The Kayans, as we have said elsewhere, are not coarse of speech,

and both men and women are strictly modest in respect to the display

of the body. Though the costume of both sexes is so scanty, the

proprieties are observed. The Kayan man never exposes his GENITALIA

even when bathing in the company of his fellows, but, if necessary,

uses his hands as a screen. The bearing of the women is habitually

modest, and though their single garment might be supposed to afford

insufficient protection, they wear it with an habitual skill that

compensates for the scantiness of its dimensions; they bathe naked

in the river before the house, but they slip off their aprons and

glide into the water deftly and swiftly; and on emerging they resume

their garments with equal skill, so that they cannot be said to expose

themselves unclothed. The same is true of most of the other tribes,

with the exception of the men of Kenyah and Klemantan communities

that inhabit the central highlands; these, when hauling their boats

through the rapids, will divest themselves of all clothing, or will

sit naked round a fire while their waist-cloths are being dried,

without the least embarrassment.

There is no Kayan word known to us that could properly be translated

as justice or just, injustice or unjust. Yet it is obvious that they

view just conduct with approval and unjust with disapproval; and they

express their feelings and moral judgments by saying laconically of

any particular decision by a chief, TEKAP or NUSI TEKAP. But the

word TEKAP is of more general application than our word 'just,'

and might be applied to any situation which evokes a judgment of

moral approval; for example, on witnessing any breach of custom or

infringement of tabu a Kayan would say NUSI TEKAP; TEKAP, in short,

is applicable to whatever is as it ought to be.

Specialised terms for moral qualities of character and conduct are,

however, not lacking. A just and wise chief would be said to be TENANG;

but this word implies less purely a moral quality than our word

justice and more of intellectual capacity or knowledge or accuracy;

the word is more especially applied as a term to describe the quality

of a political speech which meets with approval. The word HAMAN means

skilful, or clever, or cunning, in the older sense of capable both

physically and intellectually. A man who fights pluckily is said

to be MAKANG, and the same word is applied to any daring or dashing

feat, such as crossing the river when it is dangerously swollen. To

disregard omens would be MAKANG also; it seems, therefore, to have

the flavour of the word rash or foolhardy.

SAIOH means good in the sense of kindly, pleasantly toned, or

agreeable. JAAK is bad in the sense of a bad crop or an unfortunate

occurrence, or a sore foot, I.E. it conveys no moral flavour. Morally

bad is expressed by SALA; this is used in the same sense in Malay

and may well be a recently-adopted word. In general the language

seems to be very poor in terms expressive of disapproval, adverse

judgments being generally expressed by putting nusi, the negative or

primitive particle, before the corresponding word of positive import;

thus a cowardly act or man would be denounced as NUSI MAKANG.

We think it is true to say that, although they thus distinguish

the principal qualities of character and conduct with appropriate

adjectival terms, they have no substantival terms for the virtues

and vices, and that they have not fully accomplished the processes

of abstraction implied by the appropriate use of such highly abstract

substantives.

As regards the influence of their religious beliefs on the moral

conduct of the Kayans, we have seen that the fear of the TOH serves

as a constant check on the breach of customs, which customs are in

the main salutary and essential for the maintenance of social order;

this fear does at the least serve to develop in the people the power

of selfcontrol and the habit of deliberation before action. The part

which the major spirits or gods are supposed to play in bringing

or fending off the major calamities remains extremely vague and

incapable of definition; in the main, faithful observation of the

omens, of rites, and of custom generally, seems to secure the favour

of the gods, and in some way their protection; and thus the gods

make for morality. Except in regard to that part of conduct which is

accurately prescribed by custom and tradition, their influence seems to

be negligible, and the high standard of the Kayans in neighbourliness,

in mutual help and consideration, in honesty and forbearance, seems

to be maintained without the direct support of their religious beliefs.

The high moral level attained by individuals among the Kayans

and Kenyahs, and less frequently by Klemantans, is, we think,

best exemplified by the enlightened and public-spirited conduct of

some of the principal chiefs. It might have been expected that the

leading chiefs of warlike and conquering peoples like the Kayans and

Kenyahs, which, until the advent of the European governments, had

never encountered any resistance which they could not break down by

armed force, would have been wholly devoted to conquest and rapine;

and that a chief who had acquired a high prestige and found himself

able to secure the adhesion in war of a number of other chiefs and

their followers would have been inspired with the barbarous ideals

of an Alexander, a Napoleon, a Chaka, or a Cetewayo. But though some

of them have shown tendencies of this kind, there have been notable

exceptions who have recognised that chronic hostility, distrust, and

warfare, which had always been characteristic of the relations between

the various tribes and villages, were an unmixed evil. Such men have

used their influence consistently and tactfully and energetically to

establish peaceful relations between the tribes. Unlike some savage

chieftains of warrior tribes in other parts of the world, such as

some of those produced by the Bantu race, or those who established

the great confederation of the Iroquois tribes, they have not sought

merely to bring about the combination of all the communities of

their own stock in order to dominate over or to exterminate all

other tribes. They have rather pursued a policy of reconcilement

and conciliation, aiming at establishing relations of friendship and

confidence between the communities of all languages and races. One

such powerful Kenyah chief of the Baram district, Laki Avit, had

earned a high reputation for such statesmanship before the district

was incorporated in the Raj of Sarawak. His policy was to bring about

intermarriages between the families of the chiefs and upper-class

people of the various tribes. Tama Bulan (see Pl. 27), the leading

Kenyah chief of the same district at a later time, spared no efforts

to bring about friendly meetings between chiefs of different tribes,

for the purpose of making peace and of promoting intercourse and

mutual understanding.[181] It should be added that these peacemaking

ceremonies are generally of lasting effect; the oaths then taken are

respected even by succeeding generations. Tama Kuling, who a decade

ago was the most influential of the Batang Kayan chiefs, had also

spontaneously pursued a similar policy.[182]

It has been said of many savage peoples that they recognise no natural

death, but believe that all deaths not due to violence are due to

black magic. No such statement can be made of the Kayans; few, if

any, deaths are ascribed by them to the efforts of sorcerers. Natural

death is recognised as inevitable in old age, and disease is vaguely

conceived as the effect of natural causes; though as to what those

natural causes are they have no definite ideas. This attitude is shown

by their readiness to make use of European drugs and of remedies for

external application. Quinine for fever, and sulphate of copper for

the treatment of yaws, are most in demand. Cholera and smallpox are the

great epidemic diseases which have ravaged large areas of Borneo from

time to time. The Kayans recognise that both these diseases spread up

river from village to village, and that to abstain from intercourse

with all villages lower down river and to prevent any one coming up

river contributes to their immunity. With this object the people of

a tributary stream will fell trees across its mouth or lower reaches

so as to block it completely to the passage of boats, or, as a less

drastic measure, will stretch a rope of rattan from bank to bank

as a sign that no one may enter (Pl. 183). Such a sign is generally

respected by the inhabitants of other parts of the river-basin. They

are aware also of the risk of infection that attends the handling of

a corpse of one who has died of epidemic disease, and they attempt

to minimise it by throwing a rope around it and dragging it to the

graveyard, and there burying it in a shallow grave in the earth,

without touching it with the hands.[183]

The Kayans have some slight knowledge of the medicinal properties

of some herbs, and make general use of them. They administer as

an aperient a decoction of the leaves of a certain plant, called

OROBONG, which they cultivate for the purpose on their farms. The

root of the ginger plant is used both internally and for external

application. A variety of vegetable products are used in preparing

liniments; the basis most in request for these is the fat of the

python and of other snakes, but wild pig's fat is used as a more

easily obtainable substitute.

There is a small common squirrel (SCIURUS EXILIS), the testicles of

which are strikingly large in proportion to his body. These organs are

dried and reduced to powder, and this powder, mixed with pig's fat,

is rubbed over the back and loins in cases of impotence.[184]

Kayan mothers treat colic in their children by chewing the dried root

of a creeper (known as PADO TANA) with betel nut, and spitting out

the juice on the belly of the patient.

Some of the coastwise Klemantans make use of a bitter decoction of a

certain creeper as a remedy for jungle fever. It is asserted by Kayans

and others that the Punans make use of the poison of the IPOH tree

(the poison used on their darts) as an internal remedy for fever. It

is said also (probably with truth, we think) that the Punans also

apply the IPOH poison to snake-bites and to festering wounds.[185]

Surgery

Broken limbs are bound round with neat splints made of thin slips

of bamboo tied in parallel series. Little effort is made to bring

the broken ends of the bones into their proper positions or to reduce

dislocations. Abscesses are not usually opened with the knife, but are

rather encouraged to point, and are then opened by pressure. A cold

poultice of chopped leaves is applied to a bad boil or superficial

abscess, and it is protected from blows and friction by a small cage of

slips of rattan. Festering wounds are dressed with the chewed leaves

or the juice of the tobacco plant, or are washed with a solution of

common salt. But a clean wound is merely bound up with a rag; or,

if there is much haemorrhage, wood ashes are first applied. They

practise no more efficient methods for arresting haemorrhage.

Headache is treated by tugging the hair of the scalp in small bundles

in systematic order. Massage of the muscles is practised for the relief

of pain, and massage is applied to the abdomen in cases of obstinate

constipation; in certain cases they claim to break up hard lumps in

the belly by squeezing them with the hands. Bodily aches and fatigue

are relieved by pulling and bending the parts of the limbs until all

the joints crack in turn.

Cupping is perhaps the most frequently practised surgical

operation. Severe internal bruising from falls or heavy blows is the

usual occasion. The operation is performed by scratching the skin

with the point of a knife, and then applying the mouth of a bamboo cup

previously heated over the fire. The cup is a piece of bamboo some five

or six inches in length and an inch or rather more in diameter. Its

edge is thinned and smoothed. Several of these may be simultaneously

applied in a case of extensive bruising. Since this operation, like

tatuing, involves the shedding of blood, some small offering, such

as a few beads, must be made to the patient by the operator.

The Kayans have distinct numerals up to ten (JI, DUA, TELO, PAT,

LIMER, NAM, TUSU, SAYA, PITAN, PULU). Those from eleven to nineteen

are formed by prefixing PULU ( = ten) to the names of the digits;

and those from twenty to twenty-nine by prefixing DUA PULU ( =

two twenty); and so on up to JI ATOR ( = one hundred). Two hundred

is DUA ATOR, three hundred is TELO ATOR, and so on up to MIBU ( =

one thousand). All or most of the other tribes (except the Punans)

have a similar system of numerals, though the numbers beyond the

first ten are little used. In counting any objects that cannot be

held in the hand or placed in a row, the Kayan (and most of the other

peoples) bends down one finger for each object told off or enumerated,

beginning with the little finger of the right hand, passing at six to

that of the left hand, and then to the big toe of the right foot, and

lastly to that of the left foot. When all the names or objects have

been mentioned, he holds the toe reached until he or some one else

has told off the number; if the number was, say, seventeen, he would

keep hold of the second toe of the left foot until he had counted up

the number implied by that toe, either by means of counting or by

adding up five and five and five and two; unless the count ends on

the little toe of the left foot, when he knows at once that the number

is twenty. If a larger number than twenty is to be counted, as when,

for example, a chief has to pay in tax for each door of his house,

he calls in the aid of several men, who sit before him. One of these

tells off his fingers and toes as the chief utters the names of the

heads of the rooms; and when twenty have been counted in this way,

a second man begins on his fingers, while the first continues to

hold on to all his toes. A third and a fourth man may be used in the

same way to complete the count; and when it is completed, the total

is found by reckoning each man as two tens, and adding the number of

fingers and toes held down by the last man. The reckoning of the tens

is done by addition rather than multiplication. Both multiplication

and division are almost unknown operations.

When a chief is getting ready to pay in the door tax of two dollars a

door, he does not count the doors and then multiply the number by two:

he simply lays down two dollars for each door and pays in the lot,

generally without knowing the sum total of the dollars. If a chief

were told to pay in the tax for half his doors only, he would not

know how to carry out the instruction. Subtraction is accomplished

only in the most concrete manner, E.G. if a man wished to take away

eight from twenty-five, he would count out twenty-five of the objects

in question, or of bits of leaf or stick, then push away eight and

count up the remainder. A dodge sometimes adopted, especially by the

Kenyah, for counting the persons present, is to take a fern-leaf with

many fronds, tear off a half of each frond, handing each piece to

one of the men, until every man present affirms that he has a piece,

and then to count the number of torn fronds remaining on the stalk.

It will thus be seen that the arithmetical operations of the Kayans

are of an extremely concrete character; those of the other tribes

are similar (with the exception again of the Punans, who do not count

beyond three); though many of the Klemantans get confused over simple

counting and reckoning, which the Kayans accomplish successfully.

Tama Bulan, the Kenyah chief whom we have had occasion to mention in

several connections, obtained and learnt the use of an abacus from a

Chinaman, and used it effectively. This deficiency in arithmetic is,

however, no evidence of innate intellectual inferiority, and there

seems to be no good reason to doubt that most of the people could

be taught to use figures as readily as the average European; those

children who have entered the schools seem to pick up arithmetic with

normal rapidity.

The Sea Dayaks sometimes deposit sums of money with the Government

officers, and they know accurately the number of dollars paid in;

but when they withdraw the deposit, they generally expect to receive

the identical dollars paid in by them.

Measurement

The Kayans use two principal standards of length, namely, the BUKA and

the BUHAK. The former is the length of the span from finger-tip to tip

of outstretched arms; the latter is the length of the span from tip of

the thumb to tip of the first finger of the same hand. In buying a pig,

for example, the price is determined by the number of BUHAK required

to encircle its body just behind the forelegs. The half BUKA is also in

general use, especially in measuring rattans cut for sale, the required

length of which is two and a half BUKA. In order to express the half,

they have adopted the Malay word STINGAH, having no word of their own.

Distances between villages are always expressed in terms of the

average time taken by a boat in ascending the stream from one to the

other. Distances by land are expressed still more vaguely; for example,

the distance between the heads of two streams might be expressed

by saying that, if you bathe in one, your hair would still be wet

when you reach the other (which means about one hour); or a longer

distance, by saying that if you started at the usual time from one

of the places you would reach the other when the sun is as high as

the hawk (which means a journey from sunrise to about 10 A.M.), or

when the sun is overhead (I.E. noon), or when it is declining (about

3 P.M.), or when the sun is put out (sunset), or when it is dark.

In order to describe the size of a solid object such as a fish,

a Kayan would compare its thickness with that of some part of his

body, the forearm, the calf of the leg, the thigh, or head, or the

waist. In describing the thickness of the subcutaneous fat of a pig,

he would mention one, two, three, or even four fingers.

Cosmological and Geographical Notions

The more intelligent Kayans can give a fairly good general description

of the geographical features and relations of the district in which

they live. In order to do this a Kayan will map out the principal

features on a smooth surface by placing pieces of stick to represent

the rivers and their tributaries, and pieces of leaf to represent the

hills and mountains; he will pay special attention to the relations

of the sources of the various streams. In this way a Kayan chief of

the Baram would construct a tolerably accurate map of the whole Baram

district, putting in Bruni and USUN APO and the heads of the Rejang,

Batang Kayan, Tutong, and Balait rivers. He knows that all the rivers

run to the sea, though few Kayans have seen the sea or, indeed, been

outside the basin of their own river. To have been to another river,

or to have seen the sea, is a just ground of pride. He does not know

that Borneo is an island, though he knows that the white men and

the Chinese come from over the sea; he will confidently assert that

the sea is many times larger than the Baram river, even ten times as

large. They seem to regard the sea as a big river of which their main

river is a tributary.

Ibans sometimes speak of AIROPA (meaning Europe), which they take

to mean the river Ropa, as the home of the white man; and all the

tribesmen are apt to think of foreigners as living on the banks of

rivers in forest-covered country much like their own.

Although the Kayans do not observe the stars and their movements

for practical purposes, they are familiar with the principal

constellations, and have fanciful names for them, and relate

mythical stories about the personages they are supposed to represent

(Chap. XVII.).[186] They seem to have paid no special attention

to the planets. Inconsistently with the star myths, the stars are

regarded as small holes in the floor of another and brighter world,

and it is said that these holes have been made by the roots of plants

which have penetrated through the soil of that world.

The sky is regarded as a dome which meets the earth on every hand,

and this limiting zone is spoken of as the edge of the sky; but they

have no notion how far away this edge may be; they recognise that,

no matter how many days one travels in any one direction, one never

gets appreciably nearer to it, and they conclude, therefore, that

it must be very distant. They understand that the clouds are very

much less distant than the sky, and that they merely float about the

earth. Neither sun nor moon seems to be regarded as animated.

Two total eclipses of the sun have occurred in Borneo in the last

half-century. These, of course, caused much excitement and some

consternation.[187] The former of them serves as a fixed date in

relation to which other events are dated.

The traditional lore of the Kayans provides answers of a kind to many

of the deep questions that the spirit of enquiry proposes whenever

man has made provision against the most urgent needs of his animal

nature. Yet the keener intelligences among them do not rest satisfied

with these conventional answers; rather, they ponder some of the

deepest questions and discuss them with one another from time to

time. One question we have heard debated is -- Why do not the dead

return? Or rather, Why do they become visible only in dreams and even

then so seldom? The meeting of dead friends in dreams generally leaves

the Kayan doubtful whether he has really seen his friend; and he will

try to obtain evidence of the reality of the REVENANT by prayer and by

looking for a favourable answer in the liver of a pig, the entrails of

a fowl, or in the behaviour of the omen birds. They argue that persons

who have been much attached to their relatives and friends would surely

return to visit them frequently if such return were at all possible.

The relation of the sky to the earth remains also an open and disputed

question. One of us well remembers how, when staying in a Kenyah house,

he was approached by a group of youths who evidently were debating some

knotty problem, and how they very seriously propounded the following

question: -- If a dart were shot straight up into the air and went

on and on, what would become of it? Would it come up against the sky

and be stopped by it?

The whereabouts of the home of the white men, and how long is spent

on the journey thither, are questions often raised. Tama Bulan once

raised the question of the motion of the sun, and having been told

that really the earth revolves and that the sun only appears to move

round it, he argued that this could hardly be, since we see the sun

move every day. For a long time he said nothing more on this topic

to us, but it continued to occupy his mind; for some years later he

recurred to it and announced that he now accepted the once incredible

doctrine, because he had inquired concerning it of every European he

had been able to meet, and all had given him the same answer.

The methods of argument of the Kayans are characteristic and worthy

of a short description. As we have said, they are great talkers and

orators. They are by no means an impulsive people; far less so than

the Kenyahs or the Sea Dayaks. Although they are not a vivacious or

talkative people in general intercourse, every undertaking of any

importance is carefully discussed in all its aspects, often at what we

should consider unnecessary length, before the first step is taken;

and in such discussions each man likes to have his say, and each is

heard out patiently by his fellows. They have a strong belief in the

efficacy of words; this is illustrated by the copious flood of words

which they pour out whenever they perform any religious or other rite.

In arguing or persuading, or even threatening, they rely largely on

indirect appeals, on analogy, simile, and metaphor, flavoured with

a good deal of humour of a rather heavy kind. Or they may convey a

strong hint by describing a professed dream in which the circumstances

under discussion are symbolised.

The following incident illustrates this mode of speech. Two

Kayans quarrelled over the sale of a pig. The current price was

a dollar a BUHAK (I.E. the span from finger-tip to thumb-tip, see

vol. ii. p. 212). The buyer had insisted on measuring it by spans

from thumb to tip of second finger, whereas the customary span is to

the tip of the index finger. The case was brought before the chief,

who of course might have contented himself, but not perhaps the

purchaser, by authoritatively laying down the law of custom. He,

therefore, being a man of tact and experience, thrust out his second

finger and pointed it at the purchaser of the pig, saying, "Suppose

any one pointed at you like that, instead of with the index finger;

you would all laugh at him." All the people sitting round laughed,

and the purchaser went away convinced of the propriety of using the

index finger in measuring a pig.

To illustrate the way in which a chief may exert influence in matters

in which he has no footing for the exercise of formal authority, we

cite the following bit of history. It is an ancient custom of the

Kayans to have in the house a very large LAMPIT (the mat made of

parallel strips of rattan), the common property of the household,

which is spread on the occasion of the reception of visitors to

serve as a common scat for guests and hosts. The Kayans of the Baram,

under the individualising influences of trade and increasing stocks

of private property, neglected to renew these communal mats; and thus

the good old custom was in danger of dying out. This was observed with

regret by an influential chief, who, therefore, found an opportunity

to relate in public the following story. "A party of Kayans," he said,

"once came over from the Batang Kayan to visit their relatives in the

Baram. The latter dilated upon the benefits of the Rajah's government,

peace, trade, and the possibility of fine dress for themselves and

their wives and of many other desirable acquisitions, all for the small

annual payment of two dollars a door. The visitors looked about them

and confessed that they still had to be content with bark clothing,

bamboo cups, and wooden dishes; 'but,' they added, 'if you come to

our house you will at least find on the floor a good LAMPIT on which

we can all sit together.' " The story quickly went the round of the

Kayan villages in the Baram, with the result that large LAMPITS quickly

came back into general use and the good old custom was preserved.

The Kayans have a keen sense of humour and fun. As with ourselves, the

most frequent occasions of laughter are the small mishaps that happen

to one's companions or to oneself; and practical jokes are perpetrated

and appreciated. For example, at the time when the wild pigs were dying

in large numbers, a boat-load of Kayans working up-river encountered

a succession of pigs' carcases floating down, most of them in a state

of decomposition and swollen with gases. A practical joker at the bow

conceived the notion of prodding the carcases with his spear and thus

liberating the foul-smelling gases for the benefit of those who sat

in the stern of the boat, to their great disgust and the amusement

of those on the forward benches. Again -- a Klemantan example -- a

chewer of betel-nut and lime sometimes prepares several quids wrapped

carefully in SIRIH leaf, and sets them aside till they are required. On

one occasion, while the crew of a boat landed to cook their dinner,

a youngster carefully opened such a quid and substituted a piece of

filth for the betel-nut. When the victim of the joke spat out the

morsel, spluttering with disgust and anger, the crew was moved to loud

laughter, which they tried in vain to suppress out of consideration

for the feelings of the victim; for no one likes to be laughed at.

But, although the Kayans have a strong sense of the ridiculous, their

laughter is not so violent and uncontrollable as that of Europeans

is apt to be, and it is not so apt to recur from time to time at the

mere recollection of an amusing incident.

We refer to some of the stories reproduced in Chapter XVII. as examples

of the less crude forms of humour appreciated by the people. These

stories are repeated again and again, without failing to amuse those

who are perfectly familiar with them. AEsop's fables transposed into a

Bornean key were, we found, much appreciated. In a large proportion of

the entertaining stories of the Kayans, as well as of the other tribes,

the point of the story depends on some reference to sexual relations

or actions But such references are not, as a rule, coarsely put, but

rather hinted at merely, often in a somewhat obscure way; E.G. such

a story may terminate before the critical point is reached with some

such phrase as "Well, well, what of it?" and a shrug of the shoulders.

The tendency of the Kayans to laconic speech is well illustrated by

their way of referring to well-known stories or fables with one or

two words, in order to sum up or characterise a situation -- much as

we say "sour grapes!"

Like all other varieties of mankind (some few savage tribes perhaps

excepted), the Kayans and other tribes are apt to distort the truth in

their own favour, in describing from memory incidents that seriously

affect their interests. When a party has allowed itself to commit some

reprehensible action, such as over-hasty and excessive reprisals,

a whole village, or even several villages, may conspire together

more or less deliberately to "rig up "some plausible version of

the affair which may serve to excuse or justify the act in the

eyes of the government. A good PENGHULU[188] will set about the

investigation of such an affair with much tact and patience. He

will send for those immediately concerned and patiently hear out

their version of the incident. If it departs widely from the truth,

he will find reason to suspect the fact. But, instead of charging the

men with untruthfulness, or attempting to extort the truth by threats,

or bullying, or torture (as is so often done in more highly civilised

courts), he keeps silence, shrugs his shoulders, and tells them to go

away and think it over, and to come back another day with a better

story. In the meantime he hears the version of some other group,

who view the affair from a different angle, and thus puts himself in

a position to suggest modifications of the new version of the former

group. When he has in this way gathered in a variety of accounts of

the incident, he find himself in a position to construct, by a process

of moral triangulation, an approximately correct picture; this he now

lays before the party immediately concerned, who, seeing that the game

is up, fill in the details and supply minor corrections. Throughout

this process the tactful PENGHULU never shuts the door upon his

informants or tries to pin them down to their words, or make them

take them back; rather he keeps the whole story fluid and shifting,

so that, when the true account has been constructed, the witnesses

are not made to feel that they have lost their self-respect.

It seems worth while to describe here one of a large class of incidents

which illustrate at the same time the workings of the native mind

and the way in which an understanding of such workings may be applied

by the administrator. The Resident of the Baram having heard of the

presence in the central no-man's land of a considerable population of

Kenyahs under a strong chief, TAMA KULING, sent friendly messages to

the latter. He responded by sending a lump of white clay, which meant

that he and his people recognised that they were of the same country

as the people of the Baram and that their feelings were friendly;

and with it came an elaborately decorated brass hook (Pl. 184), which

was to serve as a complimentary and symbolical acknowledgment of the

white man's power of binding the tribes together in friendship. He

sent also a verbal message acknowledging his kinship with the Kenyahs

of the Baram; but he added that he and his people were in the dark and

needed a torch (I.E. they wanted more explicit information about the

conditions obtaining in the Baram). In reply to these representations,

the Resident despatched trusty messengers to TAMA KULING bearing

the following articles: a large hurricane lamp for TAMA KULING, and

smaller ones for the other principal chiefs of the district: smaller

lamps again were sent for the heads of houses, and with them a large

stock of boxes of lucifer matches, which were to be dealt out to the

heads of the rooms of each house. In this way the desired torch was

provided for every member of their communities. With these symbols

went a large horn of the African rhinoceros, out of which TAMA KULING

might fashion a hilt for his sword.[189]

We were afterwards informed that, on the arrival of these symbolic

gifts, TAMA KULING called together the chiefs of all the surrounding

villages to receive their share, and to discuss the advisability

of accepting the implied invitation to migrate into the Baram. The

proposition was favourably received, and a large proportion of

the population of that region have since acted upon the resolution

then taken.

To the disjointed collection of remarks which make up this chapter

we venture to add the following observations. It has often been

attempted to exhibit the mental life of savage peoples as profoundly

different from our own; to assert that they act from motives, and

reach conclusions by means of mental processes, so utterly different

from our own motives and processes that we cannot hope to interpret

or understand their behaviour unless we can first, by some impossible

or at least by some hitherto undiscovered method, learn the nature of

these mysterious motives and processes. These attempts have recently

been renewed in influential quarters. If these views were applied to

the savage peoples of the interior of Borneo, we should characterise

them as fanciful delusions natural to the anthropologist who has spent

all the days of his life in a stiff collar and a black coat upon the

well-paved ways of civilised society.

We have no hesitation in saying that, the more intimately one becomes

acquainted with these pagan tribes, the more fully one realises the

close similarity of their mental processes to one's own. Their primary

impulses and emotions seem to be in all respects like our own. It is

true that they are very unlike the typical civilised man of some of

the older philosophers, whose every action proceeded from a nice and

logical calculation of the algebraic sum of pleasures and pains to

be derived from alternative lines of conduct; but we ourselves are

equally unlike that purely mythical personage. The Kayan or the Iban

often acts impulsively in ways which by no means conduce to further

his best interests or deeper purposes; but so do we also. He often

reaches conclusions by processes that cannot be logically justified;

but so do we also. He often holds, and upon successive occasions

acts upon, beliefs that are logically inconsistent with one another;

but so do we also.

CHAPTER 21

Ethnology of Borneo

In the foregoing chapters it has been shown that the six groups which

we have distinguished by the names Kayans, Kenyahs, Klemantans, Muruts,

Nomads or Punans, and Ibans or Sea Dayaks, differ considerably from

one another in respect of material and moral culture as well as of

mental and physical characters. We have used these names as though the

groups denoted by them were well defined and easily to be distinguished

from one another. But this is by no means the case. Our foregoing

descriptions are intended to depict the typical communities of each

group, those which present the largest number of group-marks. Besides

these more typical communities, which constitute the main bulk of the

population, there are many communities or sub-tribes which combine

in some measure the characteristics of two or more of the principal

groups. It is this fact that renders so extremely difficult the

attempt to classify the tribes and sub-tribes in any consistent and

significant fashion, and to which is largely due the confusion that

reigns in most of the accounts hitherto given of the inhabitants of

Borneo. We believe, however, that the divisions marked by the six

names we have used, namely, Kayan, Kenyah, Klemantan, Murut, Punan,

and Iban, are true or natural divisions; and that the intermediate

forms are due, on the one hand, to crossing through intermarriage,

which takes place continually in some degree, and, on the other hand,

to the adoption of the customs and beliefs and traditions and to the

imitation of the arts and crafts of one natural group by communities

properly belonging to a different group. The main groups seem to

us to be separated from one another by differences of two kinds:

some by racial or ethnic differences, which involve differences of

physical and mental constitution, as well as by cultural differences;

others by differences of culture only, the racial characters being

hardly or not at all differentiated.

We propose in this chapter to attempt to justify these main

distinctions, and to define more nearly their essential nature and

grounds. This attempt must involve the statement of our opinion as

to the ethnic affinities of all the principal tribes. We are fully

aware that this statement can be only of a provisional nature, and

must be liable to modification and refinement in the light of further

observation and discussion. But we think that such a statement may

serve a useful purpose; namely, that it may serve as a basis upon

which such corrections and refinements may later be made.

The most speculative part of this statement must necessarily be

that which deals with the affinities of the tribes of Borneo with

the populations of other areas; but even here we think it better to

set down our opinion for what it may be worth, not concealing from

the reader its slight basis. We state in the following paragraph the

main features of the history of the tribes of Borneo as we conceive it.

The wide distribution of remnants of the Negrito race in the islands

round about Borneo and in the adjacent parts of the mainland of Asia

renders it highly probable that at a remote period Negritos lived in

Borneo; but at the present time there exist no Negrito community and

no distinct traces of the race, whether in the form of fossil remains

or of physical characters of the present population, unless the curly

hair and coarse features of a few individuals to be met with in almost

all the tribes may be regarded as such traces. These negroid features

of a small number of the present inhabitants are perhaps sufficiently

accounted for by the fact that slaves have been imported into Borneo

from time to time throughout many centuries by Arabs and Malays and by

the Illanum pirates; and some of these slaves were no doubt Negritos,

and some, possibly, Africans or Papuans.[190]

We leave open the question of an ancient Negrito population, and

go on to the statement that the present population is derived from

four principal sources. From a very early period the island has

been inhabited in all parts by a people of a common origin whose

surviving descendants are the tribes we have classed as Klemantans,

Kenyahs, and Punans. This people probably inhabited Borneo at a

time when it was still connected with the mainland. Their cultural

status was probably very similar to that of the existing Punans. It

seems not improbable that at this early period, perhaps one preceding

the separation of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java from the mainland, this

people was scattered over a large part of this area. For in several

of the wilder parts, where the great forest areas remain untouched,

bands of nomads closely resembling the Punans of Borneo are still

to be found, notably the Orang Kubu of Sumatra, and perhaps the

Bantiks of northern Celebes. The principal characteristics of this

primitive culture are the absence of houses or any fixed abode;

the ignorance of agriculture, of metal-working, and of boat-making;

and the nomadic hunting life, of which the blow-pipe is the principal

instrument. The chief and only important improvement effected in the

condition of the Punans since that early period would seem to be the

introduction of the superior form of blow-pipe of hard wood. This

cannot be made without the use of a metal rod for boring, and, since

none of the Bornean tribes which still lead the nomad life know how

to work metals, it may be inferred that they have learnt the craft

of making the SUMPITAN from more cultured neighbours, procuring from

them by barter the iron tools required -- as they still do.

It is impossible to make any confident assertion as to the affinities

of this widely diffused people from which we believe the Punans,

Kenyahs, and Klemantans to be descended. But the physical characters

of these tribes, in respect of which they differ but slightly from

one another, lead us to suppose that it was formed by a blending

of Caucasic and Mongoloid elements, the features of the former

predominating in the race thus formed. The fairness of the skin, the

wavy and even, in some individuals, the curly character of the hair;

the regular and comparatively refined features of many individuals; the

frequent occurrence of straight and aquiline noses; the comparatively

large, horizontal, or only slightly oblique, palpebral aperture;

the not infrequent absence of all trace of the Mongolian fold of the

eyelid and its slightness when present -- all these characters point

to the predominance of the Caucasic element in the ethnic blend.

On the other hand, the smooth yellowish skin, the long dark thick

hair of the scalp, and the scantiness of the hair on the cheeks,

chin, and lips; the rather broad cheek-bones, the prevailing slight

obliquity of the eyes, the rather narrow palpebral aperture, and

the presence of a slight Mongolian fold -- these characters (all

of which are found in a considerable proportion of these peoples)

are features that point to Mongol ancestry.[191]

It was said above that the skin of these tribes is of very pale yellow

colour. In this respect there is little to choose between them, but

on the whole the Punans are of rather lighter colour than the others,

and, as was said before, of a faintly green tinge. This difference

is, we think, sufficiently accounted for by the fact that the Punan

seldom or never exposes himself to full sunlight, whereas the others

are habitually sun-browned in some degree. But the lighter colour of

this whole group of tribes (as compared especially with the Kayans and

Ibans) cannot be explained in this way; for the habits and conditions

of life of Kenyahs and Klemantans are very closely similar to those of

the Kayans; and it must, we think, be regarded as a racial character.

The name Indonesian is perhaps most properly applied to this people

which we suppose to have resulted from the contact and blending

of the Caucasic and Mongoloid stocks in this corner of Asia. The

systematic ethnographers use this term in a vague and uncertain

manner. Deniker defines the Indonesians by saying that they comprise

"the little intermixed inland populations of the large islands (Dyaks

of Borneo, Battas of Sumatra, various "Alfurus" of Celebes, and certain

Moluccas)."[192] He seems doubtful whether the name Indonesian should

be applied to the eight groups of aborigines of Indo-China which

he distinguishes.[193] He recognises that the Indonesians and the

Malayans are of very similar physical characters, but distinguishes

them as two of four races which have given rise to the population of

the Malay Archipelago -- namely, Malayans, Indonesians, Negritos, and

Papuans. He regards the Indonesians (used in a wide sense to include

Malays) as most closely akin to the Polynesians; but he expresses no

opinion as to their relations to the Mongol and Caucasic stocks.

Keane describes the Indonesians as a Proto-Caucasic race which must

have occupied Malaysia and the Philippines in the New Stone Age. He

separates them widely from the Malays and Proto-Malays, whom he

describes as belonging to the Oceanic branch of the Mongol stock;[194]

and the "Dyaks" of Borneo are classed by him with strict impartiality

sometimes with the Proto-Malays, sometimes with the Proto-Caucasians.

If these oldest inhabitants of Borneo may be regarded as typical

Indonesians (and we think that they have a strong claim to be so

regarded), then we think that the usage of the term by both Keane and

Deniker errs in accentuating unduly the affinity of the Indonesians

with the Polynesians, and that Keane's errs also in ignoring the

Mongol affinities of the Indonesians.

The most plausible view of the relations of these stocks seems to us

to be the following. Polynesians and Indonesians are the product of an

ancient blend of southern Mongols with a fair Caucasic stock. In both

the Caucasic element predominates, but more so in the Polynesian than

in the Indonesian. We imagine this blending to have been effected at a

remote period in the south-eastern corner of Asia, probably before the

date at which Borneo became separated from the mainland. If, as seems

probable, this blending was effected by the infusion of successive

doses of Mongol blood from the north into a Caucasic population

that had previously diffused itself over this corner of Asia from

the west,[195] the smaller proportion of the Mongol element in the

Polynesians may be due to their having passed into the islands,

while the Indonesians remained on the continent receiving further

infusions of Mongol blood.

The separation of Borneo from the mainland then isolated part of the

Indonesian stock within it, at a period when their culture was still

in a very primitive condition, presumably similar to that of the

Punans. The Proto-Malays, on the other hand, represent a blending of

the Mongol stock (or of a part of the Indonesian race) with darker

stock allied to the Dravidians of India, which is perhaps properly

called Proto-Dravidian, and of which the Sakai of the Malay peninsula

(and, perhaps, the Toala of central Celebes) seem to be the surviving

representatives in Malaysia. In this blend, which presumably was

effected in an area south of that in which the Indonesian blend was

formed, the Mongol element seems to predominate.

After the separation of Borneo from the mainland, there came a long

period throughout which it remained an isolated area, the population

of which received no important accessions from other areas. It is

probable that during this period the Indonesian population of the

mainland continued to receive further infusions of Mongol blood;

for there is abundant evidence that for a long time past there has

been a drifting of Mongol peoples, such as the Shans, southwards from

China into the Indo-Chinese area.

We may suppose that during this period the knowledge and practice of

working iron, of building long houses and boats, and of cultivating

PADI, became diffused through the greater part of the population of

this corner of the Asiatic continent. This advance of culture would

have rendered possible the passage of these peoples to the islands

in boats. But it seems probable that no considerable incursion of

people from this area was effected until a comparatively recent date.

In Chapter II. we have mentioned the evidences of Hindu-Javan influence

on Borneo, to which must be ascribed the existence of the Buddhist

court at Bruni before the coming of the Malays, as well as traces of

Hindu culture in south Borneo, including the practice of cremation

by the Land Dayaks, the burning of the bones by other tribes, stone

carvings,[196] and articles of gold and fragments of pottery of Hindu

character. There must have been a certain infusion of Javanese and

perhaps Hindu blood at this time; but both in physical type and in

culture the surviving traces seem to be insignificant.

We have mentioned also in Chapter II. the early intercourse between

China and the Buddhist rulers of Bruni and other parts of north and

northwest Borneo, and the legend of an early settlement of Chinese

in the extreme north.

But these civilised or semi-civilised visitors and settlers were

separated from the indigenous Borneans by a great culture gap,

and they probably had but little friendly intercourse with them

and affected their culture but little, if at all; and though it is

possible that they bartered salt, metal, tools, and weapons, for

camphor and other jungle produce, their influence, like that of the

Malays, probably extended but a little way from the coasts in most

parts of the island. The higher culture of the indigenous tribes of

the interior has been introduced, we believe, by invasions of peoples

less widely separated from them in cultural level, who have penetrated

far into the interior and have mingled intimately with them. Three

such invasions may be distinguished as of principal importance:

that of the Kayans in the south and perhaps in the south-east, of the

Muruts in the north, and of the Ibans in the south-west. Each of these

three invading populations has spread up the course of the rivers to

the interior and has established its communities over large areas,

until in the course of the nineteenth century they have encountered

one another for the first time. Besides these three most numerous

and important invasions, there have been many smaller settlements

from the surrounding islands, especially from Java, Celebes, and the

Philippines, whose blood and culture have still further diversified

the population and culture of the tribes of Borneo and complicated

the ethnographical problems of the island.

Of the three principal invasions, that of the Kayans has been of most

effect in spreading a higher culture among the indigenous population.

There is good reason to believe that the Kayans have spread across

Borneo from the south and south-eastern parts, following up the

course of the large rivers until they reached USUN APO, the central

highlands, in which (see vol. i. p. 2) all the large rivers have their

sources. The tradition of such north-westward migration is preserved

among the Kayans of the Baram, who, according to their own account,

crossed the watershed into the basins of the western rivers only a few

generations ago. This tradition is in accordance with the fact that,

within the memory of men still living, they have spread their villages

farther westward along the banks of the Baram and the Rejang rivers,

driving back the Muruts northwards from the Baram. It is borne out

by the accounts of the Bruni Malays to the effect that the Brunis

first became acquainted with the Kayans some few generations ago,

and had known the Muruts long before the advent of the Kayans; and

further, by the fact that the Kayans have left their name attached to

many rivers both in the south and east, where the name Batang Kayan

(or Kayan River) is the common appellation of several rivers on which

Kayan villages are now very few.

The Kayans seem to have entered Borneo by way of the rivers opening

on the south coast, and gradually to have penetrated to the central

highlands by following up these rivers, pushing out communities every

few years to build new villages higher up the river in the course

of their unceasing search for new areas adapted to their wasteful

farming operations.

There can, we think, be little doubt that the Kayans are the

descendants of emigrants from the mainland, and that they brought

with them thence all or most of the characteristic culture that we

have described. But from what part exactly of the mainland, and by

what route, they have come, and how long a time was occupied by the

migration, are questions in answer to which we cannot do more than

throw out some vague suggestions.

We believe that the Kayans migrated to Borneo from the basin of the

Irrawadi by way of Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra; and

that they represent a part of the Indonesian stock which had remained

in the basin of the Irrawadi and adjacent rivers from the time of the

separation of Borneo, there, through contact with the southward drift

of peoples from China, receiving fresh infusions of Mongol blood;

a part, therefore, of the Indonesians which is more Mongoloid in

character than that part which at a remote period was shut up in

Borneo by its separation from the mainland. During this long period

the Kayans acquired or developed the type of culture characterised by

the cultivation of PADI on land newly cleared of jungle by burning,

the building of long houses on the banks of rivers, the use of boats,

and the working of iron.

The way in which in Borneo the Kayans hang together and keep touch

with one another, even though scattered through districts in which

numerous communities of other tribes are settled, preserving their

characteristic culture with extreme faithfulness, lends colour to the

supposition that the whole tribe may thus have been displaced step by

step, passing on from one region and from one island to another without

leaving behind any part of the tribe. The passage of the straits

between the Peninsula and Sumatra, and between Sumatra and Borneo,

are the parts of this tribal migration that are the most difficult

to imagine. But we know that Kayans do not fear to put out to sea in

their long war-boats. We have known Kayan boats to descend the Baram

River and to follow the coast up to Bruni; and we have trustworthy

accounts of such expeditions having been made in former days by

large war parties in order to fight in the service of the Sultan of

Bruni. The distance from the Baram mouth to Bruni (about 100 miles)

is nearly equal to the width of the broadest stretch of water they

must have crossed in order to have reached Borneo from the mainland

by way of Sumatra. This hypothetical history of the immigration of

the Kayans receives some support from the fact that a vague tradition

of having crossed the sea still persists among them. We attach some

importance to this Kayan tradition of their having come over the sea,

as evidence that they are comparatively recent immigrants to Borneo;

but the principal grounds on which we venture to suggest this history

of the Kayans and of their invasion of Borneo are three: first,

the affinities of the Kayans in respect of physical character and

culture to certain tribes still existing in the area from which we

believe them to have come; secondly, historical facts which go far

to explain such a migration; thirdly, their relations to other tribes

of Borneo. We add a few words under each of these heads.

I. As long ago as the year 1850, J. R. Logan, writing of highland

tribes of the basins of the Koladan and Irrawadi and the south-eastern

part of the Brahmaputra, asserted that "the habits of these tribes

have a wonderful resemblance to those of the inland lank-haired races

of Indonesia... . There is hardly a minute trait in the legends,

superstitions, customs, habits, and arts of these tribes, and the

adjacent highlanders of the remainder of the Brahmaputra basin,

that is not also characteristic of some of the ruder lank-haired

tribes of Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines, Celebes, Ceram, and the

trans-Javan islands."[197]

This assertion, though, no doubt, rather too sweeping, seems to have

a large basis in fact, so far as it concerns the tribes of Borneo.

We have not been able to find that any one tribe of this part of

the mainland agrees closely with the Kayans in respect of physical

characters and all important cultural features. Nevertheless, very

many of the features of the Kayan culture are described as occurring

amongst one or another tribe, though commonly with some considerable

differences in detail. In attempting to identify the nearest relatives

of the Kayans among the mainland tribes, it has to be remembered that

all these have been subjected to much disturbance, in some cases,

no doubt, involving changes of habitat, since the date at which,

as we suppose, the Kayans left the continent. And since the Kayans,

from the time of their arrival in Borneo, have played the part of a

dominating and conquering people among tribes of lower culture, and

have imposed their customs upon these other tribes, without blending

with them or accepting from them any important cultural elements,

it follows that we must regard the Kayans as having preserved, more

faithfully than their relatives of the mainland, the culture which

presumably they had in common with them a thousand years or more ago.

Of all the peoples of the south-eastern corner of the continent,

the one which seems to us most closely akin to the Kayans is that

which comprises the several tribes of the Karens.[198] These have been

regarded by many authors (3) as the indigenous people of Burma. Their

own traditions tell of their coming from the north across a great river

of sand and of having been driven out of the basin of the Irrawadi at

a later date (1). At present the Karens are found chiefly in the Karen

hills of Lower Burma between the Irrawadi and the Salween and in the

basin of the Sittang River, which runs southwards midway between those

two greater rivers to open into the head of the Gulf of Martaban. But

they have been much oppressed by their more civilised neighbours, the

Burmese and the Shans, and their communities are widely scattered in

the remoter parts of the country and are said to extend into Tenasserim

far down the Malay Peninsula. By the Burmese they are called also

KAYENS or KYENS, the Y and R sounds being interchangeable in Burmese

(1 and 3).

Peoples generally recognised as closely akin to the KARENS are the

CHINS (who are also known as Khyens) (14) of the basin of the Chindwin,

the large western tributary of the Irrawadi; and the KAKHYENS (also

called KACHINGS and SINGPHO), who occupy the hills east of Bhamo and

the basin of the river Tapang in the borderlands of Burma and Yunnan

(7). The Nagas of Manipur and of the Naga Hills of Assam also seem

to belong to the same group of peoples, though less closely akin to

the Karens than the Chins and the Kakhyens.

It seems highly probable that all these, together with the Kayans,

are surviving branches of a people which occupied a large area of

south-eastern Asia, more especially the basin of the Irrawadi, for a

considerable period before the first of the successive invasions which

have given rise to the existing Burmese and Shan nations. The physical

characters of all of them are consistent with the view taken above,

namely, that they represent the original Indonesian population of which

the Klemantans of Borneo are the pure type, modified by later infusions

of Mongol blood. In all these occur individuals who are described as

being of almost purely Caucasic type and very light in colour.

Three principal tribes of Karens are distinguished, the Sgan, Pwo,

and Bwe. Of these the Bwe are also known as the Hill-Karens and seem

to have preserved their own culture more completely than the others,

though the Sgan are said to be the purest in blood, the lightest in

colour, and more distinctive in type than any other of the tribes

of south-eastern Asia (4). Of the Hill-Karens, Mason said, "Some

would be pronounced European. Indeed, if not exposed to the sun,

some of them would be as fair, I think, as many of the inhabitants

of northern Europe." Yet the commoner type of Karen is said to show

distinctly Mongoloid facial characters. Of those Karens who have

been least affected by their more cultured neighbours, we are told

that they live in small communities, each of which is governed by

a patriarch who is at once high priest and judge, and who punishes

chiefly by the infliction of fines. He raises no regular tax, but

receives contributions in kind towards the expenses of entertainment

(3). Several communities join together, sometimes under a leading

chief, in order to meet a common foe (3). They build long houses

in which a whole community of as many as 400 persons dwell together

(4). These houses are described as of Himalayic type. "It (the house)

is made by sinking posts of large size firmly in the ground and

inserting beams or joists through the posts eight feet from the ground,

and on these laying the floor with slats of bamboo." The walls and

partitions are mats of woven bamboo, and the roof is thatched with palm

leaves (4). This very incomplete description leaves it open to suppose

that the Karen house is very similar to that built by the Kayans when

for any reason the latter build in hasty and temporary fashion. But the

still more scanty description of another writer (3) implies that the

arrangement of the interior of the house is unlike that characteristic

of the Kayans. They frequently migrate to new sites.

The Karens cultivate PADI and prepare the jungle land for cultivation

by burning down the forest. They prepare from rice a spirit to which

they are much addicted. The hill tribes are truculent warriors and

head-hunters. Captives are made slaves. They use and make spears

and axes, and a cross-bow[199] with poisoned arrows. They rear pigs

and poultry, and train dogs to the chase. The men eradicate their

beards. They wear many small rings on the forearms and legs. The

lobes of the ear are perforated and often enormously distended (3).

They address prayers and supplications for protection and prosperity to

a Supreme Being whom they address as "Lord of the heavens and earth"

(5). They believe also in a multitude of nature spirits, most of whom

are harmful. The fear of them occasions many ceremonial acts. The

taking of heads is said to be a means of propitiating these spirits

(3). They believe that during sickness the soul departs from the

body; and the medicine-man attempts to arrest it and to bring it

back to the body of the patient. In this and other rites the blood

of fowls (which they are said to venerate) (2) is smeared on the

participants. Divination by means of the bones of fowls and the

viscera, especially the liver of the pig, is in common use (5). The

souls of the dead go to a place in which they live much as in this

world. It is called ABU LAGAN[200] (3). In this abode of shades

everything is upside down and all directions are inverted (5). There

are no rewards and punishments after death (3). Parents take the names

of father and mother of So-and-so -- the name of their first child. The

knife with which the navel cord is cut at birth is carefully preserved

(5). Finally, the Karens are said to be distinguished by a lack of

humour, a trait which is well marked also in the Kayans.

In respect of all the characters and culture elements mentioned above,

the Karens resemble the Kayans very closely. Against these we have

to set off a few customs mentioned by our authorities in which they

differ from the Kayans.

The Karens eat everything except members of the cat tribe. They bury

the bodies of the dead after they have lain in state some three or

four days; and they hold an annual feast for the dead at the August

new moon. They ascribe two souls to man, one of a kind which is

possessed also by animals, tools, weapons, the rice, and one which

is the responsible soul peculiar to man.[201]

The bride is taken to the house of the bridegroom's father. Only

one tribe, namely, the Red Karens, practises tatu, and among them a

figure which seems to represent the rising sun is tatued on the back

of the men only (5). They weave a coarse cloth.

These differences are not very great, and their significance is

diminished by the following considerations. The Kayans may have

acquired their aversion to killing the dog through contact with

Malays. They bury the dead in the ground in the case of poor persons

or those dead of epidemic disease. And they have a tradition that they

formerly practised the weaving of cloth. They may also have acquired

the art of making and using the solid wooden blow-pipe from Malays;

and this would account for their having given up the use of the bow

and arrow as a serious weapon. On the other hand, the inferior houses

of the Karens, the lack of restrictions among them upon animal foods,

their earth burial -- all these may well be due to decay of custom

among an oppressed people; and the fact that they seem to make but

little use of boats may well be due to their having been driven

away from the main rivers and pushed into the hills. We have little

doubt that many more points of resemblance would be discoverable,

if we had any full account of the Karens as they were before their

culture was largely affected by contact with Burmese and Shans and

by the influence of the missionaries who have taught so successfully

among them for more than sixty years.

Among the elements of Kayan culture which are lacking or but feebly

represented among the Karens, some are reported among the tribes most

nearly allied to the Karens, and others among other peoples of the

same area.

Thus the peculiar Kayan custom of tatuing the thighs of women has a

close parallel in the tatuing of the thighs of men among all Burmese

and Shans; and the Kayans may well have adopted the practice from

them. Among the Shans there obtains the custom of placing the coffin on

upright timbers at some height above the ground (9). Among the Nagas,

and especially the Kuki Nagas,[202] who are said to be most nearly

allied to the Karens, beside a number of the culture elements which we

have noticed above as common to Karens and Kayans, other noteworthy

points of resemblance to the Kayans are the following: A system of

tabu or GENNA which may affect individuals or whole villages, and is

very similar to the MALAN of the Kayans; the practice of ornamenting

houses with heads of enemies, the motive of taking the head being to

provide a slave in Hades for a deceased chief; the use of human and

other hair in decorating weapons.[203]

Their method of attacking a village is like that of the Kayans,

namely, to surround it in the night and to rush it at dawn; they

obstruct the approach of an enemy to their village by planting in the

ground short pieces of bamboo sharpened and fire-hardened at both ends;

they use an oblong wooden shield or a rounded shield of plaited cane;

their blacksmiths use a bellows very like that of the Kayan smiths;

they husk their PADI in a solid wooden mortar with a big pestle

A LA Kayan; they floor their houses with similar massive planks;

they catch fish in nets and traps, and by poisoning the water; men

pierce the shell of the ear in various ways; omens are read from the

viscera of pigs, and the cries of some birds are unlucky; they worship

a Supreme Deity and a number of minor gods, E.G. gods of rain and of

harvest; they often sacrifice pigs and fowls to the gods, and omens

are always read from the slaughtered animals; those who die in battle

and in childbirth are assigned to special regions of the other world;

the women are tatued (on chest) to facilitate recognition in Hades;

in felling the jungle preparatory to burning it to make a PADI farm,

they always leave at least one tree standing for the accommodation

of the spirits of the place.

Other of the instruments, arts, and customs of the Kayans are found

widely spread in south-eastern Asia. Such are the small axe or adze

with lashed head; the musical instrument of gourd and bamboo pipes

with reeds; the bamboo guitar; the use of old beads and of hornbill

feathers for personal adornment; the making of fire by friction of

a strip of rattan across a block of wood.

II. Whether this people, of whom the Kayans, Karens, Chins, Kakhyens,

and Nagas, seem to be the principal surviving branches, came into

the Irrawadi basin and adjacent areas by migration from Central Asia

by way of the Brahmaputra valley, as Cross and McMahon (accepting

the tradition of the Karens) believe, or came, as Logan suggested,

eastward from Bengal, it seems certain that it has been divided into

fragments, driven away from the main rivers, and in the main pushed

southwards by successive swarms of migration from the north. This

pressure from the north seems to have driven some of the Karens down

into the Malay Peninsula, where they are still found; and it may

well be that, before the rise of the Malays as an aggressive people

under Arab leadership, the ancestors of the Kayans occupied parts of

the peninsula farther south than the Karens now extend, and possibly

also parts of Sumatra. If this was the case, it was inevitable that,

with the rise to dominance of the Mohammedan Malays in this region,

the Kayans must have been either driven out, exterminated, or converted

to Islam and absorbed. It seems probable that different communities

of them suffered these three different fates.

The supposition that the Kayans represent a part of such a population,

which was driven on by the pressure of Malays to seek a new country

in which to practise its extravagant system of PADI culture, is in

harmony with the probability as to the date of their immigration

to the southern rivers of Borneo; for the rise and expansion of the

Menangkabau Malays began in the middle of the twelfth century A.D.;

and the Kayans may well have entered Borneo some 700 years ago.

III. We have now to summarise the evidence in favour of the view that

the Kayans have imparted to the Kenyahs and many of the Klemantan

tribes the principal elements of the peculiar culture which they now

have in common.

We have shown that the culture of the Kenyah and Klemantan tribes

is in the main very similar to that of the Kayans, and that it

differs chiefly in lacking some of its more advanced features, in

having less sharply defined outlines, in its greater variability

from one community to another, and in the less strict observance of

custom. Thus the Kayans in general live in larger communities, each of

their villages generally consisting of several long houses; whereas

a single long house generally constitutes the whole of a Kenyah or

Klemantan village. The Kayans excel in iron-working, in PADI culture,

in boat-making, and in house-building. Their customs and beliefs

are more elaborated, more definite, more uniform, and more strictly

observed. Their social grades are more clearly marked. They hang

together more strongly, with a stronger tribal sentiment, and, while

the distinction between them and other tribes is everywhere clearly

marked and recognised both by themselves and others, the Klemantans

and Kenyahs everywhere shade off into one another and into Punans.

The process of conversion of Punans into settled communities that

assimilate more or less fully the Kayan culture is still going on. We

are acquainted with settled communities which still admit their

Punan origin; and these exhibit very various grades of assimilation

of the Kayan culture. Some, which in the lives of the older men were

still nomadic, still build very poor houses and boats, cultivate PADI

very imperfectly, and generally exhibit the Kayan culture in a very

imperfect state.

On the other hand, the Kenyahs have assimilated the Kayan culture more

perfectly than any other of the aborigines, and in some respects, such

as the building of houses, they perhaps equal the Kayans; but even they

have not learnt to cultivate PADI in so thorough a manner as to keep

themselves supplied with rice all through the year, as the Kayans do;

and, like the various Klemantan tribes,[204] they suffer almost every

year periods of scarcity during which they rely chiefly on cultivated

and wild sago and on tapioca. The Kayans, on the other hand, grow

sufficient PADI to last through the year, except in very bad seasons,

and they never collect or cultivate sago. The view that this relative

imperfection of the agriculture of the Kenyahs and Klemantans is due to

the recency of their adoption of the practice, is confirmed by the fact

that many of them still preserve the tradition of the time when they

cultivated no PADI. It seems that most of the present Kenyahs first

began to plant PADI not more than two, or at most three, centuries

ago. Some of the Kenyahs also preserve the tradition of a time when

they constructed their houses mainly of bamboo; this was probably

their practice for some few generations after they began to acquire

the Kayan culture. At the present day those Punans who have only

recently taken to the settled mode of life generally make large use

of the bamboo in building their small and relatively fragile houses.

The view that the Kayans have played this large civilising role is

supported by the fact that Kayan is the language most widely understood

in the interior, and that it is largely used for intercommunication,

even between members of widely separated Kenyah communities whose

dialects have diverged so widely that their own language no longer

forms a medium of communication between them; whereas the Kayans

themselves do not trouble to acquire familiarity with the Kenyah or

Klemantan languages.

If both Kenyahs and Klemantans represent sections of the aboriginal

population of nomadic hunters who have absorbed Kayan culture, it

remains to account for the existence of those peculiarities of the

Kenyahs that have led us to separate them from the tribes which we

have classed together as Klemantans. The peculiarities that distinguish

Kenyahs from Klemantans are chiefly personal characteristics, notably

the bodily build (relatively short limbs and massive trunks), the more

lively and energetic temperament, the more generous and expansive

and pugnacious disposition. These peculiarities may, we think, be

accounted for by the supposition that the aborigines from whom the

Kenyahs descend had long occupied the central highlands where most

of the Kenyah communities still dwell and which they all regard as

the homeland and headquarters of their race.

Of the Klemantan tribes some, E.G. the Aki, the Long Patas, and the

Long Akars, resemble more nearly the Kayans; others, E.G. the Muriks,

the Sebops, the Lirongs, the Uma Longs, the Pengs or Pinihings,

show more affinity with the Kenyahs. It seems probable that these

diversities have resulted from the assimilation of culture directly

from the Kayans by the one group and from the Kenyahs by the other. A

third group of Klemantan tribes such as the Long Kiputs, the Batu

Blah, and the Trings, scattered through the northern part of the

island, resemble more nearly the Muruts; and among these are found

communities whose culture marks them as descendants of nomads who

have assimilated the Murut culture in various degrees.

The Muruts

The Muruts differ somewhat as regards physical features from all the

other tribes, especially in having coarser but less Mongoloid features,

a longer skull, and a more lanky build of body and limbs. Their

intonation is nasal, and the colour of the skin slightly darker and

ruddier than that of the Klemantans.

Their culture differs so much as to lead us to suppose that it had

a somewhat different origin from that of the Kayans. They build long

houses; but these are comparatively flimsy structures, and they are

often situated at a distance from any navigable stream. Even those

Muruts who live on the river-banks make much less use of boats than

the other tribes, and all of them are great walkers. They have very

little skill in boat-making. Their most distinctive peculiarity is

their system of agriculture (see vol. i. p. 97), which involves

irrigation, the use of buffalo, the raising of two crops a year,

and the repeated use in successive years of the same land. Other

distinctive features are their peculiar long sword and short spear;

the absence of any axe and blow-pipe; the custom according to which

the women propose marriage to the men (Kalabits).

In the Philippine Islands a system of agriculture similar to that

of the Muruts is widely practised; and some of the tribes, though

their culture has been largely influenced by Spanish civilisation,

seem to be of the same stock as the Muruts; thus the Tagals of Borneo

are not improbably a section of the people known as Tagalas in the

Philippines, and the Bisayas of Borneo probably bear the same relation

to the Visayas of the Philippines.

It seems probable, therefore, that this type of culture has been

carried into the north of Borneo by immigrants from the Philippines,

whither it was introduced at a remote period, possibly from Annam, the

nearest part of the mainland; or possibly it came to Borneo directly

from Annam.[205] It is probable that many of the tribes which we have

classed with the Muruts, on account of their possession of the Murut

culture, are, like the Klemantans and Kenyahs, descendants of the

ancient Indonesian population who have adopted the culture of more

advanced immigrants. The descendants of the immigrants who introduced

this type of culture are, we think, the Muruts proper, who claim that

name and dwell chiefly in the Trusan, the Padas, the Sembakong, the

Kerayan rivers, and in the head of the Kinabatangan; also the Kalabits

in the northern part of the upper basin of the Baram. It is these

which display most decidedly the physical peculiarities noted above.

As examples of Klemantan tribes that have partially adopted the Murut

culture we would mention the LONG KIPUTS, the BATU BLAHS, the TRINGS,

and the ADANGS in the head of the Limbang River; to the same group

belong the KADAYANS in the neighbourhood of Bruni, who, from contact

with their Malay neighbours, have become in large part Mohammedans

of Malay culture.

The Ibans (Sea Dayaks)

The Ibans stand distinctly apart from all the other tribes, both by

reason of their physical and mental peculiarities and of the many

differences of their culture; we have little doubt that they are the

descendants of immigrants who came into the south-western corner of

Borneo at no distant date. We regard them as Proto-Malays, that is

to say, as of the stock from which the true Malays of Sumatra and the

Peninsula were differentiated by the influence of Arab culture. A large

number of the ancestors of the present Ibans were probably brought to

Borneo from Sumatra less than two hundred years ago. Some two centuries

ago, a number of Malay nobles were authorised by the Sultan of Bruni

to govern the five rivers of Sarawak proper, namely, the Samarahan,

the Sadong, the Batang Lupar, the Saribas, and the Klaka rivers. These

Malays were pirate leaders, and they were glad to enrol large numbers

of pagan fighting men among their followers; for the latter were glad

to do most of the hard work, claiming the heads of the pirates' victims

as their principal remuneration, while the Malays retained that part

of the booty which had a marketable value. These Malay leaders found,

no doubt, that their pagan relatives of Sumatra lent themselves

more readily to this service than the less warlike Klemantans of

Borneo, and therefore, as we suppose, they brought over considerable

numbers of them and settled them about the mouths of these rivers. The

co-operation between the piratical Malay Tuankus and the descendants of

their imported PROTEGES continued up to the time of the suppression of

piracy by the British and Dutch half a century ago. It was from this

association with the sea and with coast-pirates that the Ibans became

known as the Sea Dayaks by Sir James Brooke; and to this encouragement

of their head-hunting proclivity by the Malays is no doubt due their

peculiarly ruthless and bloodthirsty devotion to it as to a pastime,

rather than (as with the Kayans and other tribes) as to a ceremonial

duty occasionally imposed upon them by the death of a chief.

It seems to us probable that the greater part of the ancestors of

the Ibans entered Borneo in this way. But there is reason to think

that some of them had settled at an earlier date in this part of

Borneo and rather farther southward on the Kapuas River. The BUGAUS,

KANTUS, and DAUS, who dwell along the southern border of Sarawak,

and some other Iban tribes in the northern basin of the Kapuas River,

are probably descendants of these earlier immigrants of Proto-Malay

stock. In most respects they closely resemble the other Iban tribes,

but they are distinguished by some peculiarities of language and

accent; their manners are gentler, their bearing less swaggering;

they are less given to wandering, and they have little skill in the

making and handling of boats. These are recognised by themselves and

by other Ibans as belonging to the same people; but they are a little

looked down upon by Ibans of the other tribes as any home-staying

rural population is looked down upon by travelled cosmopolitans.

This conjectural history of the immigration of the Ibans explains the

peculiar fact that, although all the Ibans of all parts are easily

distinguishable from all the other peoples, and although they all

recognise one another as belonging to the same people, they have no

common name for the whole group. They commonly speak of KAMI MENOA

(I.E. "we of this country") when they refer to their people as a whole;

and the Kayan designation of them as IVAN (immigrant or wanderer) has

been adopted by large numbers of them in recent years and modified into

Iban, so that the expression KAMI IBAN is now frequently used by them.

The identification of the Iban with a Proto-Malay stock is justified

by their language and physical characteristics. The former seems to be

the language from which Malay has been formed under Arab influence and

culture. It employs many words which are no longer current in Malay,

but which, as is shown by Marsden's MALAY DICTIONARY, were in use

among Sumatran Malays in the eighteenth century.

Since the Mohammedan populations which now are called Malay are of

mixed origin, they present no very well-defined or uniform physical

type. But of all Malays those of Sumatra and of the Peninsula are

generally recognised as presenting the type in its greatest purity;

and it is this type which the Ibans most closely reproduce. The

near resemblance of facial type between the Malays and the Ibans is

apt to be obscured for the casual visitor by the fact that the Iban

puts little or no restraint upon his expressions and is constantly

chattering, laughing, and smiling; whereas the Malay is taught from

childhood to restrain his expressions and to preserve a severe and

grave demeanour in the presence of strangers. But in private the

Malay relaxes, and then the resemblance appears more clearly.

The principal features of the Iban's culture which distinguish it from

that of the other tribes may be enumerated here. The Iban closely

resembles the Kayan in his method of cultivating PADI, but he is

even more careful and skilful, and generally secures a surplus. His

house differs characteristically from those of the Kayan type, and

resembles the long houses still inhabited by some Sumatran Malays,

in being comparatively small, and in having a framework of many

light poles rather than of heavy hardwood timbers, and a floor of

split bamboo in place of huge planks. In methods of weaving and dyeing

cloth and in the character of the cloths produced;[206] in the wearing

of ornamental head-cloths; in the weaving of mats and baskets with

the PANDANUS leaf and a large rush known as BUMBAN rather than with

strips of split rattan; in their methods of trapping and netting fish;

in the character of the sword and axe and shield as formerly used;[207]

in the use of the fire-piston;[208] in musical instruments and methods;

in the custom of earth burial; in the visiting and making of offerings

at the graves of noted men in the hope of supernatural aid, -- in

all these respects the Iban culture differs from that of the Kayans,

and closely resembles that of the Malays.

The Iban culture presents also certain features not common to other

peoples of Borneo and not found among the Malays; and all or most

are such as must have been exterminated among the Malays on their

conversion to Islam, if they had formed part of their culture in

their pre-Islamic period. Such are the religious beliefs and customs

of the Ibans with the cult of the PETARA; the NGARONG; the rite with

the clay crocodile for getting rid of farm pests (vol. ii. p. 88);

the use in weaving of a number of designs of animal origin; the

adornment of the edge of the ear with many brass rings; the lack of

any strict avoidance of killing dogs.

Thirdly, of the features of Iban culture which are common to them and

to the other tribes of Borneo, many seem to have been borrowed by them

from their neighbours, and often in an incomplete or imperfect manner;

such are the system of omenreading, the ritual slaughter of fowls and

pigs, much of their dancing and tatuing, the PARANG ILANG and wooden

shield, the feathered war-coat of skin, the KELURI or small bag-pipe,

and the fashion of wearing their hair, -- all these seem to have been

borrowed from the Kayans; the woman's corset of brassbound hoops,

from the Malohs; the mat worn posteriorly for sitting upon, from

the Kenyahs.[209]

Besides the three great invasions of foreign blood and foreign culture,

those borne by the Kayans, the Muruts, and the Ibans respectively,

there have been numerous minor invasions on all sides. In the following

paragraphs we make mention of those that seem to have been of most

importance in modifying the population and the culture of Borneo.

In the south there are traces of Javanese culture with its Hindu

elements among many of the tribes, but especially among the Land Dayaks

who occupy the southern extremity of Sarawak. These cremate their

dead; they set apart a separate round house for the trophies of human

heads, and in this the bachelors are expected to pass the nights. The

Malawis of South-East Borneo seem to be similar in many respects to

the Land Dayaks of Sarawak. The Land Dayaks have a reputation in

Upper Sarawak for quicker intelligence and more adaptability than

the other tribes, and hence are in much request for services of the

most various kinds. It is an interesting question whether this may be

due to a dash of Hindu blood; the facial type and the more abundant

growth of hair on the face would support an affirmative answer.

The Malohs are a well-marked tribe found on the Kalis and Mandai

rivers, tributaries of the Kapuas River. Physically they are marked

by exceptionally long narrow heads (index about 76). They speak

a language very different from those of the central and northern

parts of the island, but speak also the Iban language with a peculiar

accent. The Malohs alone of all the peoples of Borneo eat the flesh of

the crocodile. The most distinctive feature of their culture is their

skill and industry in brass working. Malohs supply a large proportion

of all the brass-ware to be found in the interior. This addiction to

brass-working suggests that they represent an immigration from Java,

which has long enjoyed a great reputation for its brass-ware and an

extensive market throughout the islands.

On the east coast are many communities of Bugis, who are mostly

Mohammedans and seem to have come from Celebes, where they are a

numerous people.

In the north and extreme north-west the Dusuns seem to be of Murut

stock with an infusion of Chinese blood and culture. They use a

plough drawn by buffalo in the PADI fields, which they irrigate

systematically.

Round about the northern coasts are to be found many small bands

of Lanuns and Bajaus, living largely in boats. They are mostly

Mohammedans, and descend from the notorious piratical communities

whose headquarters were in the Sulu Islands and other islands off

the north-east coast.

In the foregoing pages we have said very little about the languages

spoken by the tribes of Borneo. Although one of us has a practical

command of the Kayan, Kenyah, Sea Dayak, and Malay languages,

and a tolerably intimate acquaintance with a number of the

Klemantan dialects, we do not venture upon the task of discussing

their systematic positions and relations to languages of other

areas. For this would be a task of extreme difficulty and complexity

which only an accomplished linguistic scholar could profitably

undertake. Nevertheless, we think it worth while to add a few words

regarding the bearing of the languages on the foregoing ethnological

discussion. It seems clear that in the main the differences and

affinities between the many languages and dialects spoken by the

pagan tribes bear out, so far as they are known to us, the principal

conclusions of our argument. The Sea Dayak or Iban tongue stands

distinctly apart from all the rest, and is indisputably very closely

allied to the Malay. The Kenyahs, Klemantans, and Punans speak a great

variety of tongues, which are, however, so closely similar, and the

extreme members of which are connected by so many intermediate forms,

that it would seem they may properly be regarded as but dialects of

one language. The Kayan language, on the other hand, stands apart from

both the Iban and the Klemantan languages, but is much nearer to the

latter than the former. The Kenyah dialects especially contain many

words or roots that appear also in the Kayan, and seem to be more

closely allied to it than is any of the Klemantan tongues. This may

well be due to the more intimate contact with the Kayans enjoyed by the

Kenyahs, who, as we have seen, have assimilated the Kayan culture more

completely than any other of the indigenous tribes, and who may well

have taken up many Kayan words together with other culture elements.

The Murut languages again seem to stand apart from the Iban, Kayan,

and Kenyah-Klemantan, as a distinct group whose vocabulary has little

in common with those others.[210]

In conclusion, we venture to make a suggestion which we admit to be

widely speculative and by which we wish only to draw attention to a

remote possibility which, if further evidence in its favour should

be discovered, would be one of great interest. We have throughout

maintained the view, now adopted by many others, of which Professor

Keane has been the principal exponent, namely, the view that the

Indonesian stock was largely, probably predominantly, of Caucasic

origin. In our chapter on animistic beliefs concerning animals and

plants, and in the chapter on religion, we have shown that the Kayans

believe in a multiplicity of anthropomorphic deities which, with Lake

Tenangan at the head of a galaxy of subordinate gods and goddesses

presiding over special departments of nature, strangely resembles

the group of divine beings who, in the imagination of the fathers

of European culture, dwelt in Olympus. And we have shown that the

system of divination practised by the Kayans (the taking of omens

from the flight and cries of birds, and the system of augury by the

entrails of sacrificial victims) strangely resembles, even in many

details, the corresponding system practised by the early Romans. Our

suggestion is, then, that these two systems may have had a common

root; that, while the Aryans carried the system westward into Europe,

the Indonesians, or some Caucasic people which has been merged in the

Indonesian stock, carried it eastward; and that the Kayans, with their

strongly conservative tendencies, their serious religious temperament,

and strong tribal organisation, have, of all the Indonesians, preserved

most faithfully this ancient religious system and have imparted it in

a more or less partial manner to the tribes to whom they have given

so much else of culture, custom, and belief.

It is perhaps not without significance in this connection that the

Karens, whom we regard as the nearest relatives of the Kayans, were

found to worship a Supreme Being, and have proved peculiarly apt

pupils of the Christian missionaries who have long laboured among them.

By way of crowning the indiscretion of the foregoing paragraphs,

we point out that there are certain faint indications of linguistic

support for this speculative suggestion. BALI, which, as we have

explained, is used by Kayans and Kenyahs to denote whatever is

sacred or is connected with religious practices, is undoubtedly a

word of Sanskrit derivation.[211] FLAKI, the name of the bird of

most importance in augury, bears a suggestive resemblance to the

German FALKE and the Latin FALCO. The Kayan word for omen is AMAN,

the resemblance of which to the Latin word is striking. Are these

resemblances merely accidental? If more of the words connected with

the religious beliefs and practices could be shown to exhibit equally

close resemblances, we should be justified in saying -- No.

CHAPTER 22

Government

In an earlier chapter we have sketched the history of government in

Borneo from the earliest times of which any record remains, up to the

time at which the whole island was brought under European control. In

this chapter we propose to describe the way in which the European

governments have extended their spheres of influence and have secured

the co-operation of the natives in the maintenance of peace and order

and freedom.

For some years after Mr. James Brooke became Rajah of Sarawak (1841),

his rule was confined to the territory then known as Sarawak. This

area, still known as Sarawak proper, is some 7000 square miles in

extent and comprises the basins of the following rivers: the Sarawak,

the Samarahan, the Sadong, and the Lundu. The Batang Lupar and Saribas

rivers, which enter the sea to the north of this area, were infested

by pirate bands under the leadership of Malay Serifs who, though

they professed allegiance to the Sultan of Bruni, were but little

controlled by him. The depredations of these unruly neighbours led Sir

James Brooke to undertake several expeditions against them. In the year

1849, Captain Sir Harry Keppel of H.M.S. DIDO lent his aid (not for the

first time), and the combined forces finally swept out those hornets'

nests and put an end to piracy in those regions. With the approval of

the Sultan of Bruni, Rajah Brooke established stations in the lower

waters of the Saribas and Skarang rivers, and a little later at Kanowit

on the Rejang River. This was the first of a series of similar steps

by which the area of the Raj has been successively extended, until

now it comprises about 60,000 square miles, more than eight times

its original extent. In each of these out-stations one or two English

officers were appointed to represent the Rajah's government. In each

station a small wooden fort was built, and in some cases the fort was

surrounded with a stockade. This served as residence for the officer,

or officers, and their small band of native police, generally some

ten or twelve Malays armed with rifles and a small cannon. The prime

duty of these officers, entitled Governors (or later, Residents), was

to protect the local population from the oppression and depredations

of the Serifs, and generally to discourage and punish bloodshed and

disorder. The general policy followed in all these new districts was

to elicit the co-operation of the local chiefs and headmen, and, when

the people had begun to appreciate the benefits of peace, including

the opening of the rivers to Malay and Chinese traders, to impose

a small poll-tax to defray the expenses of administration. The area

of control was then gradually extended farther into the interior by

securing the voluntary adhesion of communities and tribes settled in

the tributaries and higher waters of each river. This policy, steadily

pursued in one district after another, has invariably succeeded,

although the time required for complete pacification has, of course,

varied considerably; and it was only during the early years of this

century that the process seemed to reach its final stage among the

Sea Dayaks in the interiors of the Batang Lupar and Rejang districts.

The stability of the Rajah's government was seriously threatened in

1857 by the insurrection of Chinese gold-workers at Bau in Sarawak

proper. But this rebellion, in the course of which Sir James Brooke

narrowly escaped death at the hands of the rebels, was soon suppressed,

largely by the energy of the Tuan Muda (the present Rajah), who came

to the aid of Sir James with a strong force of Sea Dayaks and Malays.

The process of establishing order and good government in the new

territory was complicated by the intrigues of the Bruni nobles or

PANGIRANS and of the independent Malay chiefs, who, seeing their

power to oppress and misrule the coast districts seriously curtailed,

and indeed threatened with extinction, by the growing influence of

the Europeans in Borneo, conspired with others of similar status in

Dutch Borneo to rid the island of these unwelcome innovators. In the

year 1859 two English officers of the Sarawak government at Kanowit

on the lower Rejang (Messrs. Fox and Steele) were murdered by a gang

of Malanaus. There was good reason to believe that this incident,

together with several murders of Europeans in Dutch Borneo, was the

result of a loosely concerted action of the Malay chiefs, and that

the Kanowit murders were directly instigated by Serif Masahor and

Pangiran Dipa; the latter a Bruni noble who misruled Muka and the

surrounding area. Rajah Brooke visited the Sultan of Bruni and secured

his authorisation for the punishment of these and others concerned

in the murders; and in 1860 an expedition, led by his two nephews,

captured Muka and would have expelled the Serif and the Pangiran but

for the untimely interference of the British Consul at Bruni, who

seems to have been misinformed of the nature of the situation.[212]

In the following year the Rajah, visiting the Sultan at Bruni, found

him willing to cede Muka and the basins of the adjoining rivers,

the Oya, Tatau, and Bintulu, in return for a perpetual annual payment

of 16,000 dollars, an arrangement which was accepted and which still

holds good. Thus the intrigues of the Malay nobles, which for a time

had seriously threatened the stability of the Rajah's government,

resulted in the addition of an area of some 7000 square miles to the

Sarawak territory.

The basin of the Rejang, the largest river of Sarawak, was the next

region to be added to the Raj. Here Sir James Brooke's government

first came into contact with the Kayans (in the year 1863). The

reputation of the Kayans as a dominant tribe of warriors, whose

raids were feared even as far as Bruni, had rendered them proud

and self. confident- and unready to appreciate the benefits of the

Rajah's government. Their continued hostility rendered advisable a

demonstration of force. Accordingly in the year 1863 the Tuan Muda

(the present Rajah, H. H. Sir Charles Brooke) led an expedition of

some 10,000 or more native levies, consisting chiefly of Sea Dayaks and

Malays, up the Rejang as far as the mouth of the Baloi Peh, a spot some

250 miles from the mouth of the Rejang and in the edge of the Kayan

country. The Kayans could not withstand so large a force and retreated

farther up river after but little show of resistance. Several of their

long houses were destroyed, and a message demanding their submission to

the Rajah's government was sent by a captive to Oyong Hang, the most

influential of the Kayan chiefs. The messenger carried a cannon-ball

and the Sarawak flag, and was instructed to ask Oyang Hang which he

would choose; to which question the chief is said to have returned

the answer that he wanted neither. Although the expedition failed to

secure the submission of any large number of the Kayans and Kenyahs,

it established the Rajah's authority as far as it had penetrated;

for a number of Klemantan villages settled in the middle reaches of

the Rejang accepted the offer of peace, and a number of their chiefs

brought the Sarawak flag down river and celebrated the traditional

peace-making rites with the Rajah's representative. The Kayans have

never since attempted to raid the lower reaches of the river; but it

was not until the early eighties, during the Residency of the late

Mr. H. B. Low, that the bulk of the Kayans of the Rejang acknowledged

the Rajah's authority and began to co-operate in his administration,

a result achieved without any repetition of the large expedition of

1863. From that time (about 1885) the Baloi or Upper Rejang may be

regarded as having formed part of Sarawak.

In the year 1882 the northern boundary of Sarawak was again pushed

forward by the cession to the Rajah by the Sultan of Bruni of the

basin of the Baram, an area of some 10,000 square miles, on condition

of a perpetual annual payment of 6000 dollars. This was an area in

which, except along the coast, the Sultan's authority had never been

exercised, and which had been kept closed to trade and the depredations

of the Malays, by the fear of the Kayans. For the Kayans, who dominated

all the middle waters of the Baram, had in the past threatened even

Bruni. The Sultan was no doubt glad to see the Rajah undertake the task

of controlling his formidable neighbours, who, dwelling within striking

distance of his capital, were a perpetual menace to his power and even

to his personal safety. The Baram district has been brought completely

under the Rajah's rule without the introduction of any armed force from

outside; and as the process of establishing peace and order has there

followed a normal and undisturbed course, and is familiarly known to

us, we propose to describe it in some detail on a later page. Since

the date of the inclusion of the Baram, the Raj of Sarawak has been

again extended towards the north on three. occasions. The first of

these additions was the basin of the Trusan River. In this case the

Sultan offered to sell the territory for a lump sum, and his offer

was accepted by the Rajah, whose officers occupied it in the year

1885. In 1890, the people living on the Limbang River, whose basin

adjoins that of the Baram on its northern border, were in a state of

rebellion against the Sultan, and the region had for several years

been in a very disturbed state. The present Rajah therefore proposed

to annex the country in return for an annual payment. The British

Government was asked to approve this step and to fix the amount of the

sum to be paid to the Sultan. A favourable reply having been given

by the Foreign Office, and the annual sum of 6000 dollars having

been awarded as a fair return for the cession, the administration

of the country was peacefully entered upon by the Rajah's officers,

who where warmly welcomed by the greater part of the inhabitants.

The latest and presumably the final extension of the boundaries of

Sarawak was effected in 1905, when the basin of the small river Lawas

was bought from the British North Borneo Company.

In the opening year of this century a small part of Borneo still

remained under purely native control, namely, the town of Bruni and

an area about it of 1700 square miles, comprising the basins of the

small rivers Balait and Tutong. By agreement with the Sultan this

area was placed under the administration of a Resident representing

the British Government in the year 1906. Thus the European occupation

of Borneo was completed.

The history of the establishment of Dutch rule throughout the larger

part of Borneo has been similar to that of the acquisition of Sarawak

by its two English Rajahs. Dutch trading stations were established in

the south-west corner of Borneo as early as 1604. In the seventeenth

century stations were established in southern Borneo by both British

and Dutch traders; but the Dutch traders extended their influence more

rapidly than their rivals, and by the middle of the eighteenth century

had secured a practically exclusive influence in those parts. The

British held possession of all the Dutch East Indies during the

brief period (1811 -- 1816) which was terminated by the Congress of

Vienna. On the retirement of the British, the Dutch Government took

over all the rights acquired by the Dutch traders; and since that

time it has continued to consolidate its control and to extend the

area of its administration farther into the interior along the courses

of the great rivers. There were in the area that is now Dutch Borneo

several independent Malay Sultans, of which the principal had their

capitals at Pontianak, Banjermasin, and Kotei. In 1823 the Sultan

of Banjermasin ceded a large part of his territory to the Dutch

government; in 1844 the Sultan of Kotei accepted its protection;

and by similar steps by far the larger part of the island has been

marked out as the Dutch sphere of influence. The water parting from

which the principal rivers flow east and west has been agreed upon by

the Dutch and the Sarawak governments as the boundary between their

territories; and though the upper waters of the great rivers which

flow west and south through Dutch Borneo have up to the present

time hardly been explored, the authority of the Dutch Government

is well established over all the tribes of the coastal regions and,

especially in the south, extends far into the interior, but is still

little more than nominal in the head waters of the rivers. The system

of administration now practised by the Dutch closely resembles in most

essential respects that obtaining in Sarawak, and it has brought to the

natives of the greater part of Dutch Borneo the same great benefits,

peace, freedom, justice, and trade.

The northern extremity of Borneo, an area comprising some 31,000 square

miles and 200,000 inhabitants, is now administered by the British

North Borneo Company (chartered by the British Government in 1892),

which acquired it by purchase in successive instalments from the

Sultans of Bruni and Sulu. The Company has followed in the main an

administrative policy similar to that of Sarawak, and has appointed

as governors officers of large East Indian experience placed at

their disposal by the British Government. The Company has attempted

to achieve in a brief period a degree of commercial development

which in Sarawak and Dutch Borneo has been reached only gradually

in the course of several generations; and to this circumstance must

be attributed many of the difficulties which for a time caused it

"to get into the newspapers." But these difficulties have now been

overcome, and the whole territory placed in a condition of prosperity

and orderly progress.

[ERROR: unhandled &tb;]

It has been widely recognised that Sarawak provides a most notable

example of beneficent administration of the affairs of a population

in a lowly state of culture by representatives of our Western

civilisation. Among all such administrative systems that of Sarawak

has been distinguished not only by the rapid establishment of peace,

order, and a modest prosperity, with a minimum output of armed force,

but especially by reason of the careful way in which the interests

of the native population have constantly been made the prime object

of the government's solicitude. The story of the success of the two

white Rajahs of Sarawak has several times been told in whole or in

part. But we think it is worth while to try to give some intimate

glimpses of the working of the system as it affects the daily lives of

the pagan tribes, taking our illustrations in the main from incidents

in which one of us has been personally concerned.

From the very inception of his rule, Sir James Brooke laid down

and strictly adhered to the principle of associating the natives

with himself and his European assistants in the government of

the country, and of respecting and maintaining whatever was not

positively objectionable in the laws and customs of the people. And

this policy has been as faithfully followed by the present Rajah.[213]

The Raj of which Sir James Brooke became the absolute ruler in the

way described in Chapter II. was a country in which the supreme

authority had been exercised for many generations by Malay rulers,

and in which the only generally recognised system of law was the

Mohammedan law administered by them. The two white Rajahs, instead

of imposing any system of European-made laws upon the people, as in

their Position of benevolent despot they might have been tempted

to do, have accepted the Mohammedan law and custom in all matters

affecting the population of the Mohammedan religion; and they have

gradually introduced improvements when and where the defects and

injustices of the system revealed themselves. In the work both of

administration and legislation the Rajahs have always sought and

enjoyed the advice and co-operation of Malays. They have maintained

the principal ministries of State, and have continued the tenure of

those offices by the Malay nobles who occupied them at the time of

Sir James Brooke's accession to power; and, as these have died or

retired in the natural course, they have chosen leading Malays of

the aristocratic class to fill the vacancies. Three of these Malay

officers, namely, the Datu Bandar, Datu Imaum, and the Datu Hakim,

have been members of the Supreme Council since its institution in

1855. The first of these offices may be best defined by likening it

to that of a Lord Mayor; or better, perhaps, to that of the salaried

Burgomaster of a German city; its occupant is understood to be the

leading citizen of the Malay community of Kuching, the capital town

of Sarawak. The Datu Imaum is the religious head of the Mohammedan

community, and the Datu Hakim the principal of the Malay judges.

The Supreme Council consists of the three Malay officers named above

together with three or four of the principal European officers, and the

Rajah, who presides over its deliberations. It meets at least once a

month to consider all matters referred to it by lower tribunals. It

embodies the absolute authority of the Rajah; from its decrees

there is no appeal. It decides questions of justice, administration,

and legislation; and it continually enriches and improves the law

by creating precedents, which serve to guide the local courts, by

deliberately revising and repealing laws, and by adding new laws to

the Statute Book. It is the sole legislative authority. The presence of

the Malay members at the meetings of the Council is by no means a mere

formality; they take an active part in its deliberations and decisions.

Beside the Supreme Council there exists a larger body whose functions

are purely advisory. It is called the Council NEGRI or State Council,

and consists of the Rajah and the members of the Supreme Council,

the Residents in charge of the more important districts, and the

principal "Native Officers" and PENGHULUS, some seventy members in

all. This Council meets at Kuching once in every three years under

the presidency of the Rajah, who provides the members with suitable

lodgings and entertains them at dinner. At the meeting of this

council topics of general interest are discussed, and the Rajah makes

some general review of the state of public affairs and the progress

achieved since the previous meeting. But the principal purpose of the

institution is the bringing together, under conditions favourable for

friendly intercourse, of the leading men of the whole country. Each

new member is formally sworn in, taking an oath of loyalty to the Rajah

and his government. The native chiefs return from these meetings with

an enhanced sense of the importance and dignity of their office and

with clearer notions of the whole system of government and of their

places in it.

Though Mohammedan law remains as the basis of the law administered

among the Malays, notable improvements have been introduced,

E.G. the death penalty for incest and corporal punishment for conjugal

infidelity have been abolished; slaveholding, though not made illegal,

has been discouraged throughout the country by rendering it easy for

slaves to secure their freedom; and the power of the master over his

slave has been greatly restricted. A man is not allowed to marry a

second or third wife, unless he can prove himself able to provide for

each of the women and her offspring; wilful murder is always punished

by death or long imprisonment, not merely by imposition of a fine as

in former times.

The development of commerce and industries has, of course, given rise

to legal questions for which the Mohammedan law provides no answers;

and to meet these necessities, laws modelled on the Indian code and

on English law have been enacted.

The presence of a large Chinese community (now comprising some

50,000 persons) has always been a source of legal and administrative

difficulties. These difficulties have been met in the past by securing

the presence of leading Chinese merchants on the judicial bench,

as assessors familiar with the language, customs, and circumstances

of their countrymen, whenever the latter have been involved in legal

proceedings. In the present year a special court for the trial of

Chinese civil cases has been instituted, consisting of seven of the

leading Chinese merchants, of whom all, save the president, who is

nominated by the Rajah, are elected by the Chinese community.

The government of the pagan population, comprising as it does so many

tribes of diverse customs, languages, and circumstances, has presented

a more varied and in many respects a more difficult problem. But the

same principles have been everywhere applied in their case also. The

backbone of the administrative and judicial system has been constituted

by the small staff of English officers carefully chosen by the Rajah,

and increased from time to time as the extension of the boundaries of

Sarawak opened new fields for their activities. During recent years

this administrative staff has counted some fifty to sixty English

members. Of these about a dozen are quartered in Kuching, namely,

the Resident of the first division, his assistant, a second-class

Resident, and the heads of the principal departments, the post office,

police and prisons, the treasury, the department of lands and surveys,

public works, education, and the rangers.

The Sarawak rangers are a body of some 400 men trained to the use of

fire-arms and under military discipline. The majority are Sea Dayaks,

the remainder Malays and Sikhs. Two white officers, the commandant

and the gunnery instructor, are supported by native non-commissioned

officers. The force is recruited by voluntary enlistment, the men

joining in the first place for five years' service. This force supplies

the garrisons of the small forts, one or more of which are maintained

in each district; and from it a small body of riflemen has commonly

been drawn to form the nucleus of any expeditionary force required

for punitive operations.

The whole territory of Sarawak is divided into four divisions, each of

which is again divided into two or more districts. The first division

coincides with Sarawak proper; the second includes the Batang Lupar,

Saribas, and Kelaka districts; the third comprises the Rejang, Oya,

Muka, Bintulu, and Matu districts; the fourth consists of the Baram,

Limbang, Trusan, and Lawas. The first, third, and fourth divisions

are administered by divisional Residents, which three officers rank

next to the Rajah in the official hierarchy. Each district is under

the immediate charge of an officer. These district officers are

of two ranks, namely Residents of the second class, and Assistant

Residents. In each district, with the exception of the smallest, the

Resident is assisted in his multifarious duties by a second white

officer of the rank of cadet or extra-officer, and has under his

direction a squad of ten to twenty-five rangers under the charge of a

sergeant; a sergeant of police in charge of about twelve policemen,

who are generally drawn from the locality; several Malay or Chinese

clerks; and generally some two or three "native officers." The last

are Malays of the aristocratic class resident in the district; they

are appointed by the Rajah on the recommendation of the Resident and

receive a regular salary. Their duties are to assist the Resident in

his police-court work, to hold special courts for the settlement of

purely Malay cases of a domestic nature, and to take charge of the

station in the absence of the Resident and his assistant.

The prime duty of the Resident is to preserve order in his district

and to punish crimes of violence. But he is responsible also for

every detail of administration, including the collection of taxes

and customs duties, the settlement of disputes, and the hearing of

complaints of all kinds, the furnishing of reports to the central

government on all matters of moment, the development of trade and the

protection of traders, especially the inoffensive Chinese; and above

all, in the newer districts, it is his duty to gain the confidence

of the chiefs of the wilder tribes, and to lead them to accept the

Sarawak flag and the benefits of the Rajah's government, in return

for the small poll-tax required of them. It is well recognised by

the Rajah and his officers that the success of a Resident depends

primarily upon his acquiring intimate knowledge of the people and

establishing and maintaining good relations with them; and with this

end in view every Resident is expected to be familiar not only with

the Malay language, which is the official language of the country, as

well as in some measure a common medium of communication between the

chiefs of the various tribes, but also with one or more of the other

languages spoken in his district. The headquarters of the Resident

are usually the fort, or a small residency built not far from it in

the lower reaches of the chief river of his district. Here a Chinese

bazaar, I.E. a compact village of Chinese traders and shopkeepers, and

a Malay Kampong, generally spring up under the shelter of the fort;

and thus the station becomes the headquarters of trade as well as of

administration. To this centre the workers of jungle produce bring

their stuff, floating down river on rafts of rattans or in their

canoes; from it the Malay and Chinese traders or pedlars set out in

their boats for long journeys among the up-river people; and to it

come occasional parties of the up-river tribesmen, to consult with

the Resident, to seek redress for wrongs, to report the movements of

tribes in the adjacent territories, or to obtain permission to go on

the war-path in order to punish offences committed against them.

Since the river is the one great high road, and since the Resident

and his assistants are seated generally near the point where it leaves

the district, the coming and going of all visitors can hardly escape

their observation. And, since the station sees every few days the

arrival of visitors or the return of parties of its own people from

up river, the Resident can keep himself pretty well informed of the

state of the country, and all news of importance will reach him after

no long delay, if only he is always accessible and willing to turn

a sympathetic ear to all comers.

But the successful administration of one of the larger and wilder

districts, such as the Rejang or the Baram, requires that the Resident

shall not be content with the zealous discharge of his many duties

at his headquarters. He can only establish intimate relations of

reciprocal knowledge and confidence with the chiefs of the many

scattered communities of his district by making long journeys up river

several times a year. And situations not infrequently arise which

urgently demand his presence in some outlying part of his district

and which serve as the occasions of such journeys.

Before describing such a journey, something must be said of the

place in the scheme of government occupied by the chiefs and headmen

of the various communities. Each of the Malay Kampongs and other

similar villages of the Malanaus and other coastwise peoples is

under the immediate charge of one of its more influential elders,

who bears the title of TUAH KAMPONG. He is appointed by the Rajah on

the recommendation of the Resident and receives a small salary. His

duties are to settle the minor disputes of his village, to collect

the tax, to keep order, and to report all breaches of the peace to

the Resident. He has authority to call in the police and to order

the arrest of any villager; in cases of dispute between villages he

represents his village in the Resident's court, and, where his own

people are concerned, he may sit on the bench with the Resident to

hear and advise upon the case. The Sarawak flag is the badge of his

office, and his position and duties are defined in a document bearing

the Rajah's signature.

From among the more influential chiefs of the up-river communities

the Rajah appoints, on the recommendation of the Resident, a certain

number in each district to the office of PENGHULU. In a district of

Mixed population such as the Baram, one PENGHULU (sometimes two) is

usually appointed for each of the principal tribes of the district,

E.G. in the Baram are, or recently were, two Kayans, one Kenyah, one

Sebop, and one Barawan holding the office. The principal PENGHULUS

are made members of the Council of State, and they are expected to

attend its triennial meetings. The status of the PENGHULUS is similar

to that of the TUAH KAMPONG, and he also is given the Sarawak flag,

which he will display on his boat on official journeys, and a document

signed by the Rajah recording his appointment and the duties of his

office; but many of them derive a considerably greater importance than

their fellows from the numerical strength and the warlike character

of their followings. The PENGHULU has authority not only over his

own house or village, but also over the chiefs or headmen of other

communities of the same tribe and region. He is expected to keep the

Resident informed of any local incident requiring his attention,

and to be present in the Resident's court when any of his people

are tried for any serious offence; he has authority to try minor

cases, both civil and criminal, among his own people. Perhaps his

most important service is the following. When an up-river man has

been charged with a serious offence, the summons of the Resident's

court is forwarded to the PENGHULU of his tribe and district with the

instruction that he shall send the man down river to headquarters. It

is generally possible for the PENGHULU to call the man to him, and,

by explaining to him the situation and the order of the Resident,

to secure his peaceful surrender. But in case of refusal to come, or

of active resistance, the PENGHULU is expected to apply such force

as may be necessary for effecting the arrest and the conveyance to

headquarters. In this way in a well-governed district the arrest of

evildoers is effected with remarkable sureness and with far less

risk of violence, bloodshed, and the arousal of angry passions,

than if the Resident should send his police or rangers to do the

work. The PENGHULU is in a much better position than the Resident for

obtaining accurate information upon, and a full understanding of, the

circumstances of any such up-river incidents; and his help is thus

often of the greatest value to the Resident. If he judges that the

accused man is innocent, and especially if the charge against him has

been made by a Chinaman, a Malay, or a member of any other than his

own tribe, he will usually accompany the prisoner to headquarters,

in, order to see that no injustice is done him. Another important

function of the PENGHULU is the preliminary investigation of breaches

of the peace among his people (see vol. ii. p. 219).