merkwaardigste phosphoresceerende dieren
van het oerwoud, want deze kevers verschijnen plaatselijk als een
zwerm hellichtende vonken, die voortdurend door het geboomte heen
en weêr dwarrelen. Dit insekt kan voor den Indiaan drie voorspellingen
beteekenen. Wanneer het lichtende dier in zijn hut op den grond valt,
voorspelt [36]het een spoedigen dood van een der bewoners. Valt het in
het vuur, dan beteekent dit, dat een hert het gezonden heeft, om licht
voor hem te halen. Wanneer het onder de hutbedekking gaat zitten,
meent de Indiaan, dat hij iemand verwachten kan. Op dit bijgeloof, dat
wij aan Walter E. Roth ontleenen, heeft het verhaal „De lichtkever en
de verdwaalde jager (No. 22) betrekking, terwijl in „De piaiman en de
stinkvogels” (No. 28) een insekt (een zwarte mier) als een goed
voorteeken voorkomt.
Een zeer groote rol in het leven van den Indiaan spelen de bekoringen,
en de daarvoor door hen gebezigde bekoringsmiddelen, de zg. Binas
of Toelalas (P.) die voor allerlei doeleinden dienen, hetzij voor goede,
hetzij voor slechte. Zij worden bijv. gebruikt, om zich een goede jacht of
vischvangst te verzekeren, waarbij men voor bepaalde dieren bijzonder
daarvoor bereide Toelalas bezigt. Het geloof der Indianen in deze
middelen berust op de gelijkenis van het middel met het te bekoren
wezen. Wanneer de Indiaan bijv. een Pakira* wil bekoren, waardoor hij
meent geluk te zullen hebben op de pakirajacht, zal hij het middel
bereiden uit het blad van een plant (een Xanthosoma-soort), waarin hij
gelijkenis ziet met den pakirakop. De Penards hebben in hun reeds
aangehaald werkje dit onderwerp uitvoerig behandeld; daaruit moge
blijken, hoe ingewikkeld dit bekoringsvraagstuk, waarvan volgens den
Indiaan zooveel afhangt, wel is.