to Segalang (in the Rejang delta), to Bliun (in the Kanowit), and to Seru in the Kalaka.[19] This tradition is supported by the strong evidence of language, and there is little reason for disregarding it. After being driven out of Lugat, some of the Ukits went over to the Kapuas, where, as in the Baleh, to which river some eventually returned, they are still known as Ukits. The Bliuns, Segalangs, and Serus became civilised owing to contact with the Malays and Melanaus. The Ukits, Bukitans, and Punans, with the exception of the Punan Bah of Balui, are the wildest of all the races in the island. The Ukits are light in complexion; tall and well knit, and better looking than other inland tribes. Formerly they did not reside in houses, or cultivate the soil, but roamed about in the jungle, and subsisted on wild fruit and the animals they killed. But some of these have begun to erect poor dwellings, and do a little elementary farming. They are expert with the blow-pipe, and in the manufacture of the upas-poison, with which the points of their needle-like arrows are tinged. But it is quite open to question whether these poor savages may not be a degenerate race, driven from their homes and from comparative civilisation by more powerful races that followed and hunted them from their farms to the jungle. Beccari (op. cit. p. 363) says that they "are savages in the true name of the word, but they are neither degraded nor inferior races in the series of mankind. Their primitive condition depends more than anything else on their nomadic or wandering life, and on the ease with which they live on the produce of the forests, and on that of the chase which the sumpitan (blow-pipe) procures for them. This has no doubt contributed to keep them from associating with their fellow-beings, and from settling in villages or erecting permanent houses. I believe that these, although they must be considered as the remnants of an ancient Bornean people, are not descended from autochthonous savages, but are rather the present-day representatives of a race which has become savage." And Beccari is of opinion "that it is difficult to deny that Borneo has had older and perhaps more primitive inhabitants." The natives have legends of former races having occupied the land; the most powerful were, according to the Punans, the Antu-Jalan, who lived in the Balui, around the mouth of the Belaga, where the fort of that name now stands. They disappeared, but have now returned in the persons of the white men. So the Punans believe, and other tribes hug other myths. These savage people are, or rather were, the bitter enemies of the Dayaks, and a terror to them. Silently and unperceived, they would steal on their hereditary enemies whilst these latter were collecting jungle produce, or employed on their farms, and wound them to death with their poisoned arrows.
In former days, when they were more powerful, the Bukitans would openly attack the Dayaks, and as late as 1856 they destroyed one of the large communal Dayak houses on the Krian, and also attacked the Serikei Dayaks. The Ukits do not take heads, and the Punans do not tattoo. The latter and the Bukitans are clever makers of rattan mats, which are in demand by Europeans and Chinese. The Ukits and the Bukitans reside on the upper waters of the Rejang, Baleh, and Kapuas; and the Punans in the Baram and Balui.
The Banyoks and the Seduans are, like the Segalangs, with whom they have intermixed, probably off-shoots of the Ukit tribe. They have recently merged, and occupy the same village in the Rejang below Sibu fort. Like the Tanjongs and the Kanowits they are clever basket makers.
The Sians, another off-shoot of the Ukits, live below Belaga fort.[20]
All these small tribes inhabiting the interior, though a few are found near the coast, are dwindling away, mainly in consequence of in-and-in breeding. Of some of the tribes of the same stock only a few families are left, and in others only a few people, while one or two have totally disappeared within quite recent years.
The next Indonesian tribes to follow were the Kayans and then the Kenyahs, two that are closely allied, and both, according to tradition, came from the south, probably from the Celebes. They took possession of the Belungan (or Batang Kayan) river-basin, and overflowed into those of Baram and Balui (the right hand branch of the Rejang). These powerful tribes found these river-basins unoccupied except by scattered families of the tribes above mentioned, whom they drove into the jungle. In the Baram they remained undisturbed, as also in the Rejang till recent years. Down the latter river they spread as far as Kapit; at that time both the Sea-Dayaks and Malays were there, and over them the Kayans domineered, driving the former from their settlements at Ngmah,[21] and harassing the latter in the Kanowit, and even in the Sekrang. Eventually, however, the Kayans were forced to fall back before the ever increasing Dayaks, and to retire to the head-waters of the Balui, and now, with the exception of one small settlement, all reside above the Belaga.
When we consider the large area occupied by the tribes of Kayans and Kenyahs, who may be classed together, it will be seen how important they are. Besides inhabiting the upper waters of the Baram and Rejang, they are found in very large numbers on the Batang Kayan. The Mahkam (Koti or Coti) is also thickly inhabited by Kayans, and many live on the Barito (Banjermasin), and on the Kapuas. The Kayans and Kenyahs are tattooed, as are most of the savage people of Indonesian origin in the interior. When the children are young the lobes of the ears are pierced, and by the insertion of heavy lead or copper rings the lobes become gradually so distended as to hang down to the shoulders, and, with elderly women, often lower. That this is a very old custom, and not peculiar to these people, is shown by the sculptures in the ancient Boro Budor temple in Java, where men and women are figured with such elongated ear lobes, having ear pendants and plugs exactly similar to those in use by the Kayans and Kenyahs. Most Indonesian tribes of the interior retain this fashion.[22] These Kayans and Kenyahs are on a slightly higher grade of civilisation than the Sea-Dayaks, building finer houses, having more rule and order among themselves, and being expert in the manufacture of excellent weapons, extracting their iron for that purpose from the native ore. In character they are vindictive and cruel, but brave, and not without some good qualities. Formerly they practised hideous cruelties on their captives and slaves, and impalement was a common form of punishment. The women were even more barbarous than the men, being the most ingenious and inhuman in devising tortures. The Kayans under Sarawak rule have been checked in these matters, and human sacrifices have become a thing of the past. But that these propensities are only dormant is instanced by a case that occurred but a few years ago, far up the Balui. Four young Dayaks, survivors of a party of gutta-percha collectors, who had been cut off and killed by the Punans, after wandering for many days in the jungle, arrived destitute and starving at a Kayan house, and asked for food and shelter. Instead, the Kayans bound the young men, and, after breaking their legs and arms, handed them over to the women, who slowly despatched them by hacking them to pieces with little knives. And in the Baram, in 1882, a Kayan chief caused two captives to be bound and thrown down from the lofty verandah of his house to the ground, where they were decapitated—quite in Ashantee manner.[23]
KAYAN GIRL, SHOWING ELONGATED EARS.
Among the Kayans and Kenyahs a broad distinction exists between the classes. There are but the chiefs and their families, and only serfs and slaves under them. The chiefs are not chosen by the people, as is the case among the Dayaks. They assume their position by right of birth, or by might. The position of the serf is little better than that of the slave, and all they may gain by their industry is seized by the chiefs. It is the difference that existed in Germany between the Freie and the Unfreie; in England in Saxon times between the thegn and the villein. Although the Kayans take heads in warfare, they do not value them as do the Dayaks, and will part with them to the latter; and they are not head-hunters in the strict sense of the term. The Kayans are a decreasing race, not so the Kenyahs. Both are capable of improvement, especially the latter; and they are improving, notably in the Baram, where they are directly under the control of the Government, since that river district was ceded to Sarawak in 1883.
The Tanjongs, Kanowits, Kajamans, and Sekapans,[24] are cognate tribes, probably of the same stock as the Kayans and Kenyahs. Formerly they were large tribes, but are now each reduced to a solitary village. They are to be found only on the Rejang. The dialects of the two first are intermediary between those of the Melanaus and the Kayans, and they live in an intermediary position. The other two tribes live close to Belaga fort in the Kayan country; their dialects vary.
The
