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In the Heart of Bantuland.
A Record of 29 Years ' Pioneering inCentral Africa, with descript ionsof the Native H abits, C ustom s
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Adventure 69° Trave l in TropicalAfrica, with descrip tions of the
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Kashm i r in S unlight and S hade.
Describing its beauties, 69“ the hab i tsand customs , £9“ gradual rebui ld ingof a once downtrodden people. ByC . E . TYNDALE-BISCO E , M .A.
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The Rift V al leys and Geologyof East Africa .
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A Diplomat in Japan .
The Inner H istory of the C riticalYears of apan when the Ports wereO pened the Monarchy Restored .By The Right Hon . S ir ERNESTSATOW , G .C .M.G . W ith I l l ustrat ions. 32 5. net.
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Prehistori c Man 1?H is S tory.A Sketch of the H istory ofMankindfrom the Earl iest Times. By Prof.G. F. SC O TT ELLro '
r, M .A. (Lantab
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SEELEY, SERV ICE 6 ‘ C O . LTD.
A L O W LAND DUSUN O N A BUFFALO .
This ungain ly looking bru te i s a favouri te steed , and can keep up a Jog-trot for hours, when i t i s
no t exposed to the fu ll heat of the sun The an imal 15 steered by means of the cord attachedto the no se -r ung A sadd le W i th a h igh wooden peak 15 general ly used i n buffalo-rid ing.
AMO NG
PRIM IT IV E PEO PLES
BU RNEA DESCRIPTION OF THE L IVES , HABITS(S' CUSTOMS OF THE PIRATICAL HEADHUNTERS OF NORTH BORNEO ,
W ITH AN
ACCOUNT OF INTERESTING OBJECTS OFPREHISTORIC ANTIQUITY D ISCOVERED IN
THE ISLAND
e l
ig‘
IV O R H . N?EV ANS, B.A.
Fellow gf the Royal Anthropological Insti tute
W ITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS 6? A MAP
fia’
é
LONDON
SEELEY,SERVICE 89
’
CO . LIMITED
38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET1922
CONTENTS
CHAPTER IPAGE
BRITISH NORTH BoRNEo— GENERAL DESCRIPTION— HI STO RY— GO VERNMENT
CHAPTER I IBRITI SH NORTH BoRNEo— PO PULATION <8 RACES
CHAPTER III
TRADE <5 INDUSTRIESCHAPTER IV
THE TUARAN (S TEMPASSUK D I STR ICTSCHAPTER V
THE JUNGLECHAPTER V I
TRAVELL ING U P-COUNTRY <5} ELSEWHERECHAPTER VI I
THE LIFE O F AN O UT-STATION OFFICER
THE DUSUNS
CHAPTER VI I IRACES O F THE TUARAN (S' TEMPASSUK D ISTR ICTS
CHAPTER IXDRESS (5 ADO RNMENT
CHAPTER !
HOU SES— DOMESTIC AFFAIRS— GO VERNMENTCHAPTER X I
1 1
I 2 Contents
CHAPTER ! II
FO O D, NARCOTIC S (S' INTO ! ICANTSCHAPTER X I I I
COURTSH IP, MARR IAGE (5 D IVO RCE, BUR IAL (S' PUBERTYCUSTOMS
CHAPTER X IVMUS ICAL INSTRUMENTS , MUS IC (S DANC ING
CHAPTER XVWEALTH
,CURRENCY, TRAD ING , MARKETS
CHAPTER XV IMANUFACTURES
CHAPTER XVI IREL IG ION SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER XVI I ILEGENDS
CHAPTER X IXWARFARE
,HEAD-HUNTING WEAPONS
THE BAJAUS (S' ILLANUNS
CHAPTER XXRACES O F THE TUARAN (S' TEMPASSUK D ISTR ICTS
CHAPTER XX IAGR ICULTURE, HUNTING (S' F I SH ING
CHAPTER XX I IDRESS , DOMESTIC AFFAIRS (5 GO VERNMENT
CHAPTER XXI I IFO O D é INTO ! ICANTS
CHAPTER XXIVLO VE , COURTSH IP (g. MARR IAGE
CHAPTER XXV I
CHAPTER XXV I IREL IG ION FO LKLO RE
CHAPTER XXV I I IVVARFARE
CHAPTER XXIXANTIQUITIES
CHAPTER XXXTHE CH INESE IN BO RNEO
CHAPTER XXXIDIARY O F A JOURNEY To MOUNT KINABALU
APPENDICESA.
— DERIVATIONS O F SOME TEMPASSUK PLACE-NAMES
B.— MEASUREMENTS O F “ O RANG DUSUN
C .— THE MALAY LANGUAGE
LIST OF ILLU STRATIONS
A Lowland Dusun on a Buffalo Frontispz'
ece
A Bamboo Bridge over the Kadamaian
An Up-country View in the Tempassuk District
Gumpus, the Headman ofTambatuan
The Wife of the Headman of Tambatuan (8' her Favourite Pig
Dusun Women at work in the Fields belowTambatuan
A Dusun Fam ily Party on the march
A Dusun Fish-trap in the Kadamaian River
Bunsud, a Lowland Dusun
The Dusun O rgan (Sr Banjo
A Market Scene in the Tempassuk District
Dusun Priestess ofTambatuan in Ceremonial Dress
Dusun Priestess ofTambatuan in Ceremonial Dress (rear)
I 6 List of I l lustration s
A Head -house at Kaung U lu
Drying Padi in a Dusun Vi l lage 2 00
Dusuns of Tempassuk Vil lage
Bajau Vi l lage at Mengkabong
In a Rice-field near Tambatuan
Some Dusun Musical Instruments
In Kaung U lu
Am ong Prim itive Peoples in
Borneo
CHAPTER I
BR IT I SH NO RTH BO RNEO — GENERAL DESC R IPT IO NH I STO RY— GO VERNMENT
HE country with which thi s book deal s i s theterri tory of the Bri t i sh North Borneo Company
,
and in particular the adj acent d i strict s of the Tuaranand Tempassuk, called after two rivers that take the ir risein Mount Kinabalu the magnificent
,which towers up almos t
perpendicularly on i ts seaward face to a height offeet.Borneo
,the second larges t i s land in the world
,which 18
hazily connected by the crowd with the exi stence of wi ldmen
,l ie s
,roughly speaking
,south of the Phil ippines
,with
Java to the south,Celebe s to the east
,Sumatra and the
Malay Peninsula to the wes t, while the Equator cuts almos tthrough the centre .About two- third s of the whole i sland
,compris ing the two
Residencie s of South-East andWest Borneo,i s under Dutch
rule. The remainder i s d ivided into three s tate s : Sarawak,
which occupie s a long s trip of terri tory on the we s t coas tand has an Engl ish ruler (Raj a Brooke) ; Briti sh NorthBorneo, governed by a Chartered Company, towards thenorthern end of the i sland ; and the l i ttle native s tate ofBrunei, wedged between these two, which have both eu
riched themselves a t her expense. The las t-named i s nowprotected by Great Britain and admini s tered by officers ofthe S trait s Settlements Civi l Service.
“ The firs t European trave ll er to give an account of theI 7
1 8 British North Borneomanners and customs of any Bornean tribe was AntonioP igafetta, who vi si ted the ci ty of Brunei in 152 1 . Thename Bornei
,by which he ca ll s that old s tate
,has now been
further corrupted into the modern Borneo.The cred i t of being the firs t Europeans to di scover thei s land re s ts apparently with the Portuguese or the Spaniards,somewhere between 151 8 and 152 6, but i t seems uncer
tain to which national i ty the laurel s should be awarded .
Poss ibly the Italian traveller V arthema may have visi ted thecountry before e ither the Portuguese or the Spaniard s .However
,there i s l i t tl e doub t that the Chinese had been in
the habi t of vi s i ting Borneo at leas t s ince the sixth centuryA .D.
,and poss ibly much earl ier
,a s in the works of various of
their hi s torians we have accounts of embas sie s which weresen t from China to the Royal Court of Brunei
,and v ice worm .
Trade fo llowed,or perhaps preceded
,the ambassadors ;
but,though old Chinese po t tery and heads are found almos t
everywhere in Borneo,i t i s very doubtful i f there was ever
a re sident Chinese populat ion numerous enough to haveintroduced a serious amount of Chinese blood among theaboriginal s
,as has been supposed by some wri ters . But I
shall have something more to say on this subj ec t when Icome to deal wi th the ques tion of the races and tribe sinhabi ting the country.r
.
The total area of Borneo i s about square__m iles.
Thé"
is1and i s very compact and has not many bays orinle t s
,though there are a few on i t s north-eas tern coas t.
A bel t of mangrove swamp of varying bread th fringes mos tof the shores
,and behind thi s are plains — not neces sari ly
open country — foot -hil l s and final ly the mountainous regionsof the interior. Among the plain s and swamps wind thelower courses of the rivers
,which take their ri se in the
mountains,and eventually empty themselves in to the sea
through del tas formed of de tri tus from the uplands.’0 NO land i s better provided with rivers than Borneo, butunfortunately the maj ori ty of them are no t navigable for
British North Borneo 1 9
boats of any si ze owing to the formidable bars at the irmouths .
l The country i s thickly covered with primeval jungle, exceptwhere there i s
,or has been
,a considerable native population.
In such d is trict s virgin j ungle i s found chiefly on the highes tof the lower hill s
,and on the mountains
,while the valleys
are filled wi th big secondary growth which has sprung upon the si te s of o ld native clearings . Taking i t a s a whole,the wes t coas t i s far more thickly populated than the eas t
,
wherefore the eas t i s much more given over to j ungle !1 The cl imate of Borneo very much resembles that of theMalay Peninsula
,but the island i s a good deal le s s heal thy
,
the north-eas tern coas t in particular having a very badreputation for fever. As i s s ta ted by Guillemard and Kean
(Compendium of the Geograp/Jy of Australasia) , Borneo, beingbisected by the Equator
,
“ i s exposed to the action of fourMonsoons
,in the northern port ion to the N.E. and S.W .,
and in the southern to the S .E . and N.W .,but these
winds become considerably al tered wi th the local i ty.” Thegeneral cl imate may be described as hot and damp
,and
though severe droughts sometimes occur,there i s no true
dry season. Roughly { speaking, the rainie s t part of theyear in Briti sh North Borneo i s from October to February. 0
The total population of Borneo was e s timated in 1905to be about
To turn now to Bri ti sh North Borneo. This s tate,with
an area of square miles and a population ofis governed by a Chartered Company
,formed for the
purpose of developing certain lands,concess ion s for which
had been obtained from the Sultan s of Sulu and Brune i inconsideration of s tipulated annual payments . The negotia
tions with these Sultans for the transfer of the terri toriesto a Provi sional Company were concluded by the late S irAlfred Dent and Baron Overbeck in 1 877.
The American Consul in Brunei had already obtained
2 0 Brit ish North Bo rn eoconce s s ions for some of the terri torie s which are nowunder the flag of the Bri ti sh North Borneo Company
,a
trading Company had been formed,and
,with a view to
opening up the country,Chinese had been imported and
settled at Kimanis . However,neither the se ttlement nor
the Company flouri shed,and i t s right s were finally acquired
by Baron Overbeck. S ir Alfred (then Mr) Den t vi s i tedvarious part s of the territorie s
,accompanied by repre senta
tives of the Brune i and Sulu Governments,who were em
powered to notify the inhabi tants that the rights of bothSul tans had been transferred to the Company ; Europeanofiicers in command of small bodie s of pol ice were l eft a tSandakan — now the capital— Tempassuk and Papar ; theDent house flag was hoi s ted at the s tations opened
,and the
new terri tories came,at any rate in name
,under the control
of the le s se es .In 1 8 8 1
,in spi te of bi tter opposi t ion on the part of the
Dutch and the Spaniards,a Royal Charter was granted to
the Provi s ional Company which had been formed to acquirethe rights of the le s see s. The. Dutch
,who had previously
done everything in their power to hinder the affairs of Raj aBrooke in Sarawak
,naturally did no t welcome the formation
of yet another Brit i sh s tate in Borneo ; while the Spanishwere di spleased at the Bri t i sh obtaining any power in thenorthern portion of Borneo which they considered withintheir sphere of influence
,as being in j uxtapos ition to the
southern i sland s of the Phil ippine s,and nominally under
the Sul tan of Sulu . Indeed the lat ter seem to have had’
some ti tle to those di s tri ct s over which the royal house ofSulu claimed to exerci se power
,s ince the Sul tan of Sulu
had for some time been subj ect to them. However, theconce ssion s from the Sul tan were obtained while he was inrebell ion against the Spaniard s
,and
,as he d id not make hi s
peace with them unti l later in the year, the moral rights ofthe Spaniards
,whatever they might be worth
,were not
recognised .
2 2 British North BorneoLuckily for the Company
,the native s of Bri ti sh North
Borneo are nei ther so warl ike nor so well organi sed as thoseof Sarawak ; consequently there have been fewer wars.The two mo st trouble some tribe s have been the Baj au s andIllanuns of the wes t coas t
,who are by nature and education
und i scipl ined robbers,sea-rovers and freebooters . In the
old days the Illanuns were the mos t notorious pirate s in theArchipelago
,and their very name was a terror even to
people l iving so far away as the Malay Peninsula,to the
inhabitant s of which probably a good many piracies werecredi ted
,which were real ly the work of the former. The
Il lanuns are resident in the Tempassuk di s tric t , while theBaj aus are found on both coast s, those on the west havingse ttled vi l lages
,while those on the east l ive the l ives of sea
gipsies .From among the Baj aus of Iuanan in the Tuaran d i stric t
arose one lead er to withs tand the ri sing power of the Chartered Company. Mat Sal eh, a man of good birth, partly byappealing to the predatory ins tincts of the more d isorderlytribes
,partly by trading on the native s’ mistrust of the
Chartered Company,which was assuming control of large
tract s of country without consult ing the wishe s of the inhabitants
,was able to rai se consid erable forces
,and for a
number of years gave the D irec tors many uneasy moments.Among hi s chief exploi ts
,or those of his l ieutenants
,were
the plundering of Gaya Treasury,a march on Sandakan and
the sacking and burning of Kudat Arsenal .”
By some Mat Saleh has been condemned as a treacherousand crafty enemy and a rebel agains t the government of thecountry ; by others — the love - your-enemy -and-hate -yourneighbour party in Parl iament— he has been canonised as apatrio t saint
,defending hi s country agains t the encroach
ments of a Company of chartered freebooters . Neither ofthe se estimates i s correct. He appears to have been a manof good presence
,cons iderable act ivi ty and great courage
,
who,besides being a born leader
,was pos ses sed of consider
British North Borneo 2 3
able powers of persuasive eloquence . Patrio ti sm,in the
sense in which i t i s unders tood in Europe,or indeed in any
sense,i s unknown among the native tribes of Borneo ; but
Mat Saleh well represented the prevai l ing Bajau feeling withregard to the new government
,which was both di sl iked and
feared,s ince i t threatened to put bounds to the Baj aus’ im
memorial right of doing exactly as they chose,and to the i r
equally venerable cus tom of oppressing and cheating thenat ive s of the interior.On the other hand
,i t canno t be said that the Chartered
Company had morally— even supposing that i t s legal rightswere above suspicion — any right to posses s i tse lf of i t spresent terri tories. Except in the case of a few small districts acquired at a later date
,which were taken over from
minor chiefs in consideration of annual payments,the t i tles
to the country were obtained from the Sultans of Sulu andBrunei . These Sul tans were claimants to nearly all theterri tory which i s now under the rule of the CharteredCompany ; but, except perhaps for one or two valleys notfar from the present border of the state of Brunei
,the ir
claims were of the mo s t shadowy descript ion,nei ther poten
tate being able to enforce hi s orders even in the coastalregions
,while practically the only tangible Sign of the Sul tan
of Sulu’s exi s tence,as far a s Borneo was concerned
,were
raids by Sulu pirates and the se ttlements formed,chiefly on
the eas t coast,by his somewhat undesirable subj ects .
The Sul tan of Brune i s eems to have been occasional lyable to exact tribute from some of the people of the wes tcoas t, but thi s was rather in the nature of blackmai lextorted by war prahus. Natives who made themse lve suseful to him were often given high - sounding ti tle s. Hehad absolutely no control over the interior.Natural ly both Sul tans were only too glad to transfertheir doubtful claims in exchange for what was to them aliberal yearly payment, for they los t l i t tle or nothing bysurrendering all rights in the terri tory, and obtained a
2 4 British North Borneohandsome rent for what was of hardly any use to them.
The D irec tors of the Company,on the other hand
,were
equal ly anxious to come to terms in order that they might,
before s tarting operations in Borneo,have some sort of a
l egal document to flouri sh in the face s of those who wererude enough to say that they were l i t tle bet ter than thepirate s and freebooters whose exce sse s they professedthemselve s so wishful to stop .
Thus the Bri ti sh North Borneo Company started topo sses s themselves of the country
,without in any way
truly consul ting the feel ings or wi shes of the inhabitants,proclamations being merely read which announced that theterri torie s had been leased from the two Sultans . Thenative s were for the mos t part too badly organ i sed to offerany resi s tance
,and ei ther
,in the case of the more t imid
peoples,acquiesced without any thought of making an
attempt to show that they obj ected to being summari lyd i sposed of by Sul tans whose su zerainty they d id notacknowledge, or, in that of the more warl ike tribe s, pretended
,with the somewhat subtle pol i tenes s of the Malay
,
to receive their unwelcome vi s i tors with pleasure,a t the
same time wishing themselve s wel l rid of them and trustingthat something would happen to upse t their plan s.When, however, the coastal tribe s found that the in
truders showed no s ign s of re tiring,that the servants of the
Company were attempting to in terfere wi th what they hadhi therto regarded as their l egi t imate amusements, thatcourts , pol ice s tations and o ther abominations were beingestabl ished , and effort s made to bring the l i t toral a t anyrate under some sort of control
,they naturally began to
unders tand the drift of the proclamations,and to what kind
of things the Company’s rule would lead,should i t succeed
in e s tabl i shing i tself permanently.Naturally disconten t among the predatory tribes increased
proportionate ly as they saw their freedom of action menaced ,and they only required a leader of some parts to se t them
British North Born eo 2 5
in a state of open warfare . This leader was found in theperson of Mat Saleh
,who not only was succe s sful in band
ing toge ther the Baj aus and Illanuns,but also partly by
terrori sm,partly by caj olery
,at one t ime managed to ge t
together a considerable following of pagan Dusuns .Tbe Eneyelopwdia Br itannica, which should certainly be
unbiassed,in the course of an articl e on Bri t i sh North
Borneo makes mention of the Mat Saleh “ rebel l ions ” asfol lows
The Company’s acqui s i t ion of terri tory was viewed wi thconsiderable dissati sfaction by many of the native s
,and
thi s found expres s ion in frequent act s of violence. Themost noted and most succe s sful of the nat ive leaders wasa Baj au named Mat Saleh
,who for many years defied the
Company,whose policy in hi s regard was marked by con
siderable weaknes s and vacillat ion . In 1 898 a composi tionwas made with him, the terms of which were unfortunatelynot defined wi th sufficient clearness
,and he re t ired in to the
Tambunan country to the eas t of the range which runsparalle l to the wes t coas t
,where for a period he lorded
it undi s turbed over the Dusun tribe s of the val ley. In1899 i t was found nece ssary to expe l him,
s ince hi s act sof aggres sion and defiance were no longer endurable. Ashort and thi s t ime succe ssful campaign followed
,resul ting
on the 3 I s t January 1900 in the death of Mat Sal eh andthe destruct ion of his defence s . Some of his followerswho escaped raided the town of Kudat on Marudu Bay inApril of the same year
,but caused more panic than damage ;
and l it tle by l it tle during the next years the las t smoulderingembers of rebell ion were extinguished.”
As I have mentioned before,the terri tory of the Chartered
Company i s admini s tered by a Governor who i s appoin ted bythe Court of Directors . Beneath the Governor are theResidents
,of whom there are four
,the Res ident of the
Wes t Coast,the Re siden t of Kudat
,the Re s ident of the
2 6 British North BorneoEast Coas t and the Resident of the Interior. Under theResidents are the D i s tric t O flicers
,the Assi s tan t Di s tric t
Officers and the Cadets ; the las t-named are usual ly ei therattached to some of the Government office s in the towns
,
or temporari ly put in charge of a sub-di stric t— as I wasuntil they shal l have passed their examinat ions in Malay andLaw
,soon after which
,unle s s s tationed in towns
,they are
rai sed to the rank of Assi s tan t D i s tric t Officers . Outsidethe C zidet Service are the Railway, Publ ic Works , Medical,Survey
,Telegraphs and Po l ice D epartments
,whil e officers of
the Cadet Service or Special i s t s are attached to the Treasurie s,
Po s t s and Telegraphs,Audi t and Prin t ing O flices.
One or more European oflicers are s tat ioned a t the following place s — j e s sel ton, Tuaran, Kotabelud, Papar, Mempakoland Weston on the wes t coas t ; Kudat on the north coas t ;Sandakan
,Lahad Datoh
,S imporna and Tawao on the east
coas t ; Beaufort, Tenom,Kaniugan
,Tangku lop, Rundum,
Ranau and Tambunan in the Interior Residency,while a
Magi s trate i s al so in charge of the Labuk and Sugut rivers .The chief towns in the Company’s terri tory are Jes sel tonand Sandakan
,the lat ter be ing the seat of governmen t
,
but the Governor d ivide s hi s t ime about equally betweenthe two
,and Jes sel ton i s the headquarters of the Con
stabulary. The next town in order of importance i s Kudaton Marudu Bay
,and after thi s Beaufort on the Padas river.
The means of communicat ion I wil l deal with in anotherchapter. The terri torie s of the Bri ti sh North BorneoCompany extend from the Lawas river on the wes t coas tto the S ibuko river on the east.A j oin t Anglo-Dutch Commiss ion has vi s i ted the interior
for the purpose of adj us ting the boundary between theCompany’s terri tory and Dutch Borneo
,and se ttl ing d is
puted points. All the i s land s wi thin a d i s tance of ninel eagues of the coas t of Bri ti sh North Borneo
,including
tho se of Balambangan and Banguey, are within the sphereof the Company’s j uri sd iction .
2 8 Popu lation S939 RacesThe people of the l i t toral and on the more navigable
rivers are,general ly speaking
,lax Mohammedans
,those of
the interior and the intermediate regions pagans . The tribe sof the coas tal region s are the most recen t arrival s
,and are of
Malayan or Proto-Malayan stock ; those of the interior areIndonesians .The natives of the up
-country regions far excel those ofthe coas ts in good qual i t ie s
,the lat ter be ing usual ly boastful
,
lazy,tyrann ical over those weaker than themselves
,lawles s
,
gamblers,borrowers and spend thrift s
,the ir only meri t be ing
the ir fondne s s for sport in al l its forms. The up-country
man,on the o ther hand
,i s hard-working
,thrifty and usually
hones t ; he has, moreover, a manner which appeal s s ingularlyto mos t Engli shmen
,s ince he has no trace of the cringing
and fawning s tyle of many of the people s of India,which
,
should there be any O pportuni ty,quickly develops in to very
sl ightly veiled in solence . He meet s the whi te man wi th akind of “ man-to-man ” manner
,which a t the same t ime i s
perfectly re spectful . The bes t type of native both re spect sh imself and re spects you ; and, i f you are of a friendly di spo si t ion
,the respect wil l rapidly develop into l iking on both
sides .Neverthele s s I do no t want the reader to think that . the
pagan native i s faul tle s s ; he has hi s l i t tl e fail ings, as mo s t ofus have
,and among them must be mentioned a weakness for
“ l ift ing human head s from their owners’ shoulders — partlyas a matter of sport and prowess
,partly of religion — and
a penchant for s teal ing bufifaloes,which al so i s cons idered
almost a sport ; but I shal l have more to say about thi ssubj ec t in another chapter.I have never been able to se t tle qui te defini tely in myown mind whether such d ifference in character i s due to thefundamental d ifference in race be tween the coas tal tribe s andthose of the interior
,or whether the reason for the essential
badnes s of the nat ive s of the sea-board mus t be sought forin some obscure influence of the teachings of Islam on the
Population 899 Races 2 9
peculiar Malayan temperament . I cannot profe s s any grea tadmiration for Mohammedani sm in general
,since i t suffers
from all the defects of an exclus ive rel igion,but I am in
clined to think that we must no t by any means ascribe al lthe shortcomings of Mohammedan native s to the re l igion
,
one reason being that,except for a very firm bel ief that i t s
tenets are true,they pay but l i t tle at tention to them in
matters concerning everyday life .It is related of a certain local saint — the story i s told bythe Malays agains t themselves — that when he arrived inSumatra he found the people absolutely indifferent to hi steachings
,s ince their whole t ime was devoted to cockfighting, wagering fand the d i scussion of the meri t s of the
various birds which were to take part in forthcomingmatches . The would-be teacher’s chances of convertingany of the nat ives to a better way of l ife seemed poorindeed
,until a certain Malay
,wishing to obtain a spe ll or
charm to say over hi s fighting cock to ensure its victoryin a conte s t for which he had entered i t
,be thought himself
of the holy man who had come to l ive near hi s village.Thereupon he took himself ofif to the wi se man’s houseand besought him for a charm which would help hi s birdto win . The Arab considered for a while
,and
,probably
see ing l i ttle harm and some pos sible gain in complying withthe reques t
,taught the Malay to utter the Mohammedan
Confession of Fai th . The Malay went away perfectlysatisfied with thi s new charm
,and to hi s great j oy his
bird, about which he had fe l t some doubts, beat i t sopponent, an event which he was not s low in attributingto the saint’s spe ll . Not unnaturally he boasted to hi sfriends of the fine new charm he had obtained from thewise man, the consequence being that the lat ter was overwhe lmed with similar requests from other native s. Toeach of these he taught the same formula
,and thus the
Moslem profe s sion of fai th was soon heard on al l side sthroughou t the country.
30 Popu lation RacesThe firs t Malay
,however
,soon came again to the saint
and prote s ted agains t the charm,which had been given to
him as his own,having become public property. The sain t,
therefore,to appease him taught him as a fresh charm the
Five Dai ly Prayers, and once more the Malay went awaysati sfied. From that t ime to such a pitch did the demandfor charms attain that the saint was able to teach theMalays al l the doctrine s of the Mohammedan rel igion underthe guise of spell s to be used in cock-fighting.
The average Mohammedan native in the Malay Peninsula,
in Borneo and o ther i sland s of the Archipe lago I s In aperpe tual s tate of banya/e rural.) (great trouble) usually wi thregard to money affairs . Needles s to say, his trouble s,where they truly exis t
,as they often do
,are general ly of
hi s own making ; but he seems to regard them as beingdue to continual bad luck
,and he i s always qui te ready to
tran sfer them to the shoulders of another,e specially a
European . The method he adopt s i s to “ touch ” hisunfortunate victim for a loan
,of which he seldom repays
any part,and s ti l l more seldom the whole .
I have heard Malays excus ing themselves for their spendthrift nature by saying that their Prophe t— I do no t knowwhether such a passage exi s ts in the Koran or not — hassaid that “ Orang Islam ta
’bule/J j adi kayo”
(Mohammedanscannot become rich) . I t i s no exaggeration to say thatamong young Malays
,especially
‘
in the towns,wages received
at the end of the month are spent by the second or thirdday of that following. When
,however
,the spend thrift
advance s in years,he often becomes penurious and grasping ;
and,though his heart i s as flinty as ever, makes some show
of conforming to the observances of hi s rel igion.Altogether the Mohammedan native i s no t u sually a very
at tract ive personage. His manners are good, and, unti l youknow him better
,he seems to have some real self-respect ;
but thi s to my mind consi s t s chiefly in showing re sentmentto rough method s of addres s
,and avenging slights or insul t s
Population Races 3 1
real or fancied . The Malay word malu, meaning ashamed ,i s continually on the l ips of nat ives
,and especial ly of Moham
medans ; but for a man to be ashamed to do, or of havingdone
,some scoundrelly action is rare ; he is only ashamed of
having been found out .Probably the bes t that can be said of the Malays, the
Baj aus and the other Mohammedan tribes of Borneo is,that
they have a saving sense of humour and are keen sportsmen. They wil l
,I think
,certa inly manage to keep the ir
place in the modern struggle for exi stence,j us t beginning
to be fel t in Borneo ; they may not be highly succe s sful, butthey wil l continue to exis t
,thanks chiefly to their rascal i ty .
To turn again to the pagan natives for a while. Thesetribes
,especially the Dusuns
,are the bes t native agri
cul turi s ts in the country ; they are, generally speaking,frugal and
,at any rate at certain seasons of the year,
extreme ly hard workers . They should,with the protection
from raiding by the Mohammedans afforded them by theChartered Company
,and the suppres sion of intertribal
head -hunting,be rapidly increasing
,but I have considerable
doubt s as to whether thi s i s the case .Periodical epidemics of smal l-pox
,cholera and other
diseases have undoubtedly done a great deal to keep thepopulation down, but wi th the gradual opening up of thecountry these foes may be fought and vanqui shed . Themortali ty among children is
,I be l ieve
,unduly high ; and I
cannot help having an uneasy suspicion at the back of mymind that the pagan tribe s of the interior
,being much more
unsophi sticated than those of the coast,may sufifer severe ly
both in numbers and vi tal i ty from the encroachments ofcivi l isation . This to many primitive peoples i s a deadlypoison, and destroys them body and soul, bringing, as i tdoes, in i ts train new di sease s, in toxicating l iquors, clothesunsuited to the savage
,and which he does not change when
they are soaked with rain,new food s
,new res trictions
,new
customs and the des truct ion of old habits.
3 2 Popu lat ion 8939 Races
Unfortunate ly the proce s s of d i sintegration and decayhas often been aided and hastened by the efforts of wellmeaning but misguided mis sionarie s and others
,who
,instead
of at tempting to arres t the progres s of many of the innovat ions (e.g. the use of clo thing) , which have been partlyresponsible for the decay of savage race s
,have del iberate ly
aided in their adoption,and have done everything in their
power to break down old cus toms, rel igious or otherwise .Their faul t has
,of course
,been that they have expected
the primi t ive savage s til l in,or l i t tle advanced from
,the
S tone Age to turn himself immediately a t the ir behes t intoa civi li s ed man l ike unto th emse lve s
,quite forge tt ing how
far back in preh i s toric t imes i t i s neces sary to go in Europeto find peoples comparable in their s tate of deve lopment tothe uncivil i sed nat ive s wi th whom they are deal ing. Can wewonder that the re sul t s of their wel l-meant but i ll-advi sedeffort s have frequently been di sastrous?Things have fortunately not reached such a pas s in Borneo
as in the i sland s of Polynesia and Melanesia,and I hope
never wil l . The inhabi tants of those i s land s have unti l,
comparatively speaking,recent t ime s been absolutely i solated
from al l contac t wi th the re s t of the world,consequently the
effect upon them of newly introduced habi t s and diseaseshas been overwhelmingly di sastrous
,al l the se d i s in tegrating
influences being le t loose on them at once. The people,before they have had time to recover from the effects of,or accus tom themse lves to
,a s ingle di s in tegrating influence,
have been immediately inundated by a score of others.In Borneo the s i tuat ion i s
,I tru s t
,more hopeful, for the
tribe s inhabi t ing the interior of the is land have reached amuch higher state of civi l i sation than those of the SouthSeas
,being able to work
,and in some case s smel t, metal s.
The brewing of intoxicating l iquors i s unders tood , onemade from rice — though not a true spiri t , s ince i t i s no tdi s t il l ed — containing a high percentage of alcohol . Thusthey wil l probably be be tter able to resi s t the evil s of cheap
Popu lation $9 Races 3 3
spiri t s than peoples who have no knowledge of intox i cants ;yet the sale of cheap and fiery brandy
,whisky
,gin and
arrack,the vendors of which are the Chinese traders of the
gambling and spiri t monopol ie s,should be stringently for
bidden. (In some di strict s near the coast the effects ofcheap spiri ts upon the native s are even now
,unfortunate ly
,
only too apparent.) The prohibi tion to be entirely efléctivewould have to be absolute
,s ince
,if the sale of spiri ts were
made an offence only to native s of the country, though i tmight to a certain exten t prevent the ri sing generation fromtaking to drink
,a native would merely go to the firs t
Chinaman he knew and give him a presen t of five cents topurchase a bott le of gin for him.
The inhabitants of Borneo are al so probably fortunate innot having been comple tely cut off from the outer world ;for
,though epidemics some time s commi t terrible ravage s
among them,they have not to fear
,to quite the same
extent as the Polynesians and Melane sians,the inroads of
civi l i sat ion. The ir powers of res i s tance to di sease s,especi
ally to minor d isease s,accord ing to European ideas
,such as
measle s,which have wrought such havoc in the South Seas
,
are fair,small-pox
,cholera and dysentery being their greates t
enemies ; and I do not think that they wil l so easily godown before the generally corrosive influence of civil i sationas their fe l lows .S til l
,I bel ieve that
,even now
,the population in some
di stricts i s decreasing,while in others i t i s s tat ionary
,or
shows a very small increase . Probably for a t ime thi ss tate of things wil l continue
,and decreases even become
more numerous and accelerated ; but I hope that after aperiod of decrease the tribe smen wil l become inured tothe new and destructive agencies and will then be able tohold their own and increase fairly rapidly.The one thing which made me fee l somewhat doubtfulon this point i s the spars i ty of the population in theinterior
,for i t has always seemed to me that where a race
34. Popu lation S939 Races
which has been in part,or wholly
,i solated from people s
in a higher s tate of development i s more or le s s suddenlybrought into contact wi th an advanced c ivi l i sat ion
,a quick
proce s s of d ecay se ts in,but that whether thi s decay is to
lead to the final ext inction of the race depend s not only on i t srecuperative powers
,but on the densi ty of the population
before i t was at tacked by the d isintegrating influences .That i s to say tha t when the scattered remnants of apopulat ion
,which was always sparse
, have acquired powersof res i stance to new cond i tions and di seases
,their fate wil l
probably even then be extinc tion,or a t any rate absorpt ion
into the more c ivil i sed race of invaders,the remnants being
too few,too scat tered and too effe te ever to be capable of
again giving ri se to fre sh communi ties .When
,however
,the population has been fairly numerous
to s tart with,and where the v i tal i ty of the race i s
moderately good,we may hope that
,after a long period
of decrease,i t may after a t ime attain a s table condi tion
,
and final ly begin to increase again .A case in point i s a forded by the Maori s of New
Zealand,who
,after decreasing continuously for many
years — they should now be extinct,according to one
writer,who
,a good many years ago
,calculating on their
rate of d ecrease,e s t imated that the last Maori should
have died some years back — are now actually again onthe increase
,a s tate of th ings which i t i s to be hoped
wi l l be maintained .Should Borneo ever become largely occupied by Chinese
,
i t is not unlikely that a mixed race be tween these peopl eand the natives of the interior would quickly ari se. TheChinese bring but few women wi th them from their country,and those members of the race who are se ttled in out-s tat ionsa t the pres ent day have very large ly married native wives,taking them from one or other of the pagan peoples . Womenof the Mohammedan tribe s
,unle s s of bad character, they are,
of course,unable to obtain
,s ince a father would refuse to
CHAPTER III
TRADE é} I NDUSTR IES
HE produce exported from Bri ti sh North Borneomay
,with the exception of a few articles
,be
roughly placed under two head ings : fir s tly,cul
tivated produce , the chief article s of which are tobacco,rubber
,rice
,sago
,pepper
,coco-nuts and copra ; secondly,
natural products,vegetable or animal
,e i ther in a raw or
partly manufactured condi tion . Among the lat ter may benoticed timber
,cutch
,gutta-percha
,j ungle rubber
,ra ttans
,
bee swax,camphor
,damar gum
,ed ible bird s’-nes ts (the
nests of a specie s of swift), mother-of-pearl shell s, tre’
pang
(dried sea-slugs or holo thurian s) , sharks’ fins (dried) anddriedfish.
The exploration of the country in search of mineral s has,
so far,no t been a great succes s
,though coal is mined at
Sebatik on the eas t coas t, and is used by s teamers tradingwith eas t coas t ports ; borings are al so being made for oil ,e special ly in the Kl ias Peninsula
,but whether this product
i s pre sen t in paying quanti t ie s appears to be a mat ter fordoubt.Gold i s found in several of the rivers
,notably the Segama
,
where dredging has been at tempted,but so far gold-working
has not proved profitable for Europeans . Copper isto exi s t in one or two locali t ie s
,but has not ye t
worked. “ Blue ground ” was some time ago announcedto exis t on the Labuk river
,and i t was said that a second
Kimberley was awaiting the at tentions of capitali st s ; butthe report proved to be incorrect
,the formation not being
diamondiferous . A somewhat s imilar s tory al so becamecurrent wi th regard to manganese in the hin terland of the
36
Trade 899 Industries 37
Marudu Bay region,but
,though manganese exis ts, the
attempt to exploi t the deposi ts was anything but a commercial succes s.Of the cul tivated products
,es tate tobacco i s grown chiefly
in,
the Darvel Bay di strict on the eas t coas t and aroundMarudu Bay in the north
,thi s industry being largely in the
hand s of Dutchmen. Bornean tobacco leaf i s used for thewrapping of cigars
,a purpose for which i t i s particularly we l l
sui ted . Rubber, since the “ boom,
” has been a good dealplanted
,and many e state s have been opened up
,chiefly on
the west coas t. The Brit i sh North Borneo Government, inorder to fos ter this industry
,has guaranteed planters that
no duty shal l be levied on exported es tate rubber for aperiod of fifty years ; while in the case of some companiesi t has pledged i tse lf to pay five per cent. interes t on thecapi tal to the shareholders, until such time a s the trees shal lcome into bearing.
Land for rubber-planting i s le t by the Government on 999year leases. The labour chiefly used on the rubber estate si s Chinese
,Javanese and native. The supply of the las t i s
somewhat irregular,and daily labourers are l iable to desert
the e states in a body at the rice-plan ting and harvest seasons .Chinese labour is
,or was
,almost entirely contract labour
,
the cool ie s signing an agreement to work for a certainnumber of years .With regard to the two d i strict s of Borneo which I know
,
there were three e s tate s in being— one of these had j us tbeen opened at the t ime that I left the country. The labourwas Chinese and nat ive
,the native labourers being Dusuns
and Baj aus, the former excel lent workers and the lat ter inmost cases the exact reverse . I remember once goinground an e s tate in the Tuaran di s tric t wi th my manager
,
fairly late in the afternoon . He drew my attention to agang of labourers who were all Baj aus . Do you see thatgang ?” he said .
“We ll,I put a gang of Dusuns and a
gang of Baj aus on to weed round these tree s thi s morn ing.
3 8 Trade 899 IndustriesI gave each man a task of a fixed number of tree s
,and when
a man had done hi s task he was at l iberty to knock off workfor the day. The Dusunsfinished— some at eleven
,some
at twelve,and some at one o’clock
,but you see that most
of the Baj au s won’t have fini shed their j obs by five.”
The maj ori ty of the Baj au labourers are under contract s,
these being general ly made for a term of six months or ayear
,but a large proportion of the Dusuns are free labourers .
The labour laws of Bri ti sh North Borneo require dras t icrevi s ion in order that Baj au labourers may be protectedagains t themselves ; the ac tual contract s are fair enough ,but owing to the Baj au’s reckles s habits he often becomesl i t tle bet ter than a slave on the e state for which he i s working
,with the exception that he receive s pay for hi s work .
Matters are now ( 19 15) somewhat improved , and moste s tate s seem to be using Chinese and Javanese labour morethan native .The usual method of recrui t ing cool ie s
,as far as my
experience goes,i s something of thi s kind . The manager
of an es tate takes out a l icence to recrui t cool i e s in acertain d i s tric t and d i spatche s a recrui ter
,whom he has en
tru s ted with anything between two hundred and five hundreddo l lars
,to obtain labourers . The recru i ter goe s and hangs
about outside the gambling-shop— unless he i s in side gambl ing with hi s employer’s money— and on seeing tha t a nativehas los t goes up to him and says : “ Hullo
,So-and-so l do
you want a loan to try your luck again wi th P The nat ive,
e specially if he is a Baj au or l llanun, wil l almos t certainlyreply that he does . “ Very well
,
” says the recrui ter.“ How much do you want?” The Baj au replie s that hewants ten
,fifteen
,twenty
,or even thirty dol lars, as the case
may be. The recruiter advance s the money wi th the s tipulation that the native Shall come and work on Blank Es tate fora period of six months
,an agreement to that eflh ct to be
signed in the pre sence of the Distric t Officer.When the recrui ter has obtained sufficient labourers
Trade @9 Industries 39
be,after a great deal of trouble
,and probably some heart
searchings on his own part as to how he i s going to accountfor the money he has himself los t in gambl ing, gets togetherhis gang of coolies and take s them to be signed on .In the Tempassuk, where I was s tationed for some time,the cool ies did not have their contracts S igned a t the Government pos t
,Kotabelud
,but were taken down on foo t to
Tuaran,since they were to work in the d is tric t of that name.
The D i s tric t Officer,North Keppe l
,who res ide s at Tuaran
,
i s in charge of the Tuaran and Tempassuk district s formingthe northern portion of Province Keppel . An Assi s tan tDistric t Officer or a Cadet i s s tationed in the Tempassuk,and is
,of course
,under the former officer. Before leaving
the Tempassuk, any cool ies who had not ye t paid their pol ltax for the year were obliged to do so ; and I found tha talmos t invariably this nece ss i tated a further appl ication formoney to the recruiter
,the usual demand be ing for two
dollars,one to pay the tax
,the other for expense s by the
way. The money borrowed previously had,in nearly al l
cases,found i t s way into the hands of the gambling-shop
keeper.Arrived on the e s tate , the coolies were without money andwithout food
,and moreover had a considerable debt to work
off,though
,provided they d id not borrow sti l l more
,one
which could easi ly be se t tled during the period of theircontract
,in s talments not exceeding a fixed percentage of
the wages being deducted monthly. Borrow again almos timmediately is
,however
,j ust what they usually did ; and , so
long as their debt d id not assume huge proportions,the
estate managers were not particularly averse from givingloans
,s ince thi s only meant that the coolie s would have to
work the longer for them.
Facil i tie s for gambl ing,if the cool ie s were unable to
visi t the gambling farm,were to be found on the estate s
,
some Chinaman being sure to s tart an ill icit establ ishment.Coolie s who are heavi ly in deb t often desert
,but are
4 0 Trade 599 Industr i es
almos t invariably caught,their captors
,general ly e i ther
police or nat ive headmen,be ing given a capture fee . The
deserter i s brought up in court,and only two course s are
open to the magi s trate : he may e i ther fine the man andsend him back to the es tate
,the fine being paid by the
es tate manager,and the amount of capture fees
,fine and
cos t s added to the wretched cool ie’s debt ; or he may, i f thecool ie has run away before
,order him a whipping with a
rattan cane,the coolie’s debt in thi s case— he i s sent back
to the es tate j us t the same — only being augmented by thecos t s of the case and the capture fee .I t usual ly comes about that unthrifty» cool ie s
,e special ly
Baj aus,are s t i l l heavi ly in debt when the period of their
agreement i s over. They thus remain on the estate , oftenfor several years
,and by cons tant borrowings keep them
selves ln a mi serable condi tion . Should they run away,they
wil l be brought back,
fined,and the amount .of the fine
and any cost s incurred added to what they already owe.Now
,though I do not approve of the whipping of run
away contract cool ie s,i t cannot be said that there i s anything
unfair in the contracts or the treatmen t of the cool ie s . Themost obj ectionable feature with regard to Baj au con tractlabour seems to me to be that advantage i s taken of theweaknes s of the Baj aus in the matter of borrowing money.That thi s should be so i s no credi t to, the Chartered Company. A short enactment provid ing that cool ie s should befree to leave any estate on the expiration of their agreement s
,
however much their indebtednes s,would place on the esta te
manager’s shoulders the onu s of seeing that cool ie s shouldnot obtain such large or such constant advances that theyshould go home st il l owing the estate money.I wel l remember a poor old couple coming to me to askfor ass i stance
,shortly before I left Borneo. They told me
they were both almost in tears — that their son had signedon for six months a s a cool ie to work on an es tate nearBeaufort
,some four years before
,
“ and now,said they
,
Trade 899 Industries 4 1
“ we hear from a man who has j us t come from Beaufortthat he i s s t i ll there
,almost without clothe s and heavi ly in
d ebt. If you can find him for us we will pay his deb ts sothat he can come home .” I wrote to try and find theirson for them— they did not know the name of the es tateand their informant had left the d is trict — but I had notreceived an answer when I l eft Borneo. I often wonder ifthey saw their prodigal again .
About the tobacco estate s I know very l i t tle, s ince I havenever been in a tobacco district
,but from hearsay I believe
that the Chinese cool ie s are often very badly swindledby their headmen or tandilr. These men become verywell- to-do
,and on account of their exactions are much
di sliked by their compatrio ts the coolies . In consequence,i t i s not uncommon for a tondz’l mysteriously to d isappear.Of obj ect s of cul tivation other than rubber, coco~ nut
palms do very well near the coasts,but hitherto their
cul tivation has been principally carried on by natives andChinese. Pepper was some years ago fairly extensivelycul tivated by Chinese set tlers
,but for various reason s
many of the estates were abandoned . There i s now,
however,I understand
,some revival of pepper-planting,
especial ly in the neighbourhood of Sandakan . Sago mill sfor treating the pi th of the sago palm exi s t at Mempakol
,
but lately,at any rate
,I be l ieve they have not been a
financial success . Timber,which i s chiefly exported to
China,i s of excel lent quali ty
,two hard wood s cal led by
the nat ives bilian and selangan batu being especially worthyof remark .
The natural products of the j ungle are sought afterby native collectors
,the Dyaks
,smal l partie s of whom
frequently come to Bri ti sh North Borneo from Sarawak tohun t for rubber
,be ing especially expert j ungle men. The
Dusuns,the Muruts and other tribe s are al so skil led collectors
,
and bring down to the marke ts,or to the Chine se shops of
the out-s tations,loads of bee swax
,rattans and damar gum
,
Trade 899 Industriesthe las t be ing col lected e i ther at the base s of the tree s fromwhich i t exudes
,mostly specie s of Sborea
,or dug for in the
earth around the trunk.
Mo ther-of-pearl shel l s are obtained by Baj au or othernat ive divers .Edible bird s’-ne s ts, made by the Chinese in to soup, whichi s supposed to be a great luxury and also to have strengthening propertie s
,are obtained chiefly from caves near the coas t
or on i sland s,e special ly the Mantanani Group
,though there
are al so caves up-country which yield them. In a good manycases these caves are the property of famil ie s of nat ives
,who
collect the nes t s for marke t. From those in th e MantananiI slands as many as four col lection s are made yearly
,the
Government sell ing the nes t s and taking a proportion of theproceed s
,while the balance i s handed over to the native
proprietors and the coll ectors. White nes ts of good or evenfair qual i ty may real i se as much as s ixteen or seventeendol lars per katt ie ( 1 lb.) locally, but the S ingapore priceforfirst-clas s ne st s i s much higher. Black nes ts — that i s
,
nes ts in which feathers are mixed wi th the gelatine-l ikesecre tion of which they are formed— fetch only about fourto six dollars per kat t ie local ly
,though when they have been
careful ly cleaned they probably command almost as high aprice as whi te nes t s of fair quali ty.The Bri ti sh North Borneo Company doe s no t i t selfengage in trade
,i t s revenue — some of which
,when there i s
a surplus,goes to pay intere s t to the shareholders— being
derived from a pol l-tax of one dollar imposed on every adul tmale native
,the le t t ing of the gambling
,opium and spiri t
monopol ie s,duti e s under a somewhat comprehens ive import
tarifl,which range s from five per cent . ad oalorem on im
ported food-stuflS to ten or fifteen per cent. on mos t manufactured articles, export dutie s , the le t ting of publ ic markets,royal tie s on certain products
,tobacco l icence s
,the sale and
rent of forest-land s,suburban lot s and town si te s , and land
revenue .
4 4 Trade S99 Industriessulphate
,cooking pots
,yellow soap
,matches
,thread
,
needle s,e tc. , etc.
Means of communication in Borneo are but l it tle developed ; but a narrow-gauge rai lway
,of which the con
s truc tion i s extremely bad,runs from Jessel ton to Beaufort
on the Padas river,fifty-seven miles d i s tan t. Beaufort i s a
j unction from which two branch lines s tart,one running to
Wes ton,twenty mile s away on the coast
,nearly oppos i te to
Labuan ; the o ther to Tenon, the pre sent terminus of therai lway to the interior.The Briti sh North Borneo Company has recently rai sed aconsiderable sum of money by means of i s suing MortgageDebentures
,and a portion of thi s i s to be devoted to the
reconstruction of the railway. An exten s ion from Jessel tonto Tuaran was proj ected
,but thi s
,owing to the war
,has
been po stponed indefini te ly.A telegraphic sys tem links Jes sel ton with Kudat via
Kotabelud,and also Je sse l ton indirectly wi th Sandakan via
Mempakol on the west coas t,through which place runs t he
cros s-country l ine connecting Sandakan wi th the latter s tation .
Thence the l ine i s continued as a submarine cable to Labuan .S eparate l ine s al so connect Kaningau in the Murut countrywi th Tambunan
,and Batu Puteh on the east coas t with
Lahad Datu,the headquarters of the East Coast Residency.
Bridle-paths l ink up many of the out-s tations,especial ly on
the wes t coas t,one sys tem extending from Je s sel ton through
Tuaran and Kotabelud to Kudat,another from Kotabelud to
Bundu tuhan and the Interior. Wireles s s tations have al sobeen recently opened .
CHAPTER IV
TH E TUARAN 6 ' TEMPASSU K D I STR ICTS
HESE two di stric ts,with which thi s book chiefly
deal s,form the northern half of Province Keppel
,on
the we s t coast of Brit i sh North Borneo. Formerlya Dis trict Officer was in charge of each of them
,but of
recent years a senior officer,with the t i tle of Di stric t Officer
,
North Keppel,has been stationed at Tuaran
,the Government
pos t in the dis trict of that name,and an Assi s tant D istric t
Officer,or a Cade t
,at Ko tabelud
,the Government pos t in
the Tempassuk dis trict . During my residence in Borneo ,except for a couple of months at Tuaran with the Dis tric tOfficer
,I was in charge of the latter d i s tric t
,rece iving a vi si t
of inspection from my superior officer about once a month.
The easiest way to reach Tuaran is by boat from Jesse lton. Embarking in a Baj au prahu
,adapted e i ther for sail ing
or rowing,and pushing off from the iron pier at Jesse l ton
,
we have the prospect of some hours’ j ourney before reachingthe li ttle Baj au fishing village below Gantisan Head
,where
a disembarkation i s made. On the way we pass the mouthsof the Inanam and Mengatal rivers
,in days of not so very
long ago ” the haunt of bands of Baj au rebe l s.”On reaching the headland the boat i s left behind ; theboatmen shoulder our baggage ; we climb the s teep side sof the long promontory
,reach i ts summit
,and descend again
to the Mengkabong river— rather an inle t of the sea thana true river
,which runs out beyond Gantisan Head. Here
we find another boat wi th a crew of Baj au paddlers waitingfor us. By cutting across the promontory we have avoidedthe long j ourney round i t and possibly a rough time on thebar at the river mouth .
4 6 The Tuaran 899Tem passuk Districts
Paddling up the mangrove-fringed Mengkabong,we at
length arrive at a large Baj au vil lage which has the samename a s the “ river.” This vi llage is buil t ent irely on
,or
rather over,the water : the pile-dwell ings of the inhabitants
are some times connected by cra z y gangways,but the only
me thod of getting about for more than a few dozen yardsi s by embarking in a l i tt le cockle-shell of a dug-out canoe.Arrived at Mengkabong
,we d i sembark for the second
time,and a three-mile walk l ie s before us ere we reach
Tuaran . Once well away from the Mengkabong,we leave
the Baj au vil lages behind us and pas s into swampy plainlands
,the padi-fields of the Dusun vi llagers . As we near
Tuaran we see the bel t of tree s which marks the Tuaranriver
,with Dusun village s s traggl ing along its bank ; and
at length we arrive at Tuaran with its District Officer’sbungalow on a hil l
,i t s pol i ce barracks
,offi ce and lock-up
on the level ground below.
The easie s t way of reaching Kotabelud,the Government
pos t in the Tempassuk dis trict , i s to take a passage in ’ thesmall local s teamer
,which makes a trip round the coas t once
a fortnight. This boat puts in at the wooden pier in U sakanBay
,about seven or eigh t miles away from Kotabelud.
Leaving U sakan wharf,the path passe s over the hil l s
,
which l ie in a ring around the bay,and dips again to the
inle t of the sea called the Abai. This has to be crossedin a Baj au prahu
,and during the cro s s ing we have lei sure
to observe the co lumns of smoke which ari se from nearsome of the Baj au house s
,which are scat tered here and
there along the mangrove-fringed shore s of the inlet . The seind icate that the inhabi tan ts are a t work making sal t by apeculiar proce ss
,which I de scribe in another chapter.
Arrived on the other side,there remains a walk or ride
partly over hil l s covered with [along grass, partly belowtheir base s along the edge of a plain converted into padifields
,on the other s ide of which l ie the Illanun vil lage s
around Fort Alfred,formerly the Government pos t. Past
The Tuaran Tempassuk D istricts 4 7
Fort Alfred we again meet wi th a l i ttle up-and-down
trave ll ing and finally arrive at Kotabelud.
This se ttlement consi st s of rather under a score of Chineseshops
,while the European officer’s house s tands at one end
of a long hil l covered wi th scrub and [along The upperpart of the fort— also on the hill — i s used as barracks forunmarried pol ice
,while the lower parts are protected by a
wall of river s tones buil t up w i thin two fence s of corrugatediron sheets. Qlarters for married pol ice l ie below the fort ,on the side of the hi ll facing the Tempassuk river. TheGovernment office i s on the hil l-s ide above the shops ; andbe low the ridge
,at the fort end
,come s the Baj au vil lage
of Kotabelud,in charge of which is Keruak
,one of the best
Baj aus I have ever known.From the top of the hill
,on which s tand the European
officer’s house and the barracks,magnificent views can be
obtained . Seawards there i s the mouth of the Tempassukriver ; the sandy sea-shore fringed here and there wi thCasuar ina tree s
,and the low
,swampy plains which l ie
behind i t,while away in the distance can be seen the
Mantanani Island s,from the caves in which are brought
large quanti tie s of edible bird s’-nes ts .Inland
,towering up to the skies
,is Mount Kinabalu
,its
seaward face ri sing sheer up,apparently almos t from the
plains, its black and forbidding rocks rel ieved only by twowhite s treaks
,made by waterfall s which plunge sheer down
its face for many hundreds of feet . To the left of Kinabaluis the range of bills of which the great mountain i s i t self amember. This range
,none of the other peaks of which
approach Kinabalu in he ight or grandeur,i s covered wi th
big j ungle and runs almost parallel wi th the sea in thedirection of Kudat. The [along-covered foot-hill s belowthe range
,among which nes tl e a few .Dusun village s
,
gradually d ie away into mere undulations, and these inturn give place to dry plains
,and finally to the marshlands
of the coast.
4 8 The Tuaran Rag Tem passuk D istrictsFrom the hil l a t Kotabelud too can be seen the Tempassuk
or Kadamaian river,which flows beneath i t
,while its course
can be fo l lowed with the eye for severa l miles towards theinterior
,walled in on the right by the hil l ranges that
separate i t s valley from that of the Tuaran river,which al so
takes i t s ri se in Mount Kinabalu . To the right of Kinabaluli e s a conical hil l named Nunkok, al so on the farther s ide ofthe Tempassuk river.Dusun villages
,Piasau
,the two Tamboulians and o thers
,
are dot ted about the plain s on the other s ide of the Tempassuk oppos i te to our pos t of observa tion, while Perasan ,the most inland Baj au vil lage
,which has the reputation of
shel tering some of the wors t characters and bigge st cat tlethieve s in the dis trict
,l ie s up
-s tream,on the same side of
the river,and almos t at our feet . The whole length of the
Tempassuk valley inland i s inhabi ted by the Dusuns, whosevi l lages are mos tly perched on hil l-tops on ei ther side of theriver.Away o ver the swampy plains in the direction of Kudat
runs a narrow bridle-path . Beyond the swamps the groundri se s s lightly and the travel ler comes to the Baj au andIllanun vil lages around Pindasan
,once the haunt of pirate s .
At this place the big j ungle from the main range runs downtoward s the coas t and the country i s more or les s j ungly asfar as Metanau
,a Dusun vil lage near which there i s a hal ting
hut . Never having been farther than thi s point,I cannot
speak of the country which l ie s beyond,but the path
continues right on to Kudat.With the exception of the plains that li e be tween the sea
and the range running paral le l wi th it— of which Kinabalui s the highest point— the Tempassuk district cons i s t s of l i t tlebut the valley of the Kadamaian river and the hil l s onei ther side of i t. The farthes t po in t in the di s trict
,at the
divide over which i t i s necessary to pas s to the Interior,can
be comfortably reached on foot in five days from the coas t,
and with a l i t tl e harder walking in four. From Ko tabelud
AN U P -CO UNTRY VIEW IN TH E TEM PAS S U K D IS TR ICT .
This V iew, taken on the brid le-path to the In terior,shows the Kadam aian R iver far be low
, Moun t
Nabalu In the c louds on the left of the p ic ture,and Moun t Nunkok on the r ig
h t.
50 The Tuaran S939Tempassuk D istricts
the place i s that there i s no spring near at hand,and water
has to be brought from a d i stance by means of a cleverlyconstructed aqueduct
,bui l t of bamboo s spl i t lengthwise
,
which are supported here and there 011 sl igh t tres tle s ofsapl ings.From Singarun, sometimes called Dallos
,after a walk of
a few miles along the bridle-path,the top of the divide
which separate s the Tempassuk di s tric t from the Interiorprovince i s reached . Here in my t ime the brid le-pathcame to an end
,not having been l inked up wi th that from
the Interior,which s topped short a t Bundutuhan
,or a l i t tle
beyond i t. These two sections have now,however
,probably
been j oined .
The Tuaran dis trict,of which I have much les s know
ledge than of the Tempassuk, consi s t s of the vall ey of theTuaran river and a s trip of land near the coas t
,extending
nearly as far as Jessel ton . I t contains— but can scarcely besaid to be watered by — the Mengkabong
,Menggatal and
Inanam rivers . Farther back from the sea the country become s rugged
,while the hil l s which d ivide off the dis trict
from the Interior are real ly a continuation of the range ofwh ich Mount Kinabalu i s the highes t poin t.Along the coas t
,to the northward of the mouth of the
(Kuala) Tuaran, i s an inle t of the sea called the Sulaman,
in to which there flow various small s treams . On thi s inle t,
and near its mangrove-fringed shore s, are scat tered Baj auvillages
,buil t on piles l ike those at Mengkabong. A bridl e
path runs from Tuaran to Kotabelud,but the j ourney i s
made easier by walking or rid ing the firs t six mile s to Kinduon the Sulaman
,and thence
,taking a Baj au prahu acros s the
inle t,ascend ing a side-channel
,or s tream
,and di sembarking
about a mile from the Dusun vil lage of Tenghilan, nearwhich the North Borneo Trading Company has fairlyrecently ( 19 1 1) opened a rubber e state. The di s tance sgiven in this chapter are not
,I bel ieve
,very correc t. In
The Tuaran $9Tempassuk Districts 51
some cases they may be “ out to the extent of a couple ofmiles.Spending the night at Tenghilan halting-bungalow, the
next day’s j ourney wil l see the travell er reach Ko tabelud,distant thirteen miles
,after travers ing a very up
-and-downbridle-path along the top of a range of smal l hil l s . Theboundary of the two dis trict s i s some l i ttle d i stance fromTenghilan on the Kotabelud s ide of i t.The Briti sh North Borneo Company has recently beennegotiating for fresh capi tal ; this, i f obtained , i s to be usedamong other things for repairs to the rai lway
,of which i t
s tand s in great need,and the construc tion of a branch l ine
from Jessel ton to Tuaran . At present a bridle-path , knownas the Likas path
,covers thi s ground .
The Tempassuk, lam Deo, has not yet been“ developed
,
and both this beautiful country and i t s native s are free fromthe blighting influence of the European capital i s t. It s mainexport s are cattle, fowls , hides, ground-nuts, edible bird s’nest s from the Mantanani Islands
,native -grown tobacco
,
damar gum,mother-of-pearl shel l s and a li ttle wild rubber
and beeswax. The wide plain s of the di s trict,although
the gras s i s somewhat coarse,afford pasturage for large
herds of buffaloe s and cattle,while a herd of mixed breed
,
a cros s be tween Indian humped s ires and nat ive cows,i s
kept by Government. Li t t le sure-footed native ponie s arealso reared in fair numbers
,though native s pay l i t tle or no
attention to the mating of de sirable animal s,both ponie s and
cattle being al lowed to run wild unti l required for use.The bufl
'
aloes and cat tl e go about in big herds,and are
only interfered with when the calves are marked by theirowners, which i s generally done by nicking or cutting theear with a knife
,each man having hi s own mark or marks
,
or when an animal i s required for a feas t,for training as a
beast of burden,or for riding.
The article s imported into the distric t are such as arecalculated to be of use to the natives
,or to a ttrac t them by
52 The Tuaran 8939 Tempassuk D istrictstheir flashy appearance : blue-black cloth for making coat sand trousers
,cheap s ingle t s and shirt s
,ready-made coat s
and trousers,hats
,bel ts
,thread
,buttons
,beads
,needles
,
German cutlery,cooking-pots
,looking-glasses
,parang blades
,
tin lamps,kerosene
,soap
,t inware
,flashy j ewel lery
,cheap
brands of canned salmon and sardines,beer, Chinese-made
aerated waters,tobacco
,driedfish
,shrimp-pas te
,rice
,spices
,
gambier,bete l-nut
,sci s sors
,bras s tobacco and be te l boxes
,al l
of which,wi th many o ther things
,are to be found in the
Chinese general shops at Kotabelud.
During the time that I was s tat ioned at thi s place therewas also a shop run by the Gambling Opium and Spiri ts andPawnshop Farmer’s representative . This re tailed vi l e spiri t sand opium
,and had a separate room set apart for gambl ing.
Spiri t s are no longer sold at Kotabelud — a very goodthing. The gambling part of the e s tabli shment was alwayscrowded with la z y Baj aus
,mos tly in ten t on los ing every
thing they pos se s sed ; but several of the local shopkeepersand the ir a s si s tant s were al so bit ten by the gambl ing mania.I am
,as a rule
,very much opposed to any interference
with the l iberty of the subj ect,but I have special reasons
for thinking that nat ive s should no t be allowed to gambleWi th the Chinese
,or to buy drink from them ; these I have
set forth in another chapter. Drink i s no t as ye t muchpurchased by native s
,with the exception of some lowland
Dusuns,but m atters are worse in thi s respect a t Tuaran.
A few of the Baj aus and Illanuns,and e special ly some
of the chiefs,are opium smokers
,but lucki ly the Dusuns
have so far no t taken to this vice.The coasts and river e s tuarie s of both di s trict s are in
habi ted by the Baj aus,a Proto-Malayan people, who are
e ssential ly mari time . They appear to be fairly recentinvaders
,who have driven back the Indonesian Dusuns
from those parts of the country in which they arese tt led . On the eas t coas t of Borneo the Baj auss t il l wanderers
,sea-gips ie s
,who are born
,l ive and di
The Tuaran Tempassuk Districts 53
the ir boats . On the west coas t they are se ttled , e i therbuilding pile-villages in the e s tuaries or constructing dwe l lings on the land close to a river.They eke. out a l iving by fishing, sal t-making and cat tlerearing
,and in addition they are padi-planters on a small
scale ; but their crop i s rarely large enough to support themtil l the next harvest . In the old days they were renownedas pirates
,their name in thi s respect being only a l i t tl e le s s
dreaded than that of the Il lanuns,another tribe which i s
found in the Tempassuk, but not in the Tuaran distri ct .The latter are
,l ike the Baj aus
,nominal Mohammedan s .
They also are invaders,having come in their pira tical craft
from Mindanao,the southernmost of the Philippine Islands
,
but are much more recent arrival s than the Baj aus . Theyformerly had a settlement in the Tuaran dis trict
,but the
Dusuns made things so uncomfortable for them,by hanging
about and cutting off s tragglers,that they eventually aban
doned i t. At present their vi llages in the Tempassuk areto be found near Fort Alfred
,and around and beyond
Pindasan .
The Dusuns,an Indonesian people,
“
with a slight penchan tfor head-hunting
,inhabi t the plain-land s
,foot-hill s and upland
regions of both d istricts. They are excel lent agriculturi s t sand generally hard workers
,hospitable
,though somewhat
given to drunkennes s,peaceful
,and even rather cowardly
,
in spite of their head-hunting exploit s .I have so far spoken of Dusun s and Baj au s as i f thesewere the names of two tribe s or peoples
,and they certainly
are the names by which they are generally known to theMalays and other s trangers in the country
,but they are not
the designations which they apply to themselve s . TheBajaus cal l themselves Orang Sama or Sama men . Thetribe which we speak of as Dusun or Dusuns i s knownto the Malays by that name
,which means the “ people of
the orchards,
” to the Baj aus of the Tempassuk as Idaan ,and to the Sulus (or Suluks) as Sun Dyaks. In the
54 The Tuaran 89° Tempassuk DistrictsTempassuk the Dusun s cal l themselves Tindal, but thepeople of Tuaran
,or at leas t the inhabi tants of the vil lages
near the Government pos t,seem to dub themse lve s Suang
Latud (men of the country i) . The up-coun try people of
the Tuaran d i strict I have no t vi s i ted , but I bel ieve thatthey al so acknowledge Tindczl as a des ignat ion .According to the census of 19 1 1 , the native population of
the two di s trict s by race was
Tuaran Distr ict
Tempassuk Distr ict
Baj ausIl lanun sDusun s 1 56
In addi tion there were in the Tuaran dis tri ct : Europeans3, Chinese 4 95 (many employed a s cool ies on rubbere state s) , Japanese 1
,Phil ippine s 6
,natives of India 4 , nat ives
of Netherland s Eas t Ind ie s 2,native s of the Sulu Archipelago
9,'
Brunei s 54 , Dyaks 14 , Muruts 3, Tidongs I .
In the Tempassuk d is tri c t : Europeans 1,Chinese 6 2
,
Phil ippine s 3 , Malays 1,nat ives of India 2
,natives of
Netherland s Eas t Indie s 15, native s of Sulu Archipelago2 1
,Brunei s 8
,Dyaks 2 6
,Muruts 6
,Orang Sungei 4 .
The total population of the Tuaran d is trict wasthat of the TempassukS ince the rubber boom three es tate s have been opened
in the Tuaran di strict, worked partly wi th Chinese contrac tlabour
,partly wi th locally recruited natives. Of these three
the North Borneo Trading Company owns two,one on the
Damit river near Tuaran,the other a t Tenghilan . The
third e s tate,belonging to the Beaufort Borneo Rubber
Company,is at Menggatal . Probably the labour question
The Tuaran 899Tempassuk D istricts 55
and high price s will be the greate s t d ifficul t i es with whichBornean rubber plan ters wil l have to con tend . Nativelabour i s insuffi cient in quanti ty and unre l iable . Amongthe Chinese Borneo has rather a bad name
,and the Indian
Government will not allow i ts subj ect s to be recrui ted forlabour in the country.The Tempassuk di s tric t i s policed by a force of abouttwenty nat ive cons table s
,who are armed wi th carbines.
The native pol ice are recrui ted from any of the tribe s ofBorneo
,and at the time I was stationed in the di s tric t the
fol lowing were represented — Sea Dyaks,Dusun s
,Muruts
,
Baj aus,Il lanuns and Orang Sungei
,the Dyaks being in
the maj ori ty over the members of any other tribe. AtTuaran al so there were formerly only nat ive pol ice
, .but,owing to the threatening atti tude of newly imported Chinesecoolie s on the Sunge i Damit Estate
,a small number of Indian
police were stationed there shortly before I left the country,
but they have now been withdrawn.
I w i l l here se t down clearly that when in the succeedingchapters of thi s book I speak of Tuaran or the native s ofTuaran
,I mean
,unles s otherwi se s tated
,the part of the
district around the Government pos t and the inhabi tantsof the ne ighbouring villages. I have never vi s i ted theUlu (head-waters of the) Tuaran, though I have met manynatives of that region
,as they frequently come into the
Tempassuk di stric t to trade . I be l ieve that their mannersand customs are very s imilar to those of the up
-countryDusuns of the Tempassuk.
CHAPTER V
TH E JUNGLE
HAT i s the average s tay-at-home reader’s idea ofan Eas tern j ungle? Judging by what I can re
member of my own early impres sions,gathered
from read ing various books of travel,I bel ieve that I pictured
a dark and gloomy fores t where the l igh t of day hardlypene trated
,and where walking was almost an impos s ibi l i ty.
This sombre scene was rel ieved by the pre sence of gorgeouslycoloured and s trongly perfumed flowers depend ing from trai ling creepers which hung from tree to tree . In add i tion tothe flowers there were bri l l iantly plumaged bird s
,which flitted
from bough to bough before the travel ler,while troops of
monkeys chat tered and screamed among-
the branches overhead . Enormous butterfl ie s wi th j ewelled wings sai ledacros s the open space s in the fore s t
,and gigantic horned
bee tle s watched the intruder from every log of rot tingwood . Pythons curled themselve s round branche s overhanging the only track
,herd s of tapirs
,pig or deer
,frightened
at the approach of human beings,s tampeded through the
undergrowth of graceful palms and tree ferns which rearedtheir head s on al l s ides
,and the atmosphere was that Of a
hot-house in Kew Gardens .The real i ty i s apt to be somewhat di sappointing
,as
,though
there are plenty of interest ing obj ects,the beautiful bird s and
flowers refuse to d isplay themselves,nor are herd s of game
or enormous snakes commonly met wi th in the j ungle. As
a matter of fact,though there are some lovely flowers
,
e special ly orchid s,they are rarely seen
,and an Eastern j ungl e
can Show us nothing which can compare with the spectacleof an Engl i sh wood carpeted with primroses, hyacinths or
56
58 The Junglethese are to be seen . Many of ‘ the mos t beautiful butterfli e s, l ike the English Purple Emperor, have a tas te for veryunsavoury food
,and the fi l th under native house s
,dei d
animal s or buffalo dung are al l frui tful hunting grounds forthe entomologi s t .Big game i s seldom met wi th in the j ungle. Deer andp igs have a l iking for the neighbourhood of native gardensor padi-fields
,much to the de trimen t of the
‘
crops and theannoyance of the owners . Timbadau
,a kind of wild cattl e
(Bos sandaiacns) , are found in the Tempassuk in the bigj ungle around Metanau
,which l ie s beyond Pindasan
,and
there may be an occas ional rhinoceros on the range whichruns from Kinabalu in the d irec tion of Kudat. Elephant sare not found on the wes t coas t. The muntj ac or barkingdeer and the mouse deer are common .Snakes are to be met with but rarely
,though occasional ly
one may be seen swimming a stream or gl id ing away throughthe undergrowth .
Two kinds of animal s in the j ungle force themselve s onevery traveller’s at tention ; these are leeche s and ants . Theformer are the mos t ins i s ten t
,but they can be warded off to
a certain extent by wearing putt ies . Leeches are found Indamp places
,chiefly on decaying leaves ; here they often
form li ttle co lonie s and when somebody has pas sed nearthem may be watched s tand ing on end and reaching out inal l d irections in search of an unwi ll ing hos t . Their pertinacity i s marvellou s : they will mount a boo t and ei ther cl imbstraight away till they reach the leg, or will march with the irloping gai t to the eyelet s of the boots, squeeze throughone of these
,and then climb up inside t i l l they ge t to the top,
and so over the sock unti l they reach their feeding ground ;or if there should happen to be a hole in the sock — not anunknown thing among Bornean bachelors — they will find i tat once
,and begin blood - sucking.
I can wel l remember my feel ing of disgust the firs t t imethat I turned down one of my socks and saw a full-fed leech,
The Jungle 59
which looked more l ike a small black grape than anythinge l se I can think of. Some time s a leech-bite is fe l t quitesharply
,but if one at tacks any part of the body which i s
not wel l Suppl ied wi th nerve s,the firs t intimation that the
creature has been at work i s a gradually spreading crimsons tain on the clothe s
,the leech having fed to the ful l and
dropped off. It i s advi sable never to pull a leech away, as,if thi s i s done
,a bi te often refuses to heal — I bel ieve
through the animal leaving i t s j aws in the wound . Igenerally ge t rid of them by lighting a cigarette and puttingthe burning end on the ir backs
,but I have seen Dyaks
carrying some sal t for the purpose,which they had tied up
in a li t tle screw of rag. This when moi s tened and appl ied toa l eech makes i t le t go very quickly.Ants do not as a rule give much trouble unles s provi s ion sare carele ssly left exposed or are not packed in ant-proofreceptacle s ; but j am, open t ins of sugar, or condensed milk ,if not placed in a saucer of water
,wil l in about half-an-hour
become alive wi th them . Two kinds of ant commonly me twith have very painful bi te s : one i s the fire ant or semut api
(Malay) , which goes in processions, the other a specie s oflarge red ant called ke’rengga by the Malays, which build snests among the foliage of the smaller tree s .Small j ungle-crabs are sometimes seen scuttl ing over theleaves near the banks of a stream
,while centipedes and
scorpions are also to be found,but I have seen the former
more commonly in house s than el sewhere,and wi th the lat ter
I have only had one l it tle adventure,though I have occasion
ally come across them. Mill ipede s are common and attain alarge si z e ; in the Malay S tate s I have seen a mass of
,I
should think,several hundreds of them col lected together in
one place. A Sakai who was with me at the time said thatit was a mother with young
,and certainly one was consider
ably larger than the res t and of a rather red colour,while
all the others were greyi sh . Sometimes curious frogs areme t wi th ; these have two proj ecting horns over the eyes and
60 The Junglemarkings and a coloration which makes them look l ike deadleaves .Borneo produce s some very fine hard-wood timbers and
among the bes t of them are two kind s called salangan be ta
and bilian. Rita i s a soft wood,which
,undressed
,makes
excel len t t imber for rafters under thatch and for o ther partsof build ings where i t i s not exposed to damp. It s only drawback i s that i t sometimes becomes riddled with
,and weakened
by,the burrows of a specie s of large boring bee
,which i s
very fond of using i t as a nes ting-place . The stems of thenibong and bayas palms, a s they are called in Malay, spl i tinto lengths
,are used for the flooring of house s and small
bridges . Large bamboo s hacked longitud inal ly here andthere with a parang (chopping knife) , cut along one side ,and spread out in shee ts
,form the wall s or floors of native
houses . The leave s of the sago palm and of the nipcz aremade into “ at taps ” for thatching . The bark o f one tree
,
which I bel ieve i s a speci e s of Ar tocarpus, i s used formaking rope
,and that of another for the s ides of padi bin s .
Bamboo has,of course
,hundreds of uses other than for
wall ing and flooring house s ; raft s are formed from largeStems
,and sect ions are used for water ve s sel s ; the pos t s of
temporary houses , bridges,fish-traps,boxes
,combs
,hat s are
al l made from thi s mos t useful plant . The various kind s ofrattan canes found in the j ungle are perhaps only second tobamboo in their usefulne ss . The rattan palm has gracefulfeathery leaves
,the pe tiole s of which are covered with book
l ike recurved thorns . Long runners hang down from thes tem and the se when spl i t form the rat tan cane of commerce
.
The native s u se rattans for basket-work,for cord , for bind
ing together the posts and beams of house s, and in manyo ther ways .In big j ungle the atmosphere i s apt to be d i s tinctly chi l ly
at night s, and al so in the early mornings before the mistshave ri sen . Sunlight doe s not find i t s way between the
The Jungle 6 1
leave s of the tree s sufficiently during the daytime to makethe wearing of a hat necessary
,but i t i s quite hot enough
for half-an-hour’s hard walking to cause free perspiration .
The Malays recognise three kinds of j ungle : big or virginj ungle
,which th ey cal l r im/Ba ; secondary growth or be’lukar ,
which has grown up on the s i te of old clearings ; and bushj ungle The se
’
mci k s tage precedes the growth ofbe
’
lukar on a clearing which has been abandoned . If thesoi l i s go od
,small secondary j ungle should arise in five
years a nd reach its maturi ty in about thirty. After thi sthe soft-wood tree s which abound in be’lukczr begin to dieout, giving place to that hard-wood specie s which is predominant in big j ungle. Probably true big j ungle wouldnot be produced for at least a hundred years
,poss ibly
much more.The tree s in an Eastern fores t are of so many specie s thateven a botanis t who had resided for years in the countrywould be hard put to i t to identify at sight al l that mightbe pointed out to him . Beautiful tree ferns are common inthe higher regions of the Tempassuk di stric t, while epiphyte sand trail ing creepers are everywhere. In some place sbamboo forest i s met with
,and the s tems of these giant
grasses are then cut,made into rafts and floated down to
the plains,where they can be sold profitably.
CHAPTER VI
TRAVELL I NG U P-C O UNTRY <5; EL SEWHERE
ORNEO i s no land for the globe- tro tter ; facili tie sfor travel are nil, and road s, outs ide the towns, donot exi s t ; i t i s true there are bridle-paths, but
these are often very rough,and are of course impassable
for vehicles of al l kinds. I t i s nece ssary,therefore
,to
travel e i ther on foot -or horseback,preferably the lat ter
,as
the l it tl e Sulu ponies,bred in the country
,are as sure-foo ted
as cats .Natives
,most of whom ride buffaloe s
,follow tracks which
have been used from time immemorial,as these heavy
animal s are no t allowed on the bridle-paths for reasonssuffici ently obvious to anyone who has ever seen a buffalotrack in wet weather. Owing to their peculiar blundering,j umping gai t when going over heavy ground
,buffalo es will
soon reduce a decent path to a serie s of deep rectangularhole s, each separated from the next by a narrow ra z or-backridge of mud . I t i s usually bes t when following a pathmuch used by the se animal s not to s tride from ridge to ridge
,
but to push along on one or other side of the track,as
an unlucky step on an apparen tlyfirm-looking ridge Wi l lland you up to your knees in mud and water
,with a separate
hole for each leg— I know thi s from personal experience .Walking along a track or bridle-path in j ungle country
is no t al l unpleasan t,as there i s suffic ien t shade to be a
protect ion from the heat of the sun ; but a march from,
say, Kotabelud to Pindasan over sun- scorched plains andmarsh-land s i s by no means so pleasant
,e special ly if the
sun i s full on the back . Hence on a j ourney of thi s k indi t i s advi sable to s tart as early as poss ible
,preferably at
6 2
Trave l ling Up-Coun try 899 E lsewhere 63
daybreak or before,as the sun wil l be high enough to be
unpleasant by about nine o’clock.
To those who,l ike mysel f
,are not expert equestrians,
a well-trained water-buffalo i s by no means a s teed to bedespi sed
,a s be ing qui te a d ifficul t beas t to fall off. An
animal wi th a nice even gai t i s qui te comfortable , andnot nearly so slow as might be supposed , a trained ridingbuffalo keeping up a good s teady tro t for a cons iderablenumber of miles without showing signs of fatigue
,even if
taken into the plains,where i t i s exposed to the ful l force
of the sun. The beast i s fit ted with a ring through thenose
,to which i s attached a long cord. The rider hold s
the loose end of thi s and steers the animal by pull ing i t inthe direction in which he wants to go.The native saddle i s a curious article with a woodeiipeak sticking up in front and a body padded W i th theinner bark of some kind of tree
,I believe the Temp
(Artocarpus kunstler i) . The peak-board leans backwardsat an angle from the perpendicular
,and from the saddle
hang down rope s tirrups.Native s often ride with one stirrup so short that theirfoot i s on the animal’s back
,or
,i f they do no t shorten the
stirrup, S imply put up their foo t . People wi th long legsShould be careful when riding a buffalo in the plains .Here the small s treams have often cut down the banksmany fee t be low ground-level
,and consequently the track
which crosse s them leads down to the water be tween twohigh banks of earth
,the passage be tween being only j us t
large enough to al low a full-grown buffalo to pas s . Whenapproaching one of the se streams i t i s advisable to kickthe feet clear of the stirrups and put them up on the
animal’s back unti l you are safely on the other s ide,or
ten to one you wil l ge t both your legs mos t unpleasantlysquee z ed between the bufl'
alo and the s ide s of the passage.Buffaloe s can be al so highly recommended for crossingrivers ; they are not afraid to enter water
,as they are
64 Trave l l ing U p-Coun try 399 E lsewhereamphibious
,and are far more sure-footed on the sl ippery
s tone s of a shal low river than a pony. Need le s s to say,
they are excellent swimmers . Turned loose after hi s day’swork
,the buffalo strol l s off in search of good pasture
,and
when he has fed to the ful l,re tire s to a wallow
,a poo l
fil led wi th fi l thy mud which may be capable of hold inganything from one to forty animal s . Here he wil l l iefor hours
,protected from the bi tes of insects
,with l it tle
more than hi s eyes,ears and nose above the surrounding
sea of mud. Wallows are made by buffaloes lying downin any small depre s s ion , which may hold a
“ l i t t le waterafter a rain-s torm
,and rol l ing about unti l the earth and
water are churned up into the evi l- looking mud in whichthey delight. Beside s buffaloe s and ponies
,bul l s and cows
are pre ssed into service for purpose s of rid ing or carryingburdens.Coolie s for Government work in Borneo are easy to
obtain,as any native fail ing to obey when hi s headman
orders him to work as a cool ie i s summari ly fined . J The“
rate of pay i s twenty-five cents a day,about Sixpence in
Engli sh money,but i t i s cus tomary for private individual s
to give another five cents . Thi s rate,however
,has now
been rai sed sl ightly. Occas ional ly native s show reluc
to come as cool ie s when called,and a fine has to b
flicted,but thi s is rare . I t is a good rul e never to
Baj au cool ie s wi th you if Dusuns — prefera
men — are obtainable. Baj aus give cons tant trouble owto their laz ines s
,and besides thi s
,as is to a le s ser ext
the case with lowland Dusuns, they are quite unfittedthe work through their being unaccustomed to walkingor carrying load s
,a Baj au never stirring out on foo t w
he has a beas t of any kind to carry him.
Once started and the load s arranged , up-country co
give l i ttl e or no trouble,and you have not the worry of
viding food for them unles s you are going into the j ungfrom al l habitat ions
,as rice and fish are procurable
66 Travelling Up-Coun try S939 Elsewhere— the produce of the l i t tle dome s ticated specie s of bee whichthe Dusuns hive in old tree trunks
,fixed agains t the wall s of
their houses — can often be bought. Fresh coco-nuts forma refreshing drink after a long tramp
,and are usual ly
brought as a present when a European vi si t s a vi l lage . S t i l l,
there are few whi te men who would care to depend on localsuppl ie s alone
,and tinned provis ions should always be taken.
There are,unfortunately
,certain firms whose goods should
never be purchased,but for obvious reasons I am unable to
ment ion their names. A good choice of tinned fi sh,salmon
,
haddock,sardine s
,kippers
,lobsters
,i s obtainable
,but the
que st ion of tinned meat i s much more difiicult. I usual lytake several t in s of “ army rations ” with me
,as they are
exce l lent and contain both meat and vege table s . These canbe supplemented by tinned mutton cutle ts
,tongue and local
fowl s . All t inned meat seems to have a tendency to becomes tringy
,and is
,I think
,bad for the heal th if eaten
continually.Ins tead of bread
,i t i s usual to take cabin bi scuits or
cream crackers,to my m ind preferably the former. Many
people buy oatmeal to make porridge,but thi s necessi tate s
e i ther carrying a large number of tins of fresh milk— andweight i s a thing which has to be cons idered — or
,if con
densed milk is used, m ixmg i t wi th water, which, if your boyi s lazy
,may no t be boi led. Tinned vege table s are put up by
various firms,bo th Engl ish and foreign
,and nearly all t
brands of the se are good .In we t weather
,or before an early morning start
,
good cup of hot cocoa i s both “ grateful and cobut cocoa i s too heating to be drunk during the day.usual drink when travell ing in Borneo was ei ther tea orj uice of a green coco-nut
,but most people prefer whi
and water or whisky and coco-nut j uice . Wateobtained from moun tain s treams — and even the setoo safe— should always be boi led . A Primuslamp i s exceed ingly useful when on a j ourney, as
Travelling Up-Coun try 899 El sewhere 67
the trouble of hunting for dry wood — which is almos t impos s ible tofind in wet weather— to make a fire
,and burns
but l i ttle oil,one tin of kerosene lasting almos t a month .
When vi s i ting vil lages away from the bridle-paths,in
mos t of which there is no halting-hut,i t i s necessary to
put up for the night in a Dusun house. I used general ly tos leep in the public verandah
,as this i s the airies t place
,and
family rooms in a “ long house ” are generally al l occupied .
The Dusuns manifes t a con s iderable interes t in your bel ongings and yourself
,which i s at times apt to be a l i t tle
embarrassing,but are always will ing to do whatever lie s in
the ir means to make you comfortable ; and as compensat ionfor a l i t tl e di scomfort you obtain an insight in to native l i fewhich you would not do if s topping in a halting-bungalow.
Native houses are usually fairly clean,but nearly always
harbour bugs,which their method s of construction partien
larly favour ; however, a Dusun i s no t worried by suchsmall matters a s the se .When set ting up your camp-bed i t i s advi sable to see thati t i s not close to one of the post s of the house
,or you may
wake up in the middle of the night with the impressionthat a small earthquake is taking place . The fac t i s thatone of your host’s buffaloes i s sheltering underneath thehouse— all Dusun house s are rai sed from the ground— andi s rubbing hi s back agains t the pos t close to your bed .
Other dis turbing agencie s at n ight are the pigs and thedogs
,the former especial ly. After experiencing a night in
a Dusun house and l i s tening to the s teal thy crunchingsand noi sy munchings which go on under i t, i t i s easy toreali se how the Dyaks are led to bel ieve in a kind ofspiri t which comes at night and eats up the remains ofcooked rice which are thrown down through a hole in thefloor.The Dusuns are a most hospitable people and alwaysproduce a j oin t of bamboo full of “ toddy ” to regale thetravel ler. Seated in a circle
,host s and guest s pass the
6 8 Travell ing Up-Coun try $9 E lsewherecoco-nut - shel l cup merrily round
,at the same time helping
themse lve s to boiled or broiled fish,which i s placed in the
centre of the group on a banana leaf or an earthenwareplate . Thefish i s not necessari ly eaten because the drinkersare hungry. When the Dusun si t s down to a good toddydrink
,be ful ly in tends to become intoxicated , but thi s desir
able s tate should be obtained very gradually. It i s thegett ing drunk the Dusun enj oys
,no t the being drunk. As
old Lengok of Bengkahak once remarked to me : “ Wel ike to ge t drunk slowly
,and so we always eat some thing
when we are drinking,otherwi se we get drunk quickly,
have had no pleasure,and have put away very l i ttle l iquor.”
Dusun hospi tal i ty to trave l lers i s wel l i l lu strated by a certaincustom which has almos t the force of law. Any wayfarerpassing a Dusun garden i s enti tled
,i f he be hungry
,to
gather whatever he wants to eat on the spot,bu t no thing
must be taken away with him,as an act of thi s k ind i s
regarded as a theft.Government hal ting-huts in Borneo are bui l t of the samematerial s as nat ive houses. They are frequently dividedinto two portions
,one being a cool ie room
,the o ther
,
which i s for the use of Europeans,consi s t ing of an un
furnished bedroom wi th a small verandah. The local headman keeps the hut in repair
,but i t i s necessary to bring
your own camp furniture,food and cooking-pots
,and at
leas t one personal servant . A “ boy ” who knows a l i t tl ecooking i s worth hi s weight in silver
,s ince he i s almos t
impossible to find,at any rate in country d is tric ts .
On navigable rivers and on inle t s of the sea such as theSulaman and Mengkabong i t i s neces sary to hire a nativeboat , the small dug-outs local ly called gobang often being theonly craft obtainable ; but when a larger kind can be got,the centre should be covered with a palm-leaf roof supportedon a simple framework of trimmed branches
,the lower ends
of which pas s into eyelet s cut from the solid wood of the hul l.The steersman si t s at the stem wi th a steering-paddle in his
Trave lling Up-Coun try 599 E lsewhere 69
hand and the paddlers in front . Boats larger than the gobangare usually floored with slats of nibong or bamboo.The crew of the boat will be Baj aus or
,i f in an Illanun
neighbourhood,men of that national ity. Both these race s
are in their element on the water,in fact
,properly speaking,
the Baj aus are not land-dwellers ; but, though many of theirvi llages are found on dry land
,they are never far from a
river. The vil lage s on " the Sulaman inle t and the Mengkabong are typical
,being pile-dwel lers over the water
,but I
shal l have more to say about Bajau vil lage s in another chapter.All the truly native boats I have ever seen in Borneoare essential ly dug-outs
,though the ir freeboard may be
heightened by the addi tion of planks which are attachedto the dug-out body by means of wooden pegs
,the edges
of the plank s meeting those of the body and the pegs beinginserted as secre t nai ling.
”
Travel l ing in a boat at night on one of the sal t inle t s I svery pleasant
,provided that there are not many mosqui toes
,
which there frequently are on these mangrove-fringed waters .Each stroke of the paddle leaves behind i t a swirl of pho sphorescent l ight, and i t s blade sheds showers of j ewelleddrops
,emerald s and diamond s . The Baj au boatmen set
up a weird and haunting chant to the s troke and grind ofthe paddles
,and as the canoe shoots forward into the dark
nes s a native squatt ing in the bows,with hi s right hand
shading’
hi s eyes to enable him to pierce the gloom ahead,call s
out to the steersman,
“ Gebang, “Kuanon,leuanon .
’
as he makes out the winding of the s tream to left or right.I u sed always to encourage my boatmen to s ing
,as the
paddl ing chants are to my mind singularly attractive,and
chan ting keeps the men all paddling in t ime,and seems to
make them quite enj oy their work.
There i s ye t another me thod of travel ling by water whichi s chiefly used where boating would be impossible
,thi s being
rafting. Though the Dusuns of the Tuaran and Tempassuk— except where there are vil lages near the coas t and the
70 Travell ing Up-Coun try 85979 E lsewheres treams are navigable for prahus — know practically noth ing ofboat work
,they are often extremely expert raft smen. Rafts
are chiefly used for going down-s tream when rivers are inflood . The fabric con si s t s of a number of enormous bambooslashed together and secured with shorter bamboo cros spiece s a t front and back
,while sometimes a hand-rail and
seat of the same material are added . The s teersman s tand sei ther in front or at the back
,as occasion demands
,keeping
the raft on i t s righ t course with the aid of a long pole . In
the deeper reaches the raft i s carried along swiftly by thecurrent and require s but l i t tle at tent ion beyond an occasionalguiding stroke with the pole ; but every here and there arapid formed by a bed of big round s tones i s me t with
,and
the raft bumps and bangs noi si ly over these,the occupan ts
of the smal l seat ge t t ing wet wi th spray up to the wais t .I t i s below the se rapid s that the raft sman needs to Show hi sSkil l
,for there i s often a deep pool w i th the curren t sweep
ing directly towards a large rock j utting out from the bank .
The raft require s very careful guiding here,and exac t
j udgment and hard work are neces sary if i t i s not to besmashed to piece s .Natives general ly have a cheerful way of tel l ing you of
approach ing difficul tie s : for ins tance,your raftsman wil l say
“ We are coming to a very bad place in a l i ttle while,Tuan .
I have never fal len off a raft ye t,but who knows what my
luck will be thi s t ime '” In the same sort of way whencrOssing an estuary in a tiny and very unstabl e l i t tl e cockleshe l l of a dug-out
,which has i ts gunwale level wi th the
water, and in which, unles s used to thi s sort of boat, i t i sneces sary to sit in a kind of catalepti c cond it ion
,your sol itary
paddler will remark : Lot s of crocod ile s here,Tuan
The chief drawbacks to travell ing In Borneo are badpaths , flooded rivers
,torrential rain s and a hot sun
,but in
Spi te of these I look back on my experience s wi th nothingbut pleasure .
CHAPTER VII
TH E L IFE O F AN O U T- STAT IO N O FFIC ER
VEN in Borneo there are ou t- s tat ions and out-s tat ions ;some of them
,if there be estates in the neighbour
hood,can produce qui te a l i t tle colony of European
men,while there may even be one or two lad ie s . In the
outpost s of c ivil i sation which have advanced to thi s extent,
tennis court s and other luxurie s are to be found ; and, s incethe pre sence of Europeans in a place s ignifies that there “ i ssomething doing ” ei ther in the way of planting or mining
,
the Asiatic population wil l be much more heterogeneou s thanthat in the smaller s tation s
,which can boast of only a Single
European,generally a Government officer. As I am chiefly
acquainted wi th the second type of post,I will confine mysel f
to trying to give some idea of the l ife there .The vast maj ori ty or the whole of the people who
inhabit the surround ing country wil l be Bornean natives ;i f near the coast
,partly Mohammedans
,partly pagans — the
Mohammedans occupying the l i t toral and lower river reaches ;i f in the interior
,whol ly pagans .
The European officer’s house,especially if the post i s
an old one,will s tand on a commanding eminence
,such
a pos ition having been chosen owing to the l ikel ihood ofat tacks by the nat ives
,as wel l as for reasons of heal th .
Possibly on the same leve l a s the European’s house,but at
some l i ttle di s tance from i t,wil l be the pol ice barracks
,while
at the foot of the hi ll are the of ice,the houses of the clerk
and the telegraph operator,and the lock-up. Not far away
are sure to be found a row of palm-leaf thatched and wal ledChinese shops.The European oflicial has of nece ssi ty to l earn to be
71
72 The Life of an O u t-Station Offi cersome thing of a j ack-of-al l-trade s ; he i s hi s own PoliceOfficer
,Chief of Public Works Department
,Land Revenue
Officer,Magistrate
,Accountant
,Treasurer
,Doctor
,Coroner
and possibly Customs Officer. He must, i f Governmentallows him to res ide in the di strict for any length of t ime
,
ge t to know all the chiefs and village h eadmen ; while, ifhe has l ived in the country for several years
,in addi tion
to Malay — the lingnei froncn— he will probably have a fairlygood working knowledge of one or more of the nativelanguages . His duties compri se the collection of revenuefrom the pol l-tax
,land-rent on native holdings (if the d i s trict
has been demarcated), boat and fishing l icences,and from
other l es s productive forms of taxat ion ; supervi s ion of therepair and construction of bridle-paths ; court work , whichincludes the hearing of bo th civi l and criminal cases ; themonthly making up of the accounts both of revenue andexpendi ture
,beside s the sending in of various quarterly and
month ly returns. In add it ion he i s expected to vi si t thevi llages in hi s di s tric t a s frequently as may be
,in order to
hear complaints,to become acquainted with hi s people
,and
to see that all the men are paying pol l-tax.Each dis tric t has a certain number of native chiefs
,who
receive anything from fifty dollars or more down to fivedol lars for placing their service s a t . the Government’s d i sposal . Among the Mohammedans these chiefs are somet ime s men of rank who have been given an oflicial positionowing to their birth and influence
,sometimes men who have
ri sen owing to their own abi l i ty. The Government chiefsamong the pagans are usual ly those headmen of vil lages whoShow themselve s mos t capable . The Government chiefs aresupposed to attend the court on Thursdays wi th regulari ty
,
to ass i st the European oflicer to admini s ter j us t ice and toaid him with their knowledge of native affairs and customs .Minor case s, e special ly those which concern nat ive customonly, are often deal t wi th by the chiefs alone.Every native vi llage
,whether Mohammedan or pagan
,has
The Life of an O u t -Station Offi cer 73
i t s headman,who
,although he receives no direct pay
,i s
recogni sed by Government. It i s hi s duty to see thatgood order i s kept in his vi llage
,that any crime s com
m itted are reported to the pol ice , to se ttle small d i spute s,and to col lect the annual poll-tax from hi s people . Inconsideration of the latter service he receives ten per cent .commission on the total of his collect ion . A headmanwho misbehaves himse lf i s removed by the D is trict Officer,some more trustworthy native being appointed to fil l theposi tion .
Out-station life in a di s tric t wi th few other Europeanresidents
,or none
,i s,however keen be the Government
oflicer’s in tere s t in the people over whom he has charge,naturally rather depre ssing owing to the i solat ion
,and thi s
depression may sometime s become almos t in tolerable shouldfever or other i llnes s attack him. A man accustomed to mixmuch in society
,a lover of card-partie s
,dancing and other
such forms of amusement,will probably snHer from his
lonel iness much more than one who i s sufficiently self-centredto be able to dispense with the companionship of hi s fe l lows.The evenings spent alone after the early tropical night hasfallen are the times when he is l ikely to fee l h i s i solationmo s t ; his native friends — if he cultivates any— have gonehome to their villages ; he has read each volume of the las tbatch of books from cover to cover ; and
,provided he
cannot apply himse lf to work of some kind , he has nothingto do but Si t and think— not a particularly heal thy occupation in Borneo — or be take himself to bed
,by far the be s t
thing he can do .On Saturday afternoons or Sunday s he may have a chance
of enj oying a li t tle sport ; a deer-drive can often be or
ganised without much trouble, or taking his gun he maystrol l out in quest of green pigeon
,and
,i f i t be the season
,
sn ipe . Pigs,and the male of the Bornean wild porker has
very fine tusks,can some time s be shot
,e i ther by beating
them ou t of place s which they are known to frequent,or by
‘
74 The Life of an O u t — Station Officerwaiting for them in the evening near the ir usual track til lthey come out of a patch of j ungle on the ir way to raidnative gardens ; while, i f the dis tri ct harbour them ,
theremay be an occasional opportunity of get t ing a shot at wildcat tle (Timbardau) or rhinocero s .Near the coas t s crocodi le s abound in the river e s tuarie s
and their lower reaches ; but, though crocodile shooting i suseful
,i t i s not such good sport as shooting deer or pigs
,
and be side s thi s not a very large proportion of the animal saccounted for are ac tual ly secured
,s ince
,unles s the brute s
are lying well away from the river on some mud-flat,they
usual ly manage to fal l back in to the water when hi t,the
carcasse s be ing probably found farther down-s tream somedays afterwards .To my mind the mo s t enj oyable part of d is tric t work i sthe travell ing
,though thi s may be attended with cons iderable
di scomfort,heavy rain-s torms
,flooded rivers and shockingly
bad tracks,or none at al l
,being among the ir number ; but
there i s freedom from al l official routine — though thi s i s notvery s tric t in Borneo — change of scene
,in tercourse with the
native s,for whom I cheri sh a great affect ion
,and a feel ing
of having almos t cas t off the shackles of a paid servant,t ied
to a country in which i t i s not good for a whi te man to spendhi s whole l ife . Many times have I thought
,when some
glorious panorama of Upland country unrol led i t sel f beforeme : How I should enj oy al l thi s were I only a free manfree to go when and where I l ike
,free to s t0p as long as
please s me Some peopl e do not seem to be galled by theyoke of officialdom ; unfortunately for myself I am not oneof these .However, in spite of d i scomforts — and they are manyto anyone who l ike s the peoples and customs of the MalayArchipelago and the neighbouring countrie s the cal l i s irresistible . To me i t would be unbearable to think that IShould be obliged to l ive for the res t of my l ife in Englandwi thout chance or hope of ever re turning to those regions
The Life of an O u t-Stat ion Offi cer 75
which attract me so greatly, and to the people s for whom Ihave so great a regard .
Wherein,with the exception of certain favoured dis trict s ,
l ie s the charm of thi s part of the East i t would , I think, bediflicult to say ; but i t i s there, and when the old hand re
turning from Europe encounters again those indefinableEastern smell s at Colombo
,he fee l s that he is nearing home .
I t i s much more easy to give reason s for l iking the um
civil i sed tribes and people s of the Malayan region , sincethey possess those good qual i tie s so often found amongprimitive people who have not yet been corrupted by theal l-blighting influence of the whi te man . True
,they have
the ir faul t s,but perhaps they are not le s s l ikeable on that
account.O ne of the wors t troubles of an officer i s the probabil i ty
ofbeing shifted from station to s tation , these moves be ing,when I was in Borneo
,very frequent
,especial ly in the case
of .j unior members of the Bri ti sh North Borneo Service. Ido not know what pol icy dic tated these cons tant changes
,
pos sibly i t may have been due to shortage in the s taff,or to
a de sire that n ewly j oined recrui t s should gain experience ofdifierent kind s of work ; but, whateverwas the cause, appoin tments often made for a comparatively short time can scarcelyhave fulfil led the latter purpose . O ne man I knew had
,i f
I remember rightly,been in six d ifferent place s in eighteen
months.Moreover
,thi s con stant shifting of officers i s much di sl iked
by the nat ives,and tend s to a certain exten t to unse ttle
them. Native headmen have said to me on several occa sions“When we are j us t beginn ing to know an oflicer
,and he
to know us,he i s shifted .
” I gathered,furthermore
,tha t
they would sooner have a European whom they disl iked se tover them for a considerable time than the con stant procoss ion which at that t ime seemed to be customary
,since they
would a t leas t have known the man wi th whom they hadto deal .
76 The Life of an O u t-Station OfficerAnother thing which probably makes the more unsophis
ticated native s di sl ike changes of offi cers in charge of di stricts i s the fact that
,according to their ideas
,the advent of
a new influence give s ri se to some d is turbance of the normalcondi t ions of the country
,the d i s turbance being often sup
posed to be inimical to i t s inhabitants. Thus any event ou tof the ord inary occurring soon after the arrival of a newoflicer i s put down to the influence s which he brings withhim . The result s of a new officer’s arrival may of course bebeneficial
,such as plen ty of rain when i t is required before
ploughing the wet-pad i field s,a dry spell a t the t ime when
the felled j ungle i s being burnt on the hil l-clearings,or a
bumper padi crop ; but since most human beings, andespecial ly agricul turi s ts
,are more prone to grumble than
rej oice , I suspec t that i f any faul t can be found wi th thecondition of affairs at the t ime
,the things which are unsatis
factory are put down as be ing due to the fresh arrival ratherthan those which are entirely sa ti sfactory.The unpleasant happenings which may be ascribed to the
arrival of a new European are a drought j us t before ploughingtime
,floods of rain at the season for burning the j ungle in
hil l-padi cul t ivation,plagues of rats
,and also
,I bel ieve
,
epidemics among buflh loes or human beings .These favourable or unfavourable events are
,I think
,in
no way connected with the nat ive s’ est imation of an officer’scharacter, unpleasant events frequently fol lowing the arrival of an oflicer whom the nat ive s get to l ike very much .
Whether these consequences are considered to be the resul tof the European’s personal influence on the t ide of affairs
,
or whether they are due to outside influences,evi l or good
,
which he may bring with him,I am not certain ; but I rather
incl ine to the former opinion,for
,since the European i s the
head of the whol e d i stric t,hi s personal spiri tual influence
would probably be considered S trong enough to aflhct thenormal course of affairs .At the same time i t must be remembered that
,according
The Life of an O u t -Stat ion Officer 77
to the ideas of the up-country people
,a native re turning to
hi s vil lage after a residence el sewhere may bring home awhole crowd of evi l spirit s or influences wi th him ; hencethe custom of performing a re l igious ceremony over the returned wanderer with a view to their di ss ipation. Native sthink
,I suppose
,that al l di sease s are of supernatural origin
,
certainly small-pox i s ; therefore a man coming back to hi svillage from a dis tric t infec ted with the disease
,developing
i t himself and so s tarting an epidemic,would afford to the
vil lagers’ minds an extremely forceful proof of the truth ofthi s theory.The ques tion of the arrival of good and benevolen t menhaving an evil influence on the affairs of others is extreme lyinteresting
,case s somewhat analogous being not unheard of
in Europe . For example,Pope Leo XIII . was credi ted with
the pos ses sion of the Evi l Eye ; the effects of hi s glance weretherefore dreaded by the superstit ious peasant s of I taly
,and
were warded off by surrepti t iously making the wel l-knownSign for averting the maleficent influence of the “ j e ttatore.”
One trouble which frequently be se ts Europeans l iving inplaces far from the beaten track i s the difliculty of obtainingeflicient servants . In Bri ti sh Malayasia i t is customary fora European to employ at leas t three
,i f no t four : these are
a cook,sometimes a Tamil
,but more frequently a Hylam
Chinese (native of Hainan) ; a boy,” e i ther Chinese , Tamilor native ; a tukang ayer , who draws water and does al l therougher work of the house
,again a Chinese
,Tamil
,or
native,but very rarely a Mohammedan ; and a kebun or
gardener. In out-s tat ions in Borneo the European ofificer’sgarden i s often kept in order by prisoners working in chargeof a guard
,while the tukang ayer may be also a pri soner who
has conducted himself well .Well-trained boys and cooks are diflicult to ge t outs idethe towns
,Chine se servants especially being unwi ll ing to
go to out- stations,even if tempted by big wages . In the
Federated Malay S tates the only Chine se servants are Hylams,
78 The Life of an O u t-S tat ion Officera people not recognised as be ing true Chinese by the inhabitan ts of the mainland . The Hylams have, I suppose , gainedthe ir posi tion through natural apt i tude for thi s sort of work
,
but they have a very s trong secre t trade union or kongsi .”In these s tate s
,at any rate, i t would be almost impossible to
make use of Chinese servant s from any of the mainland province s
,as they would be driven out by threat s and boy
cotting or,i f the se failed
,by even more ac tive measure s .
Many Europeans have found i t absolutely impossibl e to obtainany Chinese servants at al l
,i f a man on leaving
,or being
discharged,has harboured a grievance and lodged a complain t
wi th his kongsi .”
In Borneo,not being s tationed in a town
,I had to do the
bes t I could with regard to re tainers . I picked up a Chinaman
,who turned out to be a mos t exce l lent l i t tl e fellow
,as
cook ; there being no Hylam “ kongsi ” in such out-of-theway places
,he did not belong to that divi s ion of the Chinese
,
but was a Keh . My firs t “ boy,
” a very raw and exceedingly obj ect ionable Tuaran Dusun, I go t almos t immediate lyon coming to the country. As I think I have remarked el sewhere
,a Boy who i s already trained and has a knowledge of
camp cookery i s a treasure without price ; so,having suffered
internally,and otherwise
,from the cul inary efforts of my
Dusun servi tor, I decided after some months’ trial always infuture to take my cook with me when trave ll ing.
Some bachelors of economical tendencie s,where such ser
vant s can be obtained,di spense with a cook proper and keep
a cook-boy instead , but the experiment — I have tried i t myself— i s not
,I believe
,generally very succe s sful .
Though a good Chinese servan t has some exce l lentqual i tie s not often found among the natives of the Malayanregion — notably grati tude — I cannot say that I l ike theChinese as a whole, and for some reason, difficul t to s tate,they fil l me wi th feel ings of repulsion .
8 0 Races of Tuaran $39 Tempassuk D istrictsextend at any rate to Tambunan, Kaniugan be ing In Murutterri tory.Judging from the few measurement s that I have taken
,they
appear to be long -headed Indonesian s . The dialect s Spokenby the Dusuns belong to the Malayo -Polyne sian fami lyof languages
,and their grammar is far more complicated
than that of the Malay language i t self.The Dusun man i s generally a rather l i the and muscularind ividual of low stature . He cannot as a rule be called inthe leas t good-looking
,hi s face being too broad
,and the
angles of the lower j aw frequently showing extraordinarilyheavy development. H is nose i s concave toward s the rootand has widely spread no stri l s, whil e the forehead i s low,
and often bulging. The eyes are generally s traight andw i thout the Mongolian fold over their inner corners (a foldof skin over the corner of the eye next the nose
,such as i s
found in the Chinese and other Mongol ian race s) , thoughin some cases both slant ing eyes and the epicanthus can befound. The body i s well proportioned
,but many growing
youths have a very weedy appearance,probably due to
their hard life and poor diet.On the other hand
,i t i s no t uncommon to mee t Dusuns
who are handsome,even when j udged by European
standards ; such a man was my friend S irinan, one of theheadmen of Kampong Piasau
,who was the narrator of many
of the folk-tale s that I col l ected in the Tempassuk.
On my leaving Borneo he fol lowed me down to Jes sel tonto say farewell
,and several Europeans drew my attent ion to
him as he s tood 011 the s teamer among a crowd of othernatives, remarking : What a fine fellow that i s . And sohe was, not only in appearance, but in character. He wasa skilled craftsman
,a quick learner
,and a hard worker
,who
could always be trusted . He had,I think, the mos t per
fectly respectful and gentleman-l ike manner I have everobserved ; yet in his re spectfulnes s there was no touch ofservil i ty or cringing
,and if one word was said to him in an
Races of Tuaran Tempassuk Districts 8 1insul t ing or sl ighting manner hi s eye s would flash
,his whole
body s tiffen, while i t was evident that very l i ttl e more provocation would be required to make him draw his parang.
Thi s i s a large chopping-knife,which i s used e i ther for work
or as a weapon,chiefly for the former purpose.
In all our dealings he was “ as hones t as the day,
” but,I think
,j us t pos sibly
,he may have known a li t tle of the
sport of buffalo- thieving,which according to Tempassuk
di stric t ethics i s scarcely a crime,but a kind of game of
“ I catch your - buffalo and you catch me— if you can .
”
To return,however
,to the Dusun in general . His skin
colour,especially in the hil l d i strict s
,i s often exceed ingly
fair for a native of the tropics,being a l igh t yellowi sh with
j ust a touch of brown in i t. This colour was sometimesqui te s tartl ing
,when
,on rounding a bend in an up
-countrybridle-path
,I came upon a gang of nearly naked coolie s
repairing the track,as their light skins were thrown into
s trong rel ief by the dark green tints of the surroundingj ungle.The Dusun of the plains i s usually a good many shadesdarker
,since he i s continual ly exposed to the direc t rays of
the sun,which do not affect the up-country man to the same
exten t,partly owing to the shade of the j ungle
,and partly
to the much smaller amount of sunshine in the rainy uplandregions . Probably the low - country man has a greatermixture of blood in hi s ve in s than the hill-man
,and this may
also to some extent account for hi s darker colour. In thecoastal di s tric t I think i t would no t be easy to pick out aman and say,
“ This i s a typical Dusun,
” but the difficul tywould not exi s t up-country. This fact again , apart fromthe probabili tie s of the case
,give s some countenance
to the idea that the Dusuns of the plains are a mixedpeople .On the whole
,the percentage of handsome nat ives is
probably higher in the lowland s than in the highland s .Dusun women
,when young
,are often quite pre t ty
,what
8 2 Races of Tuaran Tempassuk D istric tsthey lack in regulari ty of feature s being balanced by acheerful and intel l igen t express ion. Their hands and fee tare nearly always smal l and neat, and the ir bodie s we lldeve loped . F ield labour, however, the carrying of heavyburdens and child-bearing unfortunately soon age them
,
and a woman i s middle-aged a t twenty-five and old at thirty.In some of the up
-country girl s the skin colour is so l igh tthat they have qui te rosy cheeks .The Dusun does not seem to at tain to a great age ; I
certainly sometime s saw old men with gri z zled hair andcrippled limbs left behind in the house s to look after thechildren when the other members of the family had gone towork in the padi-fields
,but I imagine that Engl i shmen of the
same age would be s ti l l enj oying a day’s shoot ing or hunting,
or a round of golf.Le t us pas s
,however
,from the Dusun’s appearance to his
character. He is,I think
,a good family man . Sons are
,of
course,more valued than daughters
,but the lat ter are always
a good inves tment,as wil l be seen in the chapter dealing
with - courtship and marriage. Extravagance i s certain ly nota fai l ing of the Dusun
,as i t is of the Baj au or Illanun ; he
i s a s a rule very frugal,and at in terval s
,if no t always
,a
hard worker— in up-country di stric t s of nece ss i ty
,s ince hard
labour must be performed to clear the j ungle and preparethe ground for pad i-planting.
His wors t vice i s drinking ; but thi s i s chiefly indulged inat those times of the year when work i s s lack — that i s
,after
harves t,and when the j ungle has been fel led and burn t
ready for plan ting,so that the busines s of sowing can be
safely entrusted to the women. Native-brewed drink seems,
however,to have but l i t tle
,i f any
,after effec ts
,though one
kind made from rice contains a high percentage of alcohol .In villages si tuated at some di s tance from a river
,a s many
of them are — probably owing to hil l s i te s being chosen in oldtimes in order to guard agains t surpri se attacks- the populat ion often leaves something to be de sired in the matter of
Races of Tuaran Tempassuk D istricts 8 3personal cleanlines s ; and on a few occasions I have seennatIves from very out-of-the-way vil lages who were notmere ly grimed but caked with dirt.The Dusun i s at firs t a l i ttle apt to be suspicious of aEuropean
,e special ly if he knows that he is a Government
Tuan,
” the reason for thi s being that hi s conscience , whichi s usually in a heal thy dormant cond it ion
,i s d isturbed by the
vis it and the uncertainty as to whether one or more of hi sl i ttle peccad il loe s may not have come to light . When oncehi s confidence i s gained
,however
,he rapid ly expands, and in
a Short t ime will probably be quite friendly. He will , if youle t him
,kil l fowls for you and bring you presents of vege
table s,probably both be longing to somebody else
,if he be
the headman of the vil lage . In associating wi th him youcan treat him almos t as an equal
,and be assured that he wil l
not take advantage of i t,an impos sibil i ty with any of the
race s of India,with perhaps the exception of the Gurkhas .
But though,i f you Show yourself sympathetic
,you can
easi ly gain some insight into hi s ways of thought,rel igious
beliefs and supers ti t ions,i t is more diflicult to get him to tell
you truthful ly all the affairs of hi s vil lage. For instance,the true detail s in a buffalo case
,how so-and-so’
s buffalo,
which was attached by a rope to a pos t of hi s mas ter’s house,
managed to run away during the night and tie i tself careful ly to a tree a couple of miles away in the j ungle . Suchthings will remain mysterie s for ever as far as voluntaryinformation from him i s concerned
,probably for the following
reasons z— firstly, he may be in the “ j ob himself ; secondly,if he is not
,he has no special reason for giving away hi s
friend s, unles s he has some grudge agains t them ; thirdly,there comes into play that pecul iar disl ike to meddl ing inanother’s affairs which is so common all over the Eas t.Again, a man will see a murder taking place and say ordo nothing, for why should he interfere in the ways ofProvidence? If the victim is fated to be murdered
,he will
be murdered . AS to reporting the crime at the neares t
84 Races of Tuaran 599)
Tempassuk D istrictspol ice station— we l l
,i t i s the business of the pol ice to find
out the se things for themselves ; and, i f he did, who knowsinto what trouble he might get through his be ing mixed upin the aflh ir ? Should a serious crime , such as a murder,have been committed
,i t i s often a mat ter of the greate s t
d ifficul ty to obtain evidence, even i f the pol ice are almostsure that certain individual s have knowledge of the affair ;and
,i f the headman or any other influent ial person has any
reason for screening the offenders,he will have the whole
affair hushed up with the greate s t care,whil e i t is no nu
common thing for al l the people who may be called upon bythe pol ice to bear wi tnes s to be special ly dril led in theirevidence beforehand .Buffalo-s teal ing exped ition s are frequently planned a longtime in advance
,and in case the thieve s should be caught
i t i s arranged what s torie s are to be told . Luckily for theprosecution
,however
,when a gang of thieve s has been
caught,one or other of the pri soners
,finding himself in a
tight place,usually give s away al l the others
,meanwhil e
taking care to try and exculpate himself. Immediately thi si s known the other participant s fol low sui t
,and i t i s thus
fairly easy to piece toge ther the whole story.This habit of “ giving away ” companions in crime inorder to save his own skin is perhaps one of the wors ttrait s in the Dusun’s character. On the other hand
,one
of the pleasante s t things to observe in Dusun socie ty i sthe method of treating those who have committed someoffence and have subsequently re turned from a long spel lof impri sonment in Jes sel ton or Sandakan ; for, un le s s theex-pri soner i s a notoriously bad character
,no stigma seems
to attach to him - he has paid for what he did , and therei s an end of the matter. In out-of-the -way vil lage s , ihd eed , where not many of the inhabi tants can speak Malay,the man who has been a “ gues t of the Government ”i s, in fact, rather incl ined to give himself airs a s a man ofthe world who has received a l iberal educat ion
,and i t i s
Races of Tuaran 899 Tempassuk D istricts 85generally he who welcomes the Tuan on his arrival inthe village
,hi s attentions often being rather overwhelming.
Here I would l ike to add a word wi th regard to theconfinement of long-sentence pri soners in town gaol s.Though I believe the pri sons of Je s sel ton and Sandakanare everything that can be de sired
,ye t from what I have
heard the death-rate among up-country natives under
sentence is far in exces s of what i t should be. This,be
i t unders tood i s in no way the fault of the officers incharge of these insti tutions
,but i s due to the pecul iar
psychological characteri s tics of the pri soners . It has beendescribed to me by a Government officer how Stronglybuil t nat ives pine and die under these conditions
,apparently
becoming home-s ick and heart-broken. On the otherhand
,i t i s a rare thing to have a death in an out - stat ion
lock-up, unle s s through epidemic di sease.I cannot help thinking that if local lock -ups could beenlarged so as to hold long-sentence pri soners as wel l a sthose confined for minor offence s
,th i s high death-rate
might be materially reduced,for the prisoners would then
be working in a country they knew,and would probably
not become affected by home - sicknes s to the same extent ;while the s tation ground s and buildings would be betterkept
,owing to the larger number of pri soners working on
them.
But to re turn again to the Dusun . With the capaci tyfor forming deep and complicated plots
,there i s often a
large ve in of child i shnes s in hi s character,and hi s excuses
for faul ts that he has committed are often exceedinglyingenuous .A case in point was as follows . The pri soners a t
Kotabelud used to be taken down to the river on Sundayto wash the ir clothes and bathe
,as no work was done on
that day,a pol iceman armed with a loaded carbine be ing
in charge of the gang.
O ne Sunday a Dusun pri soner,noticing that the police
8 6 Races of Tuaran 8639 Tempassuk D istrictsguard was asleep
,dropped quie tly off the raft on which
the other pri soners were washing and le t the current carryhim to a small brushwood-covered i sland some hundredyard s down- s tream
,where he landed and hid himself.
Having finished hi s snooze,the pol iceman collected hi s
pri soners and marched them back to gaol wi thout noticingthat he was a man short . When the rel ief guard turnedup
,according to orders
,he counted the pri soners
,and
,not
finding the correct number, asked for an explanation, which,of course
,policeman No. I was unable to give . Mean
while the missing man lay safely concealed ou the i slanduntil he saw the other pri soners re turn to the lock -up, andthen
,as his d isappearance seemed to be s til l unno t iced
,
slipped qui etly into the river again,swam to the opposi te
bank and made hi s e scape .When the matter was reported to the European offi cerin charge of the pos t the sleepy pol iceman was
,of course
,
sui tably deal t with . The next thing was to find the pri soner,
so police were sen t up to his vil lage to make inquirie s,a s
an e scaped pri soner nearly always makes s traight for home .Sure enough he was found there
,and was arre s ted and
brought back . On being charged wi th running away,he
repli ed that he had not tried to make hi s escape,but
while bathing in the river he had suddenly rememberedthat he had not paid pol l-tax to the Government for thatyear
,and so had re turned to hi s vil lage in order to get the
money.Another s tory will wel l i l lus trate the Dusun’s wil ines s
,
which was, however, unsucces sful in thi s case .” In the old
days,when the Dusuns’ crops were ge t ting damaged by pig
or deer, i t was the custom to se t spring Spear-traps for theseanimals, the traps being operated by means of a bent sapl ing and a trigger-cord
,the lat ter being s tre tched across the
track used by the marauders . Certain marks were placedon ne ighbouring tree s to warn passers-by of the presence ofthese traps, but, in Spi te of this, case s of inj ury or death
CHAPTER IX
DRES S AND ADO RNMENT
HE co s tume of a Dusun man i s usual ly des ignedwi th two obj ect s in vi ew, uti l i ty and comfort . Inho t cl imates clothes
,i f worn
,should be loose to
the body,a fact which al l Easterns have . long ago real i sed ;
but thi s i s a le s son which the stiff-necked and superior Bri ton,
with hi s t ightly fitt ing sui t s of khaki or dri l l,has been Slow
to learn .
“
The dres s of the up- country Dusun male i s beauti ful in
i ts s impl ici ty,consi s ting as i t doe s of a simple T bandage
loin-clo th,general ly of European material
,so di sposed as to
leave a loose end hanging down at both front and back,in
add i t ion to a hat or head -cloth to protect his head agains tthe rays of the sun. This “ co stume ” i s both comfortableand cheap.
S lung over hi s l eft hip, by means of a string round thewais t
,he carries the inevi tableparang (working-knife) , which
i s fastened by a loop and toggle,the lat ter being often made
from a Chinese cash or a Sarawak one-cent piece,s tamped
with a ho l e in the centre.The more civil i sed Dusuns of the coast have adopted coat sand trousers
,those of Tuaran wearing a rather loose coat of
the dark blue clo th sold in the Chinese shops,and very
long baggy trousers of the same material,gathered in tightly
around the ankle. In add ition,head - cloths of turkey-red
are much in favour. In the Tempassuk, among the Dusunsof the plains and the more advanced up
-country natives,
the costume i s rather d ifferent,a fairly tightly fi t ting coat
of dark blue or black cloth,and loose trousers of the
same material,the j acket being often ornamented with
8 8
Dress 599 Adornmen t 8 9
two rows of buttons on each side and with embroideredfacings.
’
The head-cloths which are most commonly used in theTempassuk are the products of Baj au and Illanun women’slooms ; they are bartered with the Dusuns, as the Dusun ssupply these two people s with sun-hat s (seroung) whichare not made by them. Sun-hats may be ei ther conical orrounded
,and the material s of which they are made are
strips of bamboo or rattan cane. Frequently they aredecorated with qui te elaborate patterns
,which are worked
in with dyed strips of the same material s as the framework. Most varieties are bounded at the edge by e i thera circular strip of wood or a length of whole rat tan cane ;but I deal with hats at greater length in Chapter XVI .
,
as the making of them is quite an important Dusunindustry.Dusun men wear a large handkerchief round the wais t
,
and in thi s is general ly carried the brass sireb-box,without
which no native leave s hi s house. Occasionally I have seensireb-boxes in the shape of a cre scent ; these res t on the
l eft hip and are tied to the wais t by means of two s tringswhich are at tached to bras s loops at the point s of the horns.Sireb-baske ts of plai ted rattan, which have a strap to goacros s the chest
,and are slung under the left arm
,are al so
common.Dusun men do not u sually decorate themselves with ornaments to any extent
,but pretty bracele ts and armlets of
dyed and plai ted rattan, coloured ei ther red and black oryellow and black
,are not uncommon in up
-country vi llages,
while s trings of heads,or beads woven into a plai ted band
of fern-fibre,are worn diagonally acros s the ches t. Young
dandies a t Tuaran sometimes carry a small cone- shapedobj ect of buffalo-horn or wood
,with a ring at the top
,t ied
to one end of the wais t-scarf,or hung on a Chine se or
European key- chain . I t i s hollow below and contain s waxfor dre ss ing the moustache .
90 Dress $939 Adornmen t
In hil l vil lages such as Kiau,where the weather is apt to
be both chilly and rainy,the nat ive s make s leeve le s s coats
of brown bark- cloth,the material being
,I be l ieve
,obtained
from the Te'
rczp-tree (d r tocarpus leunstler i) . The Dusun
name for thi s bark-cloth is dampen, and no doubt, beforeEuropean cloth became so easy to obtain
,i t was used for
making loin-cloths as well . Dampon coats are often skilful lydecorated wi th lacings of native cord .
In the Tempassuk i t i s now the general fashion to cutthe hair short
,but formerly long hair was very general ly
worn by the young bloods — even now men wi th long hairare s til l to be met w i th
,and in one or two vil lages i t i s
almos t customary. At Tuaran many Dusun youths wearthe hair long
,as in love-making i t i s u sual for the Swain to
re s t hi s h ead in the lap of his loved one , while she searche svigorously for what a German once cal led “ the l i ttl e thingswhich go about.” Some time s up
-country Tempassuk men
shave the head entirely or leave a fringe three or four inche sbroad from the front reaching down to the ears . L i t tl e girl sat Tambatuan wear a thick tai l of hair from the centre orback
,and have the rest of the head shaved : boys may e i ther
have the hair cut short or wear a small tai l .Tooth-filing i s general , and Tuaran Dusuns have told methat they would be ashamed to have long teeth
,probably
because they think i t l ike an animal . One youth I knew
had the Six front teeth in the upper j aw fil ed down to thelevel of the gums
,while the teeth in the lower j aw had also
been rubbed down to a much les s extent ; but thi s wasan extreme case . Many nat ive s blacken the ir teeth with acompound which is
,I bel ieve
,made from young pinang frui ts
and copper sulphate ; but the custom is rather dying out .The stems of some kind of plant are al so chewed to blackenthe teeth . In the Federated Malay S tates wood-tar madefrom burnt coco-nut shel l s was formerly used for thi s purpose
,
and very l ikely the Dusuns may use i t too. I have neverseen tee th inlaid wi th bras s or other substance s
,though thi s
Dress def" Adornmen t 9 1
method of decorating the person is common among the pagantribe s of Sarawak .
To turn now to the subj ect of women’s dress . The chiefgarment of the up
-country women i s a short skirt reachingto a l i t tle be low the knees . Thi s i s of native-woven clothdyed dark blue with a kind of nat ive indigo. Cloth does notseem to have been manufactured at Tuaran
,at any rate within
recent years . ! All Dusun women wear gird le s of spl i t andcoi led rattan ; at Tuaran these are the natural colour of thecane
, jwhile in the Tempassuk they are dyed red or black]Numbers of smal l brass rings are often threaded on thegirdle
,which consi s ts of a single l ength of cane
,coiled many
time s round the wais t . Several gird le s may be worn at thesame time .In the up-country vi l lage s of the Tempassuk young womenwrap a length of European or Chine se blue cloth about e ightinche s broad around the breasts, but thi s i s d iscarded on the
birth of the firs t child . The women-folk of the low-countryDusuns have a short j acke t of black or blue cloth
,the
material for which i s bought at the Chinese shops,and a
dark blue skirt of the same kind of cloth as their up-countrys isters . Jacke t s are also sometime s worn by up
— countryDusun women . When a covering for the head i s used
,i t is
e i ther a hat similar to those worn by the men — there arespecial women’s hats made at Saiap and Koung
,and one or
two other vil lages,but their use i s local — or a cowl- l ike
hood of native-woven cloth s imilar to that which is used forthe skirt. Occasionally the hood s, e special ly those used forceremonial purposes
,are ornamented wi th a broad band of
beadwork along the edge at the back,the old she ll ( 3 ) beads
call ed bongkas being very much in favour for thi s purpose.Apart from the cane girdle s and other decorative obj ects
already mentioned,the Dusun woman does not adorn herself
to any great extent ; young unmarried women wear largeflat-topped bras s ear- stud s which cons iderably dis tend thelobe of the ear
,and the same kind of articles are some time s
9 2 Dress 8639 Adornmen t
made of silver. Bracelet s and armle t s of coil ed bras s wireare fairly common
,and occasionally a woman wil l wear afinger-ring made of s i lver, or from a piece of a sea-shel l .
The hair i s dre s sed into a compact “ bun ” at the back ofthe head
,but a “ fringe ” i s often left in front and cut
straight across the forehead . U p-country the “ bun ” i s
ornamented with a bone pin,which i s usual ly sl ightly en
graved . From the head of the pin there depends a s tring ofsmall European beads about six inche s long . Combs are ofwood
,but are no t worn in the hair as ornaments. Among
the young women of Tambatuan and some other Tempassukvil lage s the eyebrows are shaved to thin almost straigh tl ine s .Large di scoidal bras s collars and others of thick brass wire
can sometimes be found s tored away in the more remo tevillages
,but these are now to al l intents obsole te. Heavy
brass ankle t s are in favour among the bel le s of Tuaran andTenghilan and must considerably impede their movements .Embroidery in coloured thread s i s employed to a small extentto decorate the seams of Dusun women’s skirts
,and
sometimes al so their breas t - cloths .
CHAPTER !
HO USES— DO M EST IC AFFA IR S — GO VERNMENT
DUSUN village invariably s tands in a grgl e ofW he house s bemg scattered about,apparently w i thout any attempt a t arrangement.
As i s the case with all Bornean dwel l ings, they are rai sedfrom the ground
,though sometimes only sl ightly so ; and
the space be tween the house and the earth i s the favouri tehunting-ground of the wild-looking
,gaunt and razor-backed
Dusun pigs,which come to feed on the s lops
,refuse from
cooking,and stale rice thrown down through a hole in the
floor.In wet weather Dusun villages
,especial ly if they are
s i tuated on a hil l,are most unpleasant to approach
,since
,
before reaching the houses,i t i s neces sary to wade through
an expanse of evi l-smell ing mud,which consi s t s partly of
refuse washed away from below the houses,and partly of
the ordure of domes tic animals . Lying about in thi s seaof fil th are pigs of al l s i z es
,evidently thoroughly enj oying
the opportunity of a good wallow. Coco-nut she l l s,husks
and leave s are l i t tered over the quagmire and add to thegeneral air of un t id ines s.When once the worst of the mud zone i s pas sed
,the
next thing i s to c l imb up into the house to which you aremaking your way. This i s not quite so easy fas m ight bethought
,s ince the Dusun’s idea of a ladder i s often merely
a tree-trunk wi th a few notches cut in i t,though some
house s have quite good steps. In many house s,e special ly
in t he lowland s,there i s an open platform in fron t of the
door. Here the children play,clothe s are dried and various
kinds of domestic busine ss performed . These platforms
94 Houses,Domestic Affairs
,Governmen t
are fairly common in the lowland vil lages of the Tempassuk,but not up-country.
tf
'
Dusun house s are of many type s . Firs t there i s thecoa TlfiaFdweflingywhich ’
ism by several famil i es ;thi s
" i
cofifistsw m m eran a orsleeping-place
,in which there i s some times a rai sed platform
at one end or along one side. Doors open off the verandahinto the room
,or rooms
,of each family. Very often the
firs t room leads in to a second,which
,besides being used as
a sleeping-place,contain s the family valuable s . Occas ional ly
the sleeping-chambers do not lead straight o the commonverandah
,there being a walled - in passage between them.
The cooking-places consi s t e s sentially of a square ofhardened mud
,planked in around the edges. These are
placed in the l iving-rooms,but sometimes al so in the
verandah ; and, ch imneys being unknown, when the fire isadly
,a nat ive house i s almos t unbearable to a
In Tambatuan I have seen fireplace s made of as tone sl ightly concave in the centre . These
were placed at in terval s in the public verandah .
Though there are many varie t ie s of dwellings,the general
plan,whether of a communal house
,or of a house for a
single family,i s much the same . Above the fireplaces used
for cooking i s a framework supporting she lve s for hold ingfirewood and cooking-pots . .Both the inner and outer wall sof the house
,e special ly in communal dwell ings
,are frequently
made of wooden planks or panel s fit ted to the roughlysquared main t imbers
,the se being gene lly set vertically
wi th a skirting board at top and bottom. {3
Considering the tool s a t the Dusuns’ di sposal,the work
i s remarkably wel l executed . The planks and panel s aresmoothed with a l ight native-made ad ze
,and the work done
with this tool i s often so fine that at a l i t tle di s tance i t mightwell be thought to have been produced by a plane .In smaller house s the wall s may be made of beaten-outshee t-bamboo
,and
,i f the occupants are very poor
,the
9 6 Houses,Domestic Affairs
,Governmen t
Above the roof-beam,at both end s of the house
,s tick up
a pair of wooden decorations cal led house-horn s. These arefound upon both Baj au and Dusun dwel l ings, and are cutou t of flat piece s of wood — they may be simply prolongations of the beams upwards
,but are often separate — which
are frequently roughly carved to represent weapons ormythical animals. I am incl ined to think that they mayhave been originally intended to protect the house agains tevil spiri t s
,though I could obtain no evidence that the idea
pers i s t s at the present day.On some cross-beams of the house
,generally over the
sleeping rooms,are placed the large tree-bark s tore-bins for
padi which are called tangled) . Some times, however, pad is tore s
,l i t tle huts
,are buil t separate from the house
,or a
small store i s buil t on the platform outs ide the front door.In other case s a s eparate room in the house i s set aside forholding padi . Over the door
,or on the wal l s of a pad i
s tore, there are occasionally to be seen rows of shortperpendicular marks made with l ime. These indicate thenumbers of measure s taken out of the s tore by each inmateof the house
,who
,on taking some rice
,dips a finger into
1118, or her, l ime-box and add s a fresh smear to the serie s .The communal house s of the Dusuns are nothing l ike solong as those of the Dyaks
,and one consist ing of more
than five or six family compartments i s rarely seen . Thelargest I ever saw in the Tempassuk held eight famil ie s .I have heard that among some of the Dusuns of the Murududi s tric t one long house consti tute s the vi llage
,as among the
Dyaks . The Dusuns always talk no t of a house of somany rooms
,but of so many doors . Many villages have
but few,or no
,communal house s ; o thers consis t chiefly of
small dwell ings of thi s type .In addition to the large numbers of pigs already mentioned ,a Dusun village has numerous other inhabitants
,beside s
human beings— fowl s,cats
,dogs
,buffaloe s and probably
al so catt l e and goats . The lean and mangy pariah-l ike
TH E W I FE O F TH E HEADMAN O E TAMBATU AN AND HE R FAV O UR ITE P IG
E very househo lder has 1ts p ig,raz or -backed
,unp leasan t- look ing an lm als
,wh ich though scavengers ,
are regu lar ly fed by the ir owner
9 8 Houses,Domestic Affairs
,Governmen t
house and gave him a good thrashing with a rat tan cane .He was only a youth of about fifteen
,and I had given him
a beating on several occas ions before for various s ins ofomiss ion and commission without his making the sl ighte s tdemur
,s ince he knew qui te we l l that he d eserved everything
that he got and a bi t more. On thi s occas ion, however, heprotes ted violently
,saying that he did not as sent to hi s
ge tting a beating. Neverthele s s he got i t,and
,after
wri thing at every blow,he rushed out of the room yell ing
“ The Tuan has half kill ed me,and al l for a monkey that I
could buy by the hundred at fifty cents apiece ! ” I t was
qui te usel es s explain ing to him that he had been punishedand not for damaging my property.un houses are general ly as thin as the
They are of the curious Malayan varie ty,which has a rt
,
s tumpy tai l wi th a bend in i t. The vertebrae toward s thetip of the tail curve so sharply that the end i s almos t atright angle s to the re st .The Dusuns are careful enough about animals which i tpays to keep in good condit ion
,e special ly their pigs . These,
bes ides managing to find a good deal of food by routingabout on their own account
,and often eating the mos t un
pleasant garbage,are fed regularly twice every day
,once
in.
the early morning,and again a l i t t le while before sundown .
At these t imes in up-country vi l lage s the vall eys re sound wi thcrie s of “ Kay ! Kay ! Kay 1 with which the Dusun womencal l home the ir pigs to be fed with boi l ed ka/adz' s tems andother vegetables. Every pig knows i ts owner’s voice andtrot s up quickly when called . I s t il l wel l remember the youngand pretty wife of Gumpus
,the headman of Kampong Tam
batuan,s tanding on a rounded boulder in front of the
house and dis tributing de l icac ie s among the waiting herdof porkers below ; i t was qui te a picture of Beauty andthe Beasts .
are kept in many up-country village s , more , I think,on account of the wax they produce than for their honey.
Houses,Domestic Affairs
,Governmen t 9 9
The hives are made by ge tt ing a section of hollow treetrunk
,stopping i t up at top and bottom and boring a hole
in one side as an entry. The specie s of bee in these hive sis a l i t tle
,dark-coloured
,rather thin-bodied insect
,and the
inmate s of a hive frequently collec t in large clusters nearthe entry. When anyone passes a hive with a clus ter ofbee s hanging to i t
,the whole assembly i s set in violent
motion with a curious vibrating movement ; but its membersnever seem to make any attempt to attack the in truder
,and
in thi s the ir behaviour differs very much from that of onewild specie s which makes i ts nest s in hollow tree s. Thesefrequently make themselves a great nuisance by flying outand attacking trave l lers and often fol lowing them for acons iderable d is tance. The dome s t icated specie s cannot givemuch trouble
,as the hive s are fixed to the wall s of the
houses,often quite close to a window or sometimes actual ly
within the house i t self. The Dusuns do not, I believe,understand anything about hiving swarms . They simplyhang up a hive and i t i s taken posse ssion of by the bees
,
which are a wild species .The honey i s not cons idered particularly valuable
,and at
Tambatuan I once bought three large combs for ten cents(about zéd.) These I took with
'
me to the Governmenthal ting-bungalow which stand s j ust above the village
,where
I was spending the night with D r P i l t z of the Bri ti sh NorthBorneo Explorat ion Company. We indulged in some of thehoney on the spot
,but unfortunately w i ld bees found out
that we had i t,and came in to the hut in such numbers that
we were forced to make a has ty exi t,while the remainder of
the honey had to be thrown away and the hut smoked outbefore we could re turn.Dusun women’s main household occupations
,other than
looking after the ir chi ldren,are the husking and winnowing
i
of rice,cooking
,fe tching water from the river
,and weaving
cloth . The unhusked rice or padi i s pounded in a largewooden mortar. The pe stle
,al so of wood
,i s qui te a heavy
I O O Houses,Domestic Affairs
,Governmen t
affair,and strenuous work i s nece ssary to beat the grain out
of the husk . One of the prett ie s t s ights to be seen inBorneo i s a bevy of native girl s al l pound ing rice toge ther.The pestle s keep perfec t t ime
,and i t i s a sheer delight to
watch the graceful movements of the l i s som,brown-skinned
young beautie s .When the rice in the mortar has been sufficiently pounded
,
i t i s taken out and put into a large circular winnowing- trayof baske t-work
,which has a s l ightly rai sed rim. In winnow
ing the grain from the chaff,the opera tor grasps the tray
firmly at the edge s with the hands wide apart,the index
fingers being from time to time extended along the trayedge so as to be bet ter able to control the utensil. Thetray i s held hori zontally in front of the O perator
,while
,by
a serie s of ro tatory movement s,accompanied by l i t tle taps of
the index fingers,the husks are shaken toward s the far edge
of the tray and the padi toward s the operator. When alarge amount of chafif has col lected
,the tray i s given a l i ttl e
tos s which sends the husk s over the edge. The proce s s i srepeated again and again unti l no husks are left.Rice before being cooked i s always thoroughly washed .
The grain i s placed in the cooking-po t and water pouredover i t ; i t i s then well s tirred round and handful s of i ttaken and pres sed repeatedly in the water. The water inthe pot becomes milky
,and in vil lage-grown rice i s coloured
by the s tarch,dirt and other subs tances in suspension. The
dirty water i s poured away and the proces s repeated unti lwashing no longer di scolours the water. When the rice i sthoroughly clean
,sufficien t water i s added to j us t cover i t
,
and then the po t put on a slow fire to heat until the waterhas all been driven off and the rice next the insid e of thevesse l has begun to cake and brown.Dusun cooking i s generally exceedingly rough
,quite large
animal s being roasted whole in the ir skins,sometimes wi th
out even removing the inte s tine s . Fi sh are ei ther bo i led orgri lled .
1 0 2 Houses,Domest ic Affairs
,Government
some vil lage s Tambatuan,for ins tance — I do not know if in
al l,the headmanship nominal ly descend s from father to son,
though I expect that formerly anyone who was capable ofge tting toge ther a following would have been able to se i z ethe leadership.
CHAPTER XI
AGR I CULTURE, FI SH I NG,HUNT I NG 6 TRAPP I NG
but that i ss to say that he neglects other em
ploymentswhich may provide him with food . Everyfish which comes to hi s ne t
,
” from a maggot to a
ions the st 131 _ _
e
ere they are se t out inrows w1th the h en dibble . The fieldsrequire a good deal of preparation each year before theseedl ings can be planted out
,and for thi s rain i s a necessi ty.
As soon as sufficient has fallen operations are begun .
Each fie ld i s bounded on its four s ides by a bank ofhardened mud
,and the water
,i f an in sufficient amount
collects,naturally i s conducted from the neares t brook
,
which i s obstructed by a dam . The water finds i t s wayfrom field to fie ld
,the embankment s being temporarily
breached for thi s purpose . When enough has been ad
mitted the breaches are again closed and,after the water
has s tood for some t ime and the weeds have died down,the
land i s ready for ploughing .
Thean iron-sh
attached to imean s of agbing
,the s
by harne ss ing a
t isu
drawn byprimi tive ham and i sand a switch rattans .in a semi-l iquid s tate
,i s
buflalo to a large bamboo frame
104. Agricu lture,Fish ing
,Hunting
, 89°C .
under which are fit ted proj ecting spike s of the same materiala s the frame
,or of nibong palm-wood . Thi s contrivance i s
dragged about the field,often with the driver s tanding on i t.
Two other contrivance s drawn by buffaloes are al so usedfor smoothing and leve l l ing the soil : one i s a kind of largerake with a rail- l ike hand le which enable s the driver to raiseor depres s the implement as required ; the o ther a heavy andalmos t semicircular beam of hard wood which i s draggedabout to level inequali ti e s of the ground
,the driver mount
ing the implement to increase i ts weight. Harrowing havingbeen completed
,the land i s ready for the reception of the
young seed l ings. Between planting ou t and harve s t the croprequires to be kept free of weed s
,th i s work being apportioned
to the women and chi ldren .
When the grain i s ripening i t a ttracts large flocks ofweaver-bird s
,and i s
,besides
,l iable to be destroyed by in
road s”of rat s , pigs and deer . To pro tect the pad i again st
these vi si tor s the Dusun s build smal l huts in the field s ands tation watchers in them
,or sometime s a whole family wil l
l ive there unti l the harves t i s comple ted . One method ofscaring bird s i s to plant a number of bamboo pole s loosely inthe ground at various points in the field s. These are connected by s trings to which are at tached rags
,bunches of
grass and other sui table obj ect s. The different s trings leadup from the pos t s in to the watcher’s hut and are usuallytied al together to a beam . The watcher i s thus enabled totake hi s ease in the shade
,and at the same time to keep
bird s away from the whole field by j erking at the bunch ofs trings which set s al l the scarers in motion .
Reaping,which i s done with a special type of knife
,i s left
to the women and chi ldren,as i s al l but the very heavies t
field work . There are two Special kind s : one type consi s t sof a thin blade of iron set at right angl es across
,and in
about the centre of,a wooden handle ; thi s i s grasped in the
right hand,so that the blade i s between the second and third
fingers . In reaping,the padi s talk s are drawn wi th these
Agricu lture,Fish ing
,Hun t ing
,89°C . 105
two fingers agains t the blade and thus cut through . TheO ther kind of reaping-kn ife has a blade which i s broadat the end and narrow near the handle, the back curvingupwards toward s the end farthes t from the handle.The Dusuns of the
“
llLll' villagesW as their chiefcrop. The cult ivation of this nece ss itate s the making of afre sh clearing in the j ungle every season . When the fore s thas been fel led with adzes and chopping-knive s i t i s left to dryfor a while and i s then fired . The burning does not entirelyde stroy the tree-trunks
,but the ground i s sufficiently cleared
to allow sowing to take place . This work i s done by thewomen
,who drill l ine s of holes with sharpened s takes of
hard wood and drop several grain s into each . The hole sare not fil led in
,and a watcher i s general ly set for a
few days to keep away birds until the earth has tumbleddown so as to cover the seed or has been washed over
’
it
by rain .
The hil l pad i needs j us t as much looking after as wet rice,
or rather more,since the clearing i s surrounded by j ungle
,
the haun t s of deer and pig : in fact,during the padi season
the up-country Dusun l ives more on hi s clearing than in hi svillage
,the tiny l i t tle hut (sulap) which he bui ld s be ing
crowded with himself and hi s family. After harves t,i f i t
has been plentiful,the Dusun give s himself up to eating and
drinking.
Occasional ly,i f the weather has been very wet at the
burning season,the Dusuns are unable to clear the ir ground
properly and the crop i s a fai lure ; in thi s case they have tosupport themse lve s as bes t they may on j ungle tubers andwhatever smal l animal s and fish they are able to catch intheir traps.The planting of hil l padi i s des tructive to large stretchesof j ungle
,but i t is d ifficul t to see what method could be sub
sti tuted for i t,un le s s the Dusun s could be taught to terrace
the side s of the val leys and plan t wet padi . The shal lowsoil of the hi l l-sid e w i l l support crops of padi for a few years
106 Agricu lture,Fishing
,Hun ting
, 8990.
at the outs ide,and actually the D usuns only u se i t once
,
planting,when the pad i has sprung up
,kaladi (Caladium)
among the young crop . For the next season’s padi crop anew piece of j ungle has to be felled and burned
,and when
the kaladi tubers have reached maturi ty and been dug upthe o ld clearing i s abandoned .After some years
,perhaps about twenty
,when tall second
ary j ungle has grown up on i t,i t may be used again
,the soil
having had a re s t and a certain amount of new humus havingaccumulated . In the coastal regions dry or hi ll pad i i s a gooddeal plan ted on flat land which i t is difli cult to irrigate . Theplough and harrow are used in preparing the ground
,and
the land wil l support a crop for two or three years running .
A few of the up-country vil lage s of the Tempassuk, for in
s tance Tambatuan,have a l i t t le we t rice land in the val l ey .
Probably o ld ground might be used more frequent ly,but as
i t i s very troublesome to clear the grass,weeds and brush
wood which spring up in a year or two,the people prefer to
wai t unti l comparat ively large tree s have grown up and ki lledthe undergrowth .
AS mentioned el sewhere,a considerable amount of tobacco
i s grown at Kiau,and in various villages of the Interior pro
vince. Other crops occas ional ly planted are tapioca andInd ian corn
,the las t to a very small exten t among the
Dusuns . Sometimes al so qui te large pa tche s of nativecucumbers are met wi th
,which
,though they have not so
much tas te a s those grown in Europe,are neverthele s s a
very welcome vegetable . Small onions,l ike spring onions
or l i t t le l eeks,a French bean
,as we l l a s pumpkin s and a
kind of vegetable marrow,are other vegetables occasion
ally obtainable . The frui t grown in the Tempassuk andother part s of Borneo I have deal t wi th in a formerchapter.The Dusuns are particularly clever at obtaining both smal l
and large animal s by means of traps . For catching deerSpring spear-traps and noose s are prepared
,while for pig
10 8 Agricultu re,Fishing
,Hun ting
,$9 6
common type of squirre l- trap worked by a trigger and abow i s il lu s trated by Burbidge in Garden; of tbe Sun.
When the harvest i s over the hil l people are at a los s for‘
regular employment,and so betake themselve s to the river
to set thei rfish-traps in order. The mos t common type oflarge trap con si s t s of two converging S tone wall s wi th abaske t fixed at the end . The trap i s buil t in the form ofa V with the broad end facing up
- s tream,and i t s wall s are
composed of large rounded boulders col lec ted from the riverbed . These wal l s are of cons iderable length
,and are buil t
so as more or le s s to dam a cons iderable portion of the river.Thus the water w i thin the s tone wall s
,especial ly near their
apex,i s at rather a higher leve l than that of the stream
outsid e them. The long conical baske t affixed to the narrowend of the trap re tain s the fish and at the same time al lowsthe pent-up water to e scape. As the wall s of the trap and thewater between them are above the level of ' the stream
,
the basket i s al so elevated considerably above the surface,
and the water from the trap plunge s down through i t toj oin the main body of the river again . A slight bridge oftwo bamboos
,one for a hand-rai l and one for the fee t
,i s
often buil t from the bank to the end of the trap in orderto facil i tate the col lec tion of the catch .
Fewfish are caught in the se traps unle s s the river i sswol len by heavy rain
,but then large hauls are the rule ;
for at such times thefish make their way down-s tream insearch of sui table hol e s and eddies in which they mayShel ter themselves from the force of the stream
,and thus pass
in large numbers between the stone wall s and into the baske t.When the river i s badly in flood— frequent occurrencethe bamboo bridge becomes almos t a necessi ty
,for i t i s an ex
tremely dangerous experiment to try and wade the Tempassukafter heavy rain s
,many Dusuns
,swept away by the rush of
water,having paid for their temeri ty wi th their l ives .
Another method of trapping fi sh occas ionally employedi s to select a Shal low stre tch of river where the bed i s
Agricul ture,Fish ing
,Hun t ing
,899 0. 1 09
w ider than usual and the current not very swift,and there
to build a series of large s tone-walled chambers,each
connected with the next by a small open ing,the main
entrance to the trap,as before, facing up
— s tream . Fishmake the ir way into the chambers and are then easilycaptured and di spatched .One very ingenious form of trap i s a bottomless conical
baske t of natural or wai t-a-bit rat tan twigs . The reflexed
thorns of the plant are left adhering on the ins ide,the
s trands of rattan be ing so arranged that the thorns pointbackward s - that i s
,toward s the
'
apex of the trap. Wall sof S tones wi th smal l holes in them at interval s are buil t a tright angle s across the river to rece ive the traps . Theseare inserted with their opening facing up
- stream,so tha tfish
descending the river put their heads into what appears tothem to be breaches in the wall
,but are unable to with
draw again owing to the thorns of the traps catching themunder their scales . Often thi s type of trap is used wi thoutthorns. The fish ge t the ir heads wedged in and canno tescape . A similar kind of trap i s made in the Malay S tate s ,where i t i s cal led tengkalak onak.
Several varie tie s of baske tfish-traps are made by theDusuns
,the principle of al l being that of easy entry and
difficult escape. The usual method i s to make a conicalentrance to the trap out of s trips of rattan or other material
,
the point of the cone being d irected inwards . Thefishcan thus easily make the ir way into the trap, but whenthey try to make their way out again
,even if they can
find the place at which they entered,they are unable to
push apart the converging strips of cane which form thepoint of the cone.Several methods of rod-and-l ine fishing are employed
,one
of which resembles fly fishing w i th a gras shopper or otherinsect for bait . For fishing the pool s in the river the l inei s weighted with a small piece of lead and baited wi th aworm
,or anything e l se which will at tract the fish. A light
1 1 0 Agricu lture,Fish ing
,Hun t ing
,fif e .
float is often used on the l ine in di tche s and other s ti l lwaters .A rather remarkable method of fishing i s by splashingto perform thi s a man walks along the bank of a deep andrather sluggish stream with a rod and a Short l ine , to theend of which i s at tached a smal l piece of sheet-brass armedwith ei ther one or two books. He drops the bai t into thewater and then splashe s the water about wi th the top ofthe rod
,the movements of the rod top causing the bai t to
j ump about a s if al ive. Fish lurking under the banks oron the bo t tom come and sei ze the bai t
,and some times qui te
large catches are made .Among the lowland Dusuns small s treams are oftendammed
,in order to catch thefish which lurk in the deeper
holes,while scoop-l ike basket s or hand-net s are used for
bail ing out the catch . The flat,marshy coun try between
Kotabelud and Pindasan i s a favouri te place for thi s methodoffish-catching
,and also for hunting for torto i se s and fre sh
water turtle s . The j uice obtained from the roots of the tubaplan t (Dan
'
s e/z'
ptica) i s some times used for s tupefyingfish inrivers and pools
,the roo t s being pounded up and the j uice
poured into the water. Catchingfish by torchlight i s afavouri te pursui t of both Dusuns and Baj aus
,and
,when the
water in the Tempassuk i s low, partie s are out along theriver bank night after night. The fish are da z ed
,or even
at tracted , by the glare of the torches and al low themselvesto be kil led with a chopping-knife or afish- spear withoutmaking the sl ighte s t effort to escape .Any European can make himself popular wi th a wholeDusun vil lage by dynamiting a couple of pool s in the river.Everyone in the place turns out to take a share in the fun
,
grandfathers, fathers, mo thers, grandchildren and bevie s ofDusun girl s , whose partly assumed modesty and shy gigglesgreat ly add to the amusement of the occasion . The womenand chi ldren , armed wi th hand-nets or scoop-Shaped baske t s,s tre tch themselves in a l ine across the river in the shallows
CHAPTER XII
FO O D,NARC O T IC S (5' I NTO ! ICANT S
HE Dusun is nearly omnivorous . Rice,fish, meat,vegetable s
,fruit
,j ungle roots
,squirrel s
,monkeys
,
rat s,snake s
,tortoise s
,l i zards and frogs are eagerly
devoured,even such foul and musky smel l ing repti l e s as the
monitor-l i zard no t be ing despi sed . I remember Shootmgone of these animal s on a small creek near Tenghilan
,
where I used occas ional ly to s top for the night on theway from Tuaran to Kotabelud. Wishing to pre servei t s skin
,but not be ing will ing to skin the animal myself
,
I turned i t over to a cool i e,on condi tion that he should
have the body to eat if he would take off the skin forme. The offer was accepted with alacri ty and I wasafterwards informed that the meat was splendid !Around many of the vil lages monkeys and small game
,
such as rats,have been almost exterminated
,a fact which
has struck several zoologi s t s who have vi s i ted MountKinabalu in search of specimens. Of course
,as with
mos t Eas tern people,the s taple food of the Dusuns i s rice,
but in addi tion large quanti tie s of kaladi (Caladium sp.)and tapioca roo t are consumed . Fresh-water fish
,as has
been shown,are easy to obtain
,for the rivers teem with
many differen t kinds, and dry or fresh sea-fish can bepurchased in the markets .Occasional ly
,when the pad i crop is a failure
,and the
produce of supplementary cul t ivation i s insufficien t to maintain him
,the Dusun has to fal l back on j ungle root s to
supply the deficiency. Certain poi sonous tubers calledImdut are dug, cu t into thin Sl ice s, and placed for somehours in a baske t
,which is set down in a shal low stream
1 1 2
A DUS UN FAM ILY PARTY O N TH E MARC H
The o ld m an has a spear i n h 1s r1gh t hand , VVt h he uses as a walk ing st1ck , or aga1nst a p1g ,
o r other ammal he m ay encoun ter The pom t of the spear 15 protected by a two-p1ece woodensheath bound w1th str ips of rattan cane Note the inev i table chopp ing kn1fe on the left th1gh
A DUSUN F ISH -TRAP IN THE KADAMAIAN R IV ER
A trap of th 1s k ind i s con stru cted at the narrow end of two long V -shaped,converging wal ls of
s tones,bu1lt 1n the t .ver bed ,
an l havm g therr larger opem ng up-stream It con51sts of a long
shoot of bamboos lead 1ng to a removab le,con ical basket , in to wh1ch thefish { all
1 14. Food,Narcotics 5" In toxican ts
European saucepans are coming more and more into use.Fish
,caught in traps in the river
,when not eaten fresh
,are
Spl i t open and sun-dried . A disgusting sme l l arise s fromthese during the drying proces s
,clouds of flie s se t tl ing on
and buzz ing around them. According to Whitehead , inExploration of M ount Kinabalu
,p . 18 3,
“ rat s are oftenspl i t and fixed on bamboo frame s
,then smoked and s tuck
over the fireplace s in the houses unt i l required but, thoughno doubt hi s observations are correct
,I never remember
having seen this done myself.The water-vessel in al l Bornean houSes is a length of
bamboo,the body of the vessel being a long single inter
node,and the bottom an adj acen t node. In the morning
women carry down a number of the se to the river on theirShoulders
,fil l them and bring them back to the houses
,the
supply of water be ing general ly sufficient to la s t for theday. Occasional ly
,when a vil lage i s far from a supply of
drinking water,an aqueduct of bamboos spli t into halve s
and supported on slight pole s i s bui l t to the neares t Spring.
Dusuns have a rather curious habi t of preserving theskull s and bones of animal s they have eaten
,a piece of the
under s ide of the thatch often being decorated with numbersof the se trophies . Among them are general ly remains ofsqu irre l s, pigs, rats, and sometime s of the muntj ac or ofdeer.Rice
,as has been remarked before
,i s the s taple d ie t.
Variou s condiments,red peppers
,e tc.
,are sometimes mixed
wi th the rice andfish to give spice to the meal . The
mixture i s pressed into bolu se s wi th the fingers of the righthand, and transferred from the plate to the mouth, the headbeing til ted backwards . Spoons cut from j o int s of bambooare used in Dusun cookery
,as are also wooden s tirrers or
spatulae . For figure s of these Ling Roth’s Natives ofSarawak and Br itt
'
s/9 Nor in Borneo,vol . i., p . 380, should
be consul ted .
At Tuaran the women have the abnormal habi t of eating
Food , Narco tics @9 In toxican ts 1 15
earth,which i s al so found in other part s of Borneo, in Java
and the Federated Malay S tate s. Not far from the Chine seshops at thi s s tation there i s a gully
,which at the time of
heavy rains has a -small s tream running at the bottom of i t.The sides of the gully are made of a bluish grey clay withone or two bands of a hard dark purpl ish red clay runningthrough it. At about s ix o’clock in the evening i t i s usualto see anything up to about a do z en women digging outthis red clay with pom ted s t ick s or smal l knive s, and puttingi t in to baskets. I have been told that the clay i s roas tedbefore be ing eaten
,and that some women consume very
large quanti tie s. I t i s said to be a good medicine forwomen who are enceinte. I have several times dug out asample and eaten i t myself ; i t has rather the consi s tency ofchocolate
,but i s almost tas tele ss .
To the native mind a sire/5chew and tobacco to smoke areonly a l i t tle less necessary than food. The ingred ients ofthe quid
,as made up in Borneo
,are a rireb leaf— siroa i s a
cl imbing pepper— a piece of nut from the betel palm,a piece
of gambier,which i s bought from the Chine se in smal l
cubes,a l i ttle native-grown tobacco
,and a smear of l ime
obtained by burning sea or fresh-water Shel l s or coral . Thecoarses t ve ins are S tripped out of the sire/J leaf
,and a smear
or two of l ime put on i t s upper surface . Sufficient quanti tie sof bete l
,gambier and tobacco are then put in to the half
folded leaf,and the whole made in to a bundle and pushed
into the mouth. Occasionally,when too l i ttle l ime has been
added to the chew,a nat ive wil l produce hi s l ime-box and
taking out some of the lime -paste on hi s l i t tle finger smeari t on a back too th.
Chewing causes a copious flow of sal iva and colours i t red,
so that a new-comer to the country,following a path much
used by natives,might think that a wounded man had pre
ceded him along it. The habi t i s certainly no t particularlypleasing, and the appearance of a quite pre tty young womani s often spoiled by her having a ragged-looking wad of half
1 1 6 Food,Narco tics In toxican ts
chewed sireh and tobacco protruding from one corner of hermouth. Old people, who have los t their tee th, find i t impos sible to manage a quid made up in the manner describedabove ; but for all thi s they are not to be deprived of oneof their chief pleasures
,so they put the ingredien ts of the
chew into a tabular mortar of iron,brass
,or bamboo
,and
pound i t up with a pes tle wi th a sharpened end .
A siroa quid has an aromatic,pungent and as tringent
tas te,and
,Speaking from my own experience
,i s di s tinctly
s t imulat ing. When a gues t vi si ts a Dusun house the hos timmediate ly produce s sire/9 and tobacco
,the former be ing
contained ei ther in a tray or in one of those beautiful oldbras s caskets so treasured by the Dusuns. These arealways much worn at the bottom from being perpetuallypushed along the floor of the house from gues t to gues t .The caske ts contain small boxes for the l ime
,tobacco and
gambier,with a pair of special sci s sors for cutting up the
betel-nut . Not to offer a gue s t sirebwould be a breach ofthe laws of Dusun hospi tal i ty.Tobacco i s used not only for chewing
,but al so for
smoking,though pipes are not known among the Tempassuk
and Tuaran Dusuns ; they are used , however, by othertribe s
,notably the Muruts. The Dusun med ium of smoking
i s ' the cigare tte,which i s covered w i th a wrapper made from
the flower-Spathe of the nzjoa palm. These wrappers, whichare cal led f irm, can be bought ready cut and made up in tobundle s at al l the markets. Native cigare tte s are not a badsubst i tute for the European varie ty
,i f anyone runs out
of s tock,but the wrapper tas te s rather more than the
tobacco,and they are drying to the throat
,and tend to
produce a cough .
The Dusuns have,rather unfairly
,I think
,got a certain
reputation as drunkard s . I t is true that they often drink toexcess
,but thi s i s a rule only at nights after the day’s work
i s done,or when work i s slack
,as
,for instance
,after harve s t,
which i s the general season of rej oicing. Then you may
1 1 8 Food,Narco tics $39 In toxican ts
mained but to send out for some fresh drink and be ‘ trulyhospitable.The l iquor chiefly drunk i s toddy
,locally known as balor .
I t i s made from the sap of the coco-nut palm,obtained by
cutt ing the end of a young flowering shoot,which
,of course
,
has a great sap pres sure in i t. A large bamboo receptacl ei s hung underneath the cut end of the shoot
,and into thi s
the l iquor trickles . A piece of a certain kind of tree-barkcal led rasrak i s placed in the bamboo tube
,and thi s i s said
to has ten the fermentation of the drink,and to give i t the
pecul iar bi t ter tas te which the Dusuns l ike. The end ofthe shoot has a fre sh s lice
,a very thin one
,taken off i t a t
l eas t once a day in order to keep the sap perpetually flowing,
and at about half-pas t s ix,when the people re turn to the
village from work in the pad i-fields,each tree which i s being
tapped has a brown-Skinned human monkey concealed somewhere among i ts l eaves
,who i s col lecting the drink which
has accumulated,reslicing the end of the shoot wi th the
pecul iarly shaped knife used for the purpose,and hanging
on a fre sh receptacle.Sometime s the tree s are no tched to help the climbers
,but
the maj ori ty of native s wil l “ walk ” s tra ight up a coco-nutpalm trunk without any other as si s tance than that of theirhands and feet . This they do by planting the ir fee t firmlyagains t the trunk of the tree so that their legs are almos t atright angle s to i t
,at the same time embracing i t wi th both
hands ; their bodie s, which are bent at the hips, being thusalmos t paralle l to the tree-trunk . Next they j erk bothhands forward a l i tt le and
,when they have got a good grip
,
bring up the ir fee t to the same extent. In this way theyare enabled to cl imb the tree s in a few second s.Newly col lec ted toddy ferments very fas t, and i t i s im
possible to keep i t in a corked bot tle. In colour and densi tyi t looks something l ike ginger-beer
,but occasional ly has a
pinki sh tinge. When fre sh i t i s swee t and faintly reminiscen t of very bad cider, but i t leaves a nasty sour tas te in
Food,Narcot ics In toxicants 1 1 9
the mouth. After standing for some few hours i t become sbi t ter
,and i s then
,accord ing to Dusun ideas, at i t s bes t,
though a European would probably prefer i t freshly drawn .
A large bamboo of toddy can be obtained for from ten totwenty cents
,a couple of bamboos being sufficient to have
“ the desired effect for two or three men .Toddy drinking in markets i s supposed to be prohibi tedowing to the quarrel s which occur among the Dusuns whenunder the influence of l iquor ; however, if the “ Tuan ”
would l ike a drink,one can usual ly be procured a t short
not ice,as I know from personal experience ; and in the le s ser
markets,which are infrequently vis i ted by the pol ice
,the
coco-nut-Shel l cup pas ses round merrily wi thout any fear ofa thirsty private annexing the brew under the pretext thatGovernment regulations are being infringed.
Tapai, which i s the intoxicant most in favour ab'
outharve s t time
,though not a spiri t— s ince i t undergoe s no
process of dis ti l lation — i s,neverthe le s s
,extremely potent.
It is made by pouring water on rice with which has beenmixed some fermented rice-flour. The yeas t for setting upthe fermentation i s
,in Tambatuan in the Tempassuk district,
made as follows. Rice-flour i s mixed wi th sugar and waterand made in to a small ball
,which i s t ied up in lalang-grass
leave s and hung up under the thatch til l i t ha s become qui tehardened and mouldy. I t i s then pounded up and mixedwith more rice-flour and water. Thi s compound i s made upin to small ball s
,which are hung up outside the house for
three or four days and are taken in at night. After theyare sufficiently matured
,a quan ti ty of rice i s boi led and
allowed to cool,and then the bal l s of yeas t are pounded up
and mixed into i t. The tapai rice i s put into a j ar, and ,after a day or so
,when i t begins to tas te sweet
,water i s
poured in and the top of the j ar tied up. After three orfour days the l iquor i s ready to drink. If the tapai i s keptfor about ten days or so i t becomes sour
,and i s no longer
good. The tapai rice wil l keep for a long time, bu t i f
£2 0 Food,Narcotics 399 In toxican ts
water i s added the tapaz'
re sul ting mus t be drunk within afew days . This account of tapai-making was given me byGumpus
,headman of Tambatuan .
Tapai, even when not drunk straight from the j ar, i sserved up with the rice s t i l l in i t
,and for s training off thi s
,
while drinking,I have seen one very ingenious type of fil ter.
A Short piece of bamboo with a node at one end i s taken,
and long and narrow Slots cut in i t longitudinal ly,these
being sufficiently smal l to prevent grain s of rice pas singthrough. This s trainer i s placed in the topaz
"
with a ratherlong reed or small bu t fairly long j oint of bamboo looseins ide i t. By applying hi s l ips to the bamboo tube
,which
i s much longer than the fil ter portion of the apparatus,the
drinker i s thus able to suck up the tapai wi thout getting anyrice into hi s mouth .
No t only i s the tapai drunk, but even the rice which formsa thick layer at the bot tom of the j ar is not rej ec ted
,thi s
having a strong tas te of the l iquor. I have both drunk tapaiand eaten rice from the tapai j ar, but I am at a loss to knowto what European drink I can compare i t
,unle s s i t be to bad
brandy. Tapai rice has a burning tas te and tapai i t self i squi te fiery to the throat . The Malays of the Malay Peninsula make a kind of tapai cake, which is exactly similar 1n
taste to the tapai rice of Borneo.Bes ide s the harves t season, every event of any importance,birth
,death or marriage, i s an excuse for a good deal of
drinking,and toddy is
,of course
,drunk daily in the houses
,
and in the huts (sulap) which are buil t for watching thepadi-fields. The Dusun s nearly always drink and eat atthe same time
,otherwi se
,they say, they get in toxicated too
quickly,small fish
,boi led or broi led in the embers of a fire
,
being much in favour for consumption at drinking-partie s .As remarked above
,nat ive-brewed drinks apparently do
but l i t tle harm,but the Bri t i sh North Borneo Company
should follow the excel lent example of the Federated MalayS tate s Government and make the sel l ing of foreign spiri tuous
CHAPTER XIII
CO URT SH IP,MARR IAG E 6 ' D IVO RC E
,BUR IAL
PUBERTY C U STO M S
HE Tuaran vi llagers are comparatively well off,and
their barrow — Le. the purchase price s paid for W 1ves— are much larger than those of the natives of the
Tempassuk or the up-country part s of the Tuaran d i s trict. Iwas
,unfortunately
,never pre sent a t a Dusun marriage ; but
information obtained from native s was to the e..
f
ect that therewas l i t t le or no ceremony beyond a feast, at which a buffalowas killed and ea ten and a good d eal of toddy drunk. Theses tatements are further borne out by Mr Whitehead’s accountof a Dusun marriage at Melangkap in Tae Exploration ofKinabalu
,p. 1 10.
As far as I know,the wife goes to l ive with the husband
,
and not the husband with the wife’s parents,as i s done
in some tribes. Whitehead says that in Melangkap thehusband l ive s for a while wi th the wife’s parents. Monogamyi s the general rule
,but I occasionally heard of a man with
twci wives. Shortly before I left the Tempassuk, Yompo, ayoung headman of Kiau
,was meditat ing taking a second
wife,as hi s firs t had proved barren ; but probably he won ]
d ivorce hi s old wife before taking a new one,s ince d ivorce
i s ea sy,and depend s only on the husband’s wi sh .
If a man divorce s hi s wife on account of some seriousfaul t on her part
,he can obtain the return of at leas t a part
of her be’r z’
an from her relat ions,but if he s end s away his
wife merely a t hi s own wi sh,the be’r ian cannot be recovered .
The bé’r ian paid for a widow or a divorced woman i s abouthalf that for a virgin . Formerly the puni shmen t for ince s twas death .
Courtship,Marriage
,D ivorce
, 8990. 1 2 3
Among the pagan races of Borneo much greater faci li t ie sfor courtship are al lowed than among the Mohammedans
,
though the women of the Mohammedan tribes are free ascompared wi th their si sters in -other countries. The SeaDyak lover visi ts his inamorata steal thily by night, whenthe family are supposed to be asleep
,though
,as a matter of
fact,these vi s i t s are usual ly known to the girl’s relations and
connived at. I t i s said that this me thod of courting seldomre sul ts in immoral i ty. (Various authori tie s quoted by LingRoth
,Natives of Sarawak and Br itt
'
s/3 NortbBorneo,vol . i.
,
pp. 109 and Sarebas Dyaks have now,however
,
given me a different account . One man informed me thati f the parents of a girl did not connive at her respond ing toher lover’s advance s there would be l i ttle chance of the girlmarry ing. As far as I have been able to d i scover
,Dusun
method s of courting are somewhat s imi lar to those of theDyaks
,though I am inclined to think that the ir nocturnal
vi si t s are not always so blame le s s .As mentioned in another chapter
,at Tuaran
,where many
of the youths and young men wear long hair,i t is customary
for the maidens to search for insec ts among her lover’slocks
,and i t i s said that these are often eaten ! In some
villages of the Tempassuk i t i s usual for a man, when hewishe s to notify the parents of
”
a girl that he intends tocourt their daughter
,to take off hi s coat and hang i t up
near the door of the house .At Tuaran
,marriages
,e special ly those of the chi ldren of
people of importance,are often arranged at an early age .
The chief negotiat ion s which must be gone through beforemarriage can take place are concerned wi th the fixing of theamoun t of ovar ian (lit. a giving) , which must be paid bythe sui tor to the girl’s brother
,as the be’r ian becomes hi s
property. The aged women-kind of both parties usuallytake a considerable Share in the di scussions relating to thi ssubj ect. When the price i s fixed the marriage can takeplace. Some times a bé’r ian i s paid in kind
,sometimes in
1 2 4. Courtship,Marriage
,D ivorce
, 8990
money ; and an example of a Tuaran be’r zan ls given inanother chapter.When a Dusun d ies
,the firs t thought of hi s relat ives
after burying him i s to rid themselve s of the presence of hi sghost
,in case i t Should be s til l l ingering about the house
,or
Should be able tofind i t s way back from the graveyard . AtPiasau in the Tempassuk the women who lament at theburial cry aloud to the spiri t of the deceased : Do not s tophere
,for your way lie s to the l eft (zle. to Mount Kinabalu
,
the home of dead Dusuns) . At the same vil lage thebamboo bier on which the body is carried to the grave-S id ei s hacked to piece s
,and I have heard that in some local i ti e s
the peopl e,on returning from a funeral
,sla sh a t the s teps
and door of the house in which the death has occurred,in
order to drive away the spiri t of the deceased .After returning from a funeral
,al l the mourners betake
themselve s to the river to bathe,I imagine in order to
cleanse themselve s from the pol lution of having taken partin a burial . In the vi llage of Tambatuan
,and probably
el sewhere,the inhabitants of a house in which a death has
occurred are tabu,and remain secluded for a week . Accord
ing to Dusun ideas i t would be very unlucky to wear theclothes of a d ead person
,so these are hung up over the
grave,and at Tambatuan those of virgins are embroidered
before di sposing of them in thi s way. I believe that thi sonly applie s to the clothe s actually in use at the t ime ofdeath . Valuabl e cloths , e tc . , s tored away are, I think , keptand used .After a funeral
,the grave i s l eft to fal l into decay
untended,the Dusuns be ing general ly unwill ing to enter
graveyard s unle s s i t i s nece ssary to bury a corpse . Thegrave i s surrounded with a fence
,which at Kampong Piasau
and many other vil lage s is decorated wi th wooden mode l s ofthe possession s of the deceased — fowls
,buflaloes
,Spears
,
gun s and parangs, or of other obj ects , such as snakes, tortoise s
,wild cat tle and deer. Probably in bygone t imes,
f 2 6 Courtship, Marriage , D ivorce , &9C .
place,the men-a cigare t te wrapper
,the women some thread
,
and the chi ldren some bi t s of d irty rags . The fol lowingl i t t le l egend te l l s of the pas sing of the ghos ts over theKoraput (or U rapu t)
TH E PATH O F TH E GHO ST STold by Sir inan of Kampong P iarau, TemparruéDirtr ict
There i s a smal l river to the [ant (seaward s) of KampongKaung named Koraput. There are large s tones in the midd leof i t
,and the people say the ghos ts s top there on their
way to Kinabalu. If the ghost of an old man is passing thesound of hi s walking- s tick i s heard tapping on the stones, i fof a young bachelor the sound of hi s .rendatang (a kind ofnat ive banj o) , i f of a young unmarried woman the soundof the toredz
’
ng (a kind of wooden or bone j ews’ harp) , and
if of a child the sound of weeping.
In consequence of the Dusuns’ bel iefs wi th regard toKinabalu
,an ascent of the mountain i s no t to be undertaken
l ightly. The spiri t s of the dead mus t be propi tiated withofferings and a gun fired to warn them of the approach ofhuman be ings. Sompat, one of the headmen of Kiau,usual ly performs the ceremony when a European wi she s tocl imb the mountain
,and from him I obtained the following
de tai l s . The sacrifice to the Spiri t s consis t s of seven eggsand a couple of fowls
,and there is a meng/Jaj i (rel igious
ceremony) . I t i s said that when the ceremony i s beingperformed a spiri t i s often heard to cry out in answer.On the way up the names of s treams passed or of place s
in the j ungle may not be ment ioned,nor may the mountain
be called by i t s usual name,but if i t i s nece s sary to refer to
i t the Dusuns ins tead of Nabala say Agayob ngaran (bigname) . If no ceremony were performed , i t is thought the
party making the ascent would be unable to find their wayhome . One European who undertook the cl imb refused tofire a gun before starting
,and the continual wet weather
Courtsh ip,Marriage
,D ivorce
,$ 0 1 2 7
which was me t wi th was put down to thi s cause . U n
fortunately l never had an opportun i ty of ge tting fartherthan Kiau vi llage
,on the lower slopes of the mountain, where
I me t old Sompat. Mr J . C . Moulton, curator of SarawakMuseum
,who has recently cl imbed the mountain, says that
two shots are also fired at the top,the gun being pointed
upward s,facing north (Sarawak Gaz ette, November
The word Kinabalu,as Mr Moulton
,I think rightly,
observes,i s probably derived from Nabalu (the Dusun word
for the home of the dead) , and doe s not mean “ Chine seWidow (mountain) , China Balu or Kinabalu
,
” as s tatedin so many works on Borneo . There i s a village in theTempassuk valley which seems to be called indifferentlyKinabalu or Penelabu , and probably thi s also has nothing todo wi th China or the Chine se.To turn now to me thods of sepulture. All good Dusunswish to be buried in a j ar ; but a j ar is expensive, and so thebodies of poor people are buried in a rough wooden coffin orwrapped up in mat s. If the deceased i s suflficiently well offto afford a j ar
,the body i s sl ipped into it legs firs t and
pushed,or even stamped
,down til l i t does not protrude .
Some few years ago there was a bad epidemic of smallpox in the Tuaran d i s trict
,and the father of my Dusun
servant,Omboi
,caught the disease and “ died.” Where
upon his re lative s,having obtained a j ar of suflicient s i z e
,
Sl ipped the body into i t,intending to bury i t immediate ly.
The neck of the j ar was,however
,rather narrow
,and when
the mourners began to stamp the body home with the flat oftheir fee t
,the corpse got up and obj ected to the proce s s
in forcible language . The patient had merely been in as tate of coma
,and he eventually recovered .
If the mouth of a j ar i s too narrow to admi t the body,the
ves sel i s cut in two hori zontally a t its greate s t circumference, the body packed in to the lower portion and the topreplaced and fastened down w i th some kind of re s in
.The
j ars are not buried at any great depth and i t i s common,in
i 2 8 Courtsh ip,Marriage
,D ivorce
, $ 0
walking about near vil lages,to come upon an old graveyard
wi th many of the j ar tops showing above the ground .
At Tuaran,after a period of years
,old j ars are dug up
and used again ; but at Tenghilan, not far from the boundaryof the Tuaran and Tempassuk districts, I was told that suchan act would be looked on with the greate s t horror
,and that
the desecrator of a grave would have been put to death inthe old days . AS far as my experience goe s, I bel ieve thatin the Tempassuk the feel ing about opening a grave wouldbe s imilar to that of the Tenghi lan people.Here we have a good example of the d ifference s which
can often be found in smal l areas,and thi s may well serve as
a warning agains t making has ty general i sat ions,a th ing which
i s unfortunately only too common . I t is obviously unsafe tosay that the Dusuns do such-and-such a thing on evidenceobtained from one or two village s, for i t i s always quitepos s ible that exactly the reverse may be the custom two orthree mile s away.But to re turn to the subj ect under review. Occasional ly,when the only j ar obtainable i s not qui te big enough torece ive the corpse
,the body i s buried in a rough wooden
coffin and the j ar set upright at the head of the grave. Iobserved an instance of thi s at Kampong Ghinambur. Inthe graveyard of Piasau vil lage I have al so seen very smallj afs set in the same pos i t ion. Presumably these were thegraves of poor persons whose relations could not afford tobuy big j ars
,as the vessel s d id not seem to have been used
for holding food or water. I was,in fact
,told that i t was
not customary to make food-offerings at the grave in thisvil lage , but at Tuaran I have been informed by native s thati t i s the general usage. At Piasau the grave s were surrounded by a rectangular bamboo fence decorated withwooden model s
,put there as of erings.
The graves themselve s,which were marked by raised
mound s,were covered wi th a obefuaux de fr ire of sharp
bamboo point s to prevent wild pigs from routing up the
CHAPTER XIV
MUS ICAL I N STRUMENT S,MU S IC (S DANC I NG
ONGS,those in s truments so beloved by the Dusuns
and by al l the native races of Borneo,have been
mentioned several times el sewhere ; they are re
garded as valuables,and have become
.a sort of currency“
A Dusun i s almos t as great a connois seur in the mat ter ofgongs a s a European collec tor i s wi th regard to old chinaor Si lver. Should he be of indus trious and saving habit s
,hi s
money wil l be expended,i f not in wife-buying
,in the pur
chase of ei ther a gong or a buffalo ; but ei ther wives orbuffaloes can be paid for in gongs
,or in the case of the lat ter
v ice versa.
When an expens ive instrument i s for sale,great i s the
gathering of the cognoscenti ; i t i s tapped for flaws,i ts
workmanship examined and crit ici sed,i t s age e s t imated
,and
i t s tone tried by frequen t beatings. An intending buyerhaving been found
,there comes a long haggle as to the
price to be paid,and when at las t thi s has been agreed
upon,the purchaser carrie s off his bargain in triumph to
Show to hi s friend s at home . Everybody being intere s tedin gongs
,the native virtuoso has the advantage over hi s
European bro ther,for a Dusun re turning home after having
“ picked up a bargain ” i s not met with the same blank face sand inane remarks that so often gree t the col lector at homewhen he di splay s hi s lates t acqui si t ion to the circle of hisfriend s and acquaintance s .New gongs are considered of comparat ively l i t tle value ;
but old specimens of the tawog tawag— a gong wi th a deep
tone,a large and prominen t boss
,and a deep edge — or of
the chenang— a shallow gong wi th a boss almos t on a leve l130
Musical Instrumen ts,Music Dancing 1 3 1
with the face— are most sought after. The price of one ofthese may run to as much as two hundred or three hundreddollars
,a varie ty of the chenang cal led the chenang kimanz
'
s
being especially prized . Be sides the tawag tawag and theebenang there are two other kind s of gongs which are comparatively cheap : one of the se, the agong, i s a large shal lowgong with a fairly big boss ; the o ther, the tenukol, has, insome cases
,no bos s at all.
Gongs are s truck with a wooden malle t,which i s padded
wi th raw rubber or cloth. The note of a gong s truck withan unpadded mal le t i s too hard
,while treatment of thi s kind
tends to ruin the instrument by crack ing i t where the bos sj oin s the face
,the metal here
,which i s usually rather thin
,
having to take the full force of the blows .Though Dusuns are capable of cast ing a few small article sin brass
,I do not think that they have ever attempted to
manufacture gongs. Those which are valued by them atthe present day seem to have been made in Brunei
,Java
and perhaps China . The Dusuns,however
,are not wi thout
musical instrument s of their own . The young bachelorsstrum on the sendatang, a kind of two-stringed banj o ormandolin
,which
,with the exception of it s face
,i s roughly
carved,be l ly
,s tem and all
,out of a Single block of soft
wood . The strings, made of some vegetable fibre,are in
serted under a small piece of wood attached to the face orsounding-board
,and are tied at their other extremitie s to
a couple of keys,which pass through the s tem. A slight
bridge keeps the strings from contact wi th the face of theinstrument.Bamboo flute s of two kinds are in common use : one ofthese i s played in the orthodox manner with the mouth
,
the other wi th the nose,the end of i t be ing placed agains t
one nostril,while the other nos tri l i s s toppered with leaves
,
rags or tobacco. Small j ews’ harps (tor iding) are verycleverly cut out of a s ingle piece of palm wood or bamboo
,
the tongue being usually weighted by two li t tle pieces of
T3 2 Musical In strumen ts, Music Dancingwax or wild rubber. The instrument i s held before themouth and played by j erking a s tring attached to one end .Ano ther wind instrument which I have not ye t ment ioned i sthe so-called Dusun organ (rempatan) , which 18 made by thenatives of the interior.Mos t of those seen in the hands of Tempassuk people
have been brought from up-country by native s when carry
ing down tobacco to market,but
,i f I remember rightly
,
they are sometimes made by the people of Kiau and a fewo ther Tempassuk vi l lage s.The instrument consi st s of a long
,s traight-necked gourd
or calabash into which are fixed eight reeds,four shorter
in one row,and four longer
,but of different he ights
,m
ano ther,which together form a bundle of two rows with a
rectangular sec tion . These are bound round with lashingsof thread and are fixed into the gourd wi th some blackwaxy substance, I be l ieve dirty bee swax. The neck ofthe calabash forms the mouthpiece
,and the note s are pro
duced by blowing into thi s, while opening and clo singthe free end s of the shor t reed s wi th the fingers of therigh t hand
,and working on two s tops
,one at the baseof
each terminal long bamboo,with the left. Every reed has a
hol e at the base above the level of the gourd,and a small
tongue of bamboo skin which is partly re spons ible forthe product ion of the sounds
,fixed into i t s lower end .
A pecul iar instrument which i s sometime s called a harpi s played by the women. I t i s made from a length ofbamboo
,and the s trings are formed by carefully cu tting
thin,narrow
,longi tud inal s trips from the outside of the
section al l round, l eaving them attached to the body ofthe instrument at the end s . They are then keyed up bypush ing l i t t le piece s of wood under them at the ends ti l leach one wil l give the right note . Sometimes a round holeis made in the body at one side, presumably with a view toincreasing the sound .Another favouri te ins trument i s a wooden dulcimer or
1 34 Musical In strumen ts,Music Dancing
tunes they play on the xylophones and on the so-called“ organs are not at all unpleasant.I do not remember that I wa s ever particularly struck bytheir s inging
,and I never had time to take down any of their
songs,but W itti says tha t the inland Dusuns have pre tty
songs of their own.” The chief thing that I can rememberabout Dusun singing is that my boy used to g1ve vent tod i smal-sounding love- songs in the servants’ quarters abouta girl of whom he was enamoured
,but who did no t return
his affection . So thoroughly miserable d id he succeed inmaking himself that the tears used to course down hi scheeks and fall to the ground . Having suffered from theyouth for some months
,I d id not wonder that the lady
d i sliked him,and hearti ly sympathi sed with her.
Gongs and drums are used at al l nat ive dances,but except
for the rel igious kind performed by the women of Tuaran,
which are largely of a posturing nature,I can only remember
having seen a Dusun dance on one occas ion . Thi s was awar-dance performed by a Tuaran youth
,and in i t
,after
a good deal of preliminary posturing,he went in pantomime
through all the actions of a native engaged in warfare— theSpying of a foe from a dis tance
,the s teal thy creep through
bushes or tall grass,the gl id ing behind tree— trunks
,the
sudden rush of a surpri se attack,the rout of the enemy and
the swaggering bravado of the vic tors .
CHAPTER XV
WEALTH,CURRENCY, TRAD I NG
,MARKET S
HE Dusun’s wealth, at any rate unti l fairly recentt1mes
,consi s ted almos t ent irely of property
,money
being only obtainable w i th the greates t difficul ty ;and
,even at the present day
,so deeply i s thi s love of property
ingrained in him that probably no t a very great deal of hardcash would be found boarded up in the vi l lages
,the Dusun
man’s or woman’s one idea being to turn hi s or her savingsinto good s. This i s perhaps scarce ly a subj ect for wonder,as an up
-country native has remarkably l i t tle u se for mon'ey,
unless i t be to buy luxurie s a t the Chinese shops — a methodof diss ipat ion to which
,fortunate ly
,he has not so far taken
very kindly.The forms of property which chiefly find favour are oldbrass gongs— concern ing the age and tone of which theDusuns are great connois seurs — other article s of old bras sware
,such as the large be te l boxe s cal led ckelapa, buffaloes,
cattle,roll s of dark blue cloth to be purchased at the Chinese
shops,and in Tuaran and Papar the old Chinese j ars which
are regarded as sacred and to which an annual sacrifice i smade.In the old day s brass cannon
,krise s and spears were al so
regarded as desirable property,but
,with the pass ing away
of the use for such things,they are not now so much sought
after,though the firs t s til l command a good price as old
brass. All these articles be ing particularly in reques t,and
trade being formerly entire ly conducted by means of barter,
there arose gradually a sort of s tandard in values by whichthe dearer art icle s were apprai sed as be ing worth so many ofthose which were le s s expensive : a gong worth so many
135
i 36 Wealth,Currency
,Trading
,Markets
buffaloe s ; a j ar worth so many pikul s 1 of bras s (cannon) ;a kri s worth so many kayu (the usual term for a standardroll) of cloth . In thi s
'
way a sort of rough system ofcurrency was es tabl i shed
,s ince all the article s mentioned
above were readily taken and received — Le. became a sortof legal tender.To obtain a wife a Dusun man has to hand over a certainsum
,termed a be’r ian (a giving) , to the girl
’s parents . Atthe present time thi s i s occasionally paid in money
,but the
annexed example of a typical Tuaran be’r ian demonstra te sclearly some of the art icle s which were formerly consideredvaluable and passed as currency
,thi s particular selection of
articles being the price of a wife . The inertia and conservatism of ancient custom have preserved for us thi s record ofthe value which used to be at tached to art icle s which arerapidly becoming obsole te .
A Tuaran Bé’
r ian
A kind of gong wh ich may beworth anyth ing up to $200or more .
A kind of gong wh ich may beworth anyth ing up to $200or so.
I rantaka A smal l brass cannon.
Z kamuggi with two Si lver The kamuggi is a ceremonialcones on each neck lace.
I spearI kris
At the pre sent day s i lver and paper dollars have becomefairly easy to obtain
,but a great part of the trade of the
d is tric t i s s ti l l carried on by barter,and though a native may
tel l you that such-and-such an article on which he has se thi s heart i s worth so many dollars
,he i s probably himself
calculating i t s value in buffaloe s and turning the result into1 The piku l 100 katties. The kattie is I § lb. Engl ish . I bel ieve the
Sarawak Government stil lfines recalcitrant tribes so many pikuls ofbrass.
Wealth,Currency
,Trading
,Markets 1 37
dollars for your benefit— for i t i s in buffaloe s that he intendsto pay the purchase price — or
,i f he be wel l accustomed to
talking about dol lars,he may think of the purchase price in
dol lars and then reckon how many buffaloe s wil l be equal tothem
,always wi th the idea of paying in cattle and not in
cash. The price of buffaloes does no t vary much from yearto year : a fully grown and trained buffalo bul l i s generallyreckoned as being worth about $2 5, a ful ly grown andtrained buffalo cow about $2 0, while half-grown animal s arepriced more or less by the length of the horns measured inspans. A weaned buf alo calf wi ll fetch anything from $5upwards.Thi s method of bartering buffaloes often gives greattrouble in civil case s . For instance
,a man A sue s B for
a buffalo calf or the price thereof,for which B i s said to
be indebted to him. When the case comes into court i tlooks a s i f i t were going to be a fairly easy matter todecide
,until
,after a l i t tle inquiry
,i t i s found that i t i s
neces sary to go back into buffalo deal ings which have takenplace be tween the plaint iff and defendant during the las tcouple of years or more . Probably something l ike thi s hasoccurred : A buys a buffalo bull from B
,which i s priced at
$25; for thi s he pays on account a cow buffalo worth $15,thus being sti l l in debt to B for the sum of $10. After along time and much dunning on the part of B
,A
,not having
a buffalo of the exact value of $10, pays up with an animalwhose pri ce i s agreed at $15, thus putt ing B into A’
s debtto the extent of $5. B promise s to set tle this debt with asmal l calf as soon as one of hi s animal s Shall have calved .Eventually B repudiate s the debt and A takes out asummons for the buffalo calf.This i s very l ikely by no means the end of the matter
,
cases of thi s kind often have several s ide-i s sues . The ballhaving once been s tarted rolling
,B’s father-in-law turns up
and wants a summons,s tat ing that the original buffalo which
was sold for $2 5 to A i s hi s property, and that his son-in-law
1 3 8 Wealth,Currency
,Trading
,Markets
borrowed i t when he saw an opportunity of doing goodbusine s s with A. He has repeated ly requested the paymentof buflaloes equivalen t in value to the animal lent
,but hi s
son-in - law has been undutiful enough to tel l him that heowe s him nothing. He therefore asks for a summons.To do the Dusuns j ustice
,thi s kind of case i s commoner
among the Baj aus,but sti l l the same sort of thing does
sometimes occur among the Dusuns of the lowland vil lage s .Occasionally a buffalo-deal ing transac tion i s settl ed s traightaway
,the difference in price between two animals being
mad e up with any small article s which the vendor may bewil l ing to accept. Thus X may buy an animal worth $2 5from Y and pay for i t wi th a buffalo worth $1 8 , a bras sbetel-nut box worth $4 . and a spear the price of which i sfixed at $3.
In connect ion wi th the Dusun love of property,mentioned
above,my old friend Lengok of Bengkahak — according to
native idea s a man of some weal th - in whom the bump ofacqui si t ion was s trongly developed
,used to enrich himself
very considerably at the expense of hi s Baj au neighbours bytaking advantage of their improvidence .Thi s was hi s descript ion of how he obtained the good swith which hi s house was well s tocked .
“ You see,Tuan
,
”
he said to me,
“ the Baj aus are a very lazy people,who
scarcely ever plant enough padi to las t them through theyear : a few months after reaping
,when they have eaten
up al l their rice,some of them are sure to come to me and
ask me to l end them some padi t i ll next harves t . I sayVery well
,I wil l lend you some padi
,if you will bring me
a nice piece of brass-work of some kind,and deposi t i t here
as securi ty unti l you pay me back .
’ So they bring me somebras s which i s worth a good deal more than the pad i that Igive them. Of course they never pay me back, for thenext year they don’t plant any more pad i than they did inthe year they came to me to borrow
,but Baj au s never
reckon on what wil l happen afterward s,so long as they can
Weal th,Curren cy
,Trading
,Markets
out to such an extent in the Tempassuk that very fewnatives go into the j ungle wi th the express purpose ofcol lect ing i t. The Chinese are the chief buyers of j ungleproduce
,and a great deal of trading in these commod itie s i s
carried on at the local markets,about which I shal l have
something to say pre sently.Formerly
,when affairs in the Tempassuk were in a very
d i s turbed condi tion,the Baj aus ac ted as middlemen between
the Dusuns and the Chine se,s ince the lat ter were frightened
to move far away from the coasts and Government protect ion ; but peace having now been establ i shed for severalyears
,the Baj aus have gradual ly lo s t th i s lucra t ive form of
employment. Apart from damar,the only other native
product in which there i s any cons iderable export tradefrom the Tempassuk i s tobacco, which i s grown to someextent on the valley slopes around Kiau
,a village over
looking the Tempassuk river, s i tuated on the Slope s ofMount Kinabalu
,and round many of the vi l lages of the
interior.The chief market s of the Tempassuk dis tric t are Tamu
(market) Timbang, held every Wednesday a couple ofmiles or so down-s tream from Kotabelud
,the Government
po s t,and Tamu Darat (i.e. the up
-country market) , the si teof which i s located some seven miles up- s tream from thesame place . Tamu Darat i s the more important of the twomarke ts
,and i s held once in every twenty days
,but a
smaller market cal led Tamu Sesip (i.e. the market which i sslipped in be tween
,s ince i t takes place between the large
markets) , which i s held on the same ground on the tenthday after Tamu Darat
,often fairly bids to rival i t. Tamu
Timbang is,however
,coming more and more into favour
,
S ince a native who brings j ungle produce from up-country
can obtain s lightly be tter price s there,and i s enabled to
make a selection of any article s he may require at theKotabelud Shops before returning home.Among the nat ives a great part of the trade in the
Wealth,Curren cy
,Trading
,Markets 14 1
markets i s,as el sewhere
,carried on by barter
,though smal l
article s are often paid for in money. The Chinese,too
,
vastly prefer bartering good s with native s to paying cash,
as by this means they are enabled to obtain a double profit.The scene in a large market l ike Tamu Darat i s mos t
animated . The firs t arrival s on the ground are usually theChinese traders from the shops
,and the Baj aus and Illanuns
from the coas tal vil lages; Both Chinese and natives ride upto market
,the usual mounts being buffaloes, bull s, cows or
ponies. On arrival the Chinese busy themselves in arranging on their small palm-l eaf-roofed stall s a choice assortmentof such article s as are l ike ly to at tract Dusun customerscloth
,matches
,bead s
,gambier
,buttons
,small tin lamps
,
cheap tobacco-boxes,looking-glasses
,knive s and sci ssors
,
cotton-thread,needles
,kerosene o i l
,cooking-pots and an
as sortment of variou s odds and end s, nearly al l of whi chare cheap
,nasty
,and made in Germany. The Baj aus and
Illanu ns unload from their buffaloe s sacks of small driedfishwhich look like white-bai t
,Shel l-fish
,fresh fish of various
kinds, packages containing nat ive-made sal t, native-wovenhead-cloths
,and cooking and water-pots of reddi sh-coloured
clay,partly varni shed over wi th damar gum.
The Chinese,Baj aus and Il lanuns
,being more sophisti
cated than the Dusuns,need to be kept s tric tly in order to
prevent them from plundering or cheating the lat ter ; cousequently they are given one half the Tamu ground to themselves
,and are separated from the Dusuns by a rope
stre tched across the market until the signal to begin tradingi s given by the native chief in charge
,who hoists the
Government flag on the flag-s taff to declare the market open.While the Chinese and the Baj aus have been makingtheir preparations
,the Dusuns have been arriving ; those
from the village s near by come in firs t,but those from a
distance usual ly t ime themselve s to arrive at a po in t about amile and a half on the up— stream side of the market groundon the previous evening. Here they meet together and
14 2 Wealth,Curren cy
,Trading
,Markets
exchange news,d i scu ss the prospects of the pad i crop
,plan
buflalo-thieving expedi t ions and cook their evening meal.The next morning they again cook and feed
,and then come
lei surely down to marke t.The weapons which nearly every man carrie s
,usually a
native chopping-knife and a spear,are left outs ide the
market ground proper in charge of the pol iceman whoass i s t s the nat ive chief in preserving order.On entering the Tamu each group of Dusuns
,men
,
women and children,goes to the spo t as signed by custom to
their particular vi l lage . Near a fal len tree by the river youwil l find the Tiong people from the U l u Tuaran
,who bring
with them the ornamental bras s rings which Dusun womenwear on their rat tan-cane girdle s
,and which they are adepts
in cas ting. Under each tree are the people of a differentvillage
,some .bringing tobacco in the large carrying baskets
known as bongwn, o thers wi th pi les of native hats made ofspl i t and woven bamboo or rat tan, tas teful ly ornamentedwi th coloured pattern s . Others
,again
,have brought great
loads of whi te or amber-coloured damar gum ; a few womenare arranging cooking-po ts for sale
,made of a coarse greyi sh
looking clay mixed wi th sand ; and perhaps in the hands ofone of the up
-country natives,who has brought down
tobacco,may be seen one of those curious and sweetly
toned Dusun organs (senzpatan) , made from a gourd fi t tedwith bamboo pipes .When everyone i s ready the signal to trade i s given.Dusuns s taggering under big loads of damar make theirway acros s to the shops of the Chinese
,where pandemonium
i s le t loose owing to the huxtering cries of rival s tall-keepers,each of whom tries to obtain the goodl ies t Share of thetrade for himself. Baj aus and Illanuns rush acros s andthrus t their
,often unwanted, wares upon up-country Dusuns,
nearly snatching any artic les they require out of the vendors’hands ; and al l over the market arises a babel of tongues,Dusun
,Baj au
,Chinese
,Il lanun and Malay. Thi s animated
i44 Wealth,Currency
,Trading
,Markets
to de tecting such swindlers ; and thi s has had a salutaryeffect
,adul teration of tobacco having become comparatively
rare. A good deal of thi s native-grown tobacco finds i t sway through the hand s of Chinese or Malay middlemen toBrunei
,whence no doubt i t i s d i s tributed to the adj oining
terri torie s . Native tobacco i s smoked in the form of acigarette
,the wrapper being made from the leaf of the nzjoa
palm. Bundle s of these wrappers,ready cut
,can be bought
in al l the markets,and are known as kirai.
In coming down to marke t the Dusuns s til l use the oldt ime track
,which chiefly fol lows the bed of the Tempassuk
river,and i t i s a s a rule only in times of flood that they will
make use of the Government brid le-path to the interior,
which they consider much longer— I have tried both andknow which I think the bes t
,the large
,round and Sl ippery
stones in the bed of the river making exceed ingly unpleasantgoing.
A fair amount of trading in buffaloes takes place at someof the larger market s
,but in order to put down buffalo
thieving as far as possible the bargain has to be completedin the presence of a Government chief
,and the animal mus t
be marked with hi s brand . Very often a Dusun who hasbrought down a heavy load of j ungle produce i s enabled totake home a buflalo, which he has obtained in exchange fori t from one of the Chinese s tal l-holders.Before bringing thi s chapter to a close
,perhaps a few
remarks may be made abou t the old bead s which appear tohave passed as currency to a certain extent. All old bead sare considered valuable by the Dusuns
,to whom age i s qui te
as much synonymous with beauty and value as to the verie s tvirtuoso at home . Of course, in many cases, there i s agreat d eal to be said on the prac tica l s ide for the Dusuns’passion for old things ; for instance, modern gongs are muchinferior in workmanship and tone to those which the Dusun streasure.Mos t of the o ld beads of paste, porcelain or glass which
A MARKE T SCENE IN TH E TEMPAS S U K D ISTRIC T .The ch ief art1cle on sale In thIS corner of th e market 15 Ind1an corn
,of wh1ch two or three
heaps of cobs can be seen . The market shown 15 he ld week ly
CHAPTER XVI
MANUFACTU RES
HOUGH Dusun manufacture s are wel lworth s tudying
,they do not come up to the high s tandard of
those of several of the other tribes of Borneo,
notably the Kayans . The production of certain article s,
such as cloth,i s carried on in almos t all vi llages
,but in the
case of others there i s a tendency,wi thout any apparent
reason,for each vil lage to have a special i ty of i t s own .
For ins tance,Penelabu (or Kinalabu) makes a very neat
type of knife wi th a handle of pig- tusk,usually put ting two
i n a case ; and Kaung in the U lu Tempassuk a particil larkind of woman’s hat
,which I have never seen worn local ly,
though i t i s traded to,and finds favour in
,Tuaran . In
Tambatuan and in Pinasang, a vil lage on the righ t bank ofthe Tempassuk above Tamu Darat, they make a particularkind of carrying-baske t (bongun) ; at Tiong in the U luTuaran
,brass rings for women’s gird le s
,and so forth .
One of the firs t things which s trikes a vi si tor to theTempassuk i s the curious ha t worn by both pagan andMohammedan native s . The makers of these hats are theup
- country Dusuns,who trade them wi th their lowland
brothers,and al so wi th the Baj aus and Illanuns. The
material s employed in their manufacture are s trip s of naturalor dyed rattan and bamboo
,while some types show exceed
ingly ski lful workmanship.The types of hats made by the up-country Dusuns, and
Manufactures 14 7
worn by both men and women in the Tempassuk, are peculiarand varied ; they are made in the up-country villages , and anup
-country Dusun wil l te ll you at sight from which vill age aparticular hat comes
,as there are sl ight local differences in
shape and also certain smal l marks in black and red rattanwoven in near the edge of the hat
,which
,to one who
knows,are sure guides to the place of i ts origin. There
i s a large hat worn by women of the kind made at Kaungand at Tamis in the U lu Tuaran . These when sold a tTuaran fetch
'
as much as two dollars each, though local lythey can be bought a good deal cheaper. There i s anotherpecul iar type of woman’s hat made
,and worn
,only at the
vil lage of Saiap,near Mount Kinabalu.
Two kinds of hat are worn indifferently by both men andwomen
,though hats are not so frequen tly used by the latter ;
in the Tempassuk a cowl- l ike hood of nat ive cloth protectsthe head agains t the heat of the sun during work in the fields.Another kind i s made by the people of Bundu Tuhan
,a
village of the In terior,j us t outs ide the Tempassuk boundary .
Occasionally conical hat s may be seen,which are cut out of
a Single block of l ight palm-wood,but they are di stinctly
rare. Hats are much more commonly worn by the womenof the villages round Tuaran than by their up-country si stersof the Tuaran river or those of the Tempassuk di s trict.Dusun cloth is woven on a very simple type of loom
,a
specimen of which i s wel l i l lu strated in Ling Roth’s Native:of Sarawak and Br itt
’
s/7 Nor ik Borneo (vol . i i., p.The apparatus has a bel t at tached to one end of i t
,and
when the other end has been tied to an uprigh t of thehouse the weaver adj ust s the band round her wais t and bythrowing her weight sl ightly backwards make s the loomtaut for weaving. Needle s s to say, the apparatus i s wi thoutframe of any kind
,while the treadle s
,cloth-beam and warp
beam are al l of the very s imples t description,and cons i s t of
round wooden s ticks of varying diameter pushed throughthe warp. A wooden sword i s used for beating up the
14. 8 Manufacturesclo th
,the Shut tle being al so made of wood and of s imple
t ype.The material s from which D usun clo th is made are lamba,the fibre of a specie s of wild banana
,cotton
,or thread made
from some kind of tree-bark . These may ei ther be mixed— e.g. a clo th may have a warp of lamba and a woof ofcot ton or bark- thread — or used s ingly.When fini shed
,the clo th i s dyed wi th nat ive ind igo and i s
then ready for making up in to the skirts,hood s or trousers
for which i t i s chiefly intended . There i s a sl ight tendencyfor native cloth — and European co t ton thread for weavingi s commg in to use to a certain extent— to be di splaced byEuropean good s
,but i t s ti l l i s much in favour owing to i t s
splendid wearing qual i t ie s . Clo th i s no t woven in thevil lage s around Tuaran
,but c loth-weaving i s general in the
Dusun village s of the Tempassuk, and also, I bel ieve, inthe upland vil lage s of the Tuaran di s tric t. Some very fineclo ths are made by the Rongus Dusuns who l ive out s ide theTempassuk di s tric t in the d irec tion of Kudat ; these haveelaborate patterns in whi te on a black background and aresometimes further ornamented by the insert ion of a fewstrands of red thread .
Pot tery i s made in many vi llage s,the only type of ve sse l
I have ever seen being a rather squat,wide-mouthed pot with
a rounded bot tom,which can be u sed ei ther as a water-j ug
or for cooking purposes . The pots are made of a mixtureof clay and sand
,and when fired are of a greyi sh colour .
Most Dusun vi l lage s have a blacksmi th,who
,if not capable
of turning out fighting weapons,i s at leas t able to make very
eflective blades for working-knives, especial ly for the largechopping-knive s cal led parangs. These knives are kept in as tate of almos t razor-l ike sharpness
,and every native wears
one by hi s s ide . The blades are so forged tha t they do notlas t for a great number of years
,as only the actual cu ttmg
edge i s of s teel,the back and Sides being of soft iron . The
method of manufacture i s to weld a narrow strip of s teel
I 50 ManufacturesOne of the arts a t which the Dusuns are adepts i s the
making of basket s ; some of these are Of true baske t-work ,made from strips of rat tan or bamboo ; others are formedfrom the red skin s of leaf S talks of the sago palm pressedout and sewn together. The carrying-basket i s one of themos t important of the Dusun’s pos se s sion s ; he takes i t wi thhim to his garden and brings home a heavy load of kaladz'roots or padi
,and in i t he brings down to market the damar
gum which he has col le cted in the j ungle, or the tobaccowhich he has grown to sel l .Two types of large back -baske t are in '
common use in the
Tempassuk, each kind being, as a rule , fit ted with a boardsome foot and a half wide runn ing from top to bottom
‘along
one s ide,and wi th three loop- s traps of tree-bark . The
board res t s on the carrier’s back ; and of the S traps, onei s worn around the forehead or over the top of the headtowards the front
,while the other two go over the shoulders .
Both types of baske t are somewhat in the shape of atruncated cone and are carried apex downward s . One ofthem
,a mo s t excellent kind, is chiefly manufactured at
Tambatuafi and in a vi llage above Tamu Darat— if I remember rightly
,the vi llage i s Pinasang. This basket
,which
goe s by the name of bongun, has a body made from sagopalm -leaf stalks
,which are bound wi th a wooden or tree
bark rim at top and base,the actual bot tom being of wood .
I t i s further fi t ted with a wooden cover consi s ting of a roundtop with a rim made out of a s trip of tree-bark . Thesebaske ts are Splendid for hold ing personal belongings whenon the march
,S ince they are cheap, l ight and s trong, are
absolutely rain-proof and are buil t for the very purpose forwhich they are required .
The other type,cal led barong, i s S imi lar to the bongun,
with the exception that i t has a much broader mouth andno cover. The barong i s chiefly used for carrying j ungleand agricul tural produce . When a native i s travel l ing l ightbe general ly use s another and smal ler type of basket fit ted
Manufactures 15I
only with shoulder-s traps . This kind of baske t,which i s
called a kar iet,s tand s about two and a half fee t high
,has a
circular mouth with a wooden cover and a rectangular basewith an edging of wood : the material of which i t i s cons tructed i s rattan cane. A bar iet wil l hold sufficien t article sfor a native who i s going for a few days’ j ourney— a changeof clothes
,a betel-box, some sire/3 l eaves
,a l i t tle rice
,some
driedfish and possibly a bundle of charms to protect himfrom the hidden dangers which lurk in the fores t .Brass-cas ting on a smal l scale i s carried on in at least onevil lage in the U lu Tuaran
,the chief articles made being the
small brass rings and cylinders which are threaded on women’srattan girdles . I have never had an opportuni ty of seeingthe cas ting carried out
,but newly cas t rings are frequently
on sale in Tamu Darat,to which market they are brought
down'
by Tiong or Tamis men . The metal for them.
i sobtained by mel t ing down old bete l-boxe s or gongs.I have deal t in another chapter with the making of such
art icle s asfish-traps and al so wi th the subj ec t of housebuild ing and the manufacture of various domest ic utensil s.
CHAPTER XVII
REL IG ION <5: SUPER ST IT IO N S
HE Dusuns are by rel igion an1m1sts— that i s to say,
they bel ieve that all obj ect s,whether animate or
inanimate,have
,or a t any rate may have
,an in
dwell ing spiri t in them. S tre tches of j ungle,deep pool s
,
mounds whose Shape i s out of the ordinary,points j ut ting
out into the river,tree s of peculiar growth
,especial ly the
spec ies of Ficus which i s cal led kayu ara by the Malays,
are al l though t to be the abode of Spiri t s. To propit iatethese and to ward off by mean s of offering or otherwise theevil Spiri t s which cause S icknes s and disea se i s one of thechief obj ect s of Dusun ceremonial observance s .In add i t ion to the propi tiat ion of spiri t s
,there are many
omen-animal s to whom at tent ion i s paid ; some of the se, i fmet
,be token good luck
,but woe betide the man who see s
an animal of evi l omen and d isregards i t s warn ing ! he wil lbe ki l led by a tree fal l ing on him in the j ungl e
,or a croco
d i le wi l l sei z e him .as he cros ses a river ; hi s pad i crop wi l lfai l
,or will be de stroyed by rats and monkeys
,or hi s wife
or children wil l s icken and pine away.Apart from the bel ief in spiri ts
,most of whom are evi lly
disposed to man,the Dusun has a somewhat ha z y bel ief in
a Supreme Deity cal led Kenharingan, who, with hi s wifeMunsumundok, created the world and everything in it.1
Both the Creator and the Crea trix are beneficent,though
they are to the Dusun mind too far away to take muchinteres t in human affairs
,but they have a son
,Tawardakan
,
who i s by no means wel l d i sposed toward s humani ty. OneDusun legend tel l s how when Kenharingan created men he
1 The story of the creation wil l be found in the fol lowing chapter.
I52
154 Re l igion Superstit ion sTuaran as we l l
,though I do not know thi s for certain
,each
vil lage has i t s own presiding de i ty or genius,who is known
as the Kenbar ingan Tumanab,the second word being
,I
think,of the same derivation a s the Malay word tanak
earth,or soi l . Perhaps thi s s tatement i s a l i ttle too posi tive.
I make i t owing to the phrase,
“ I am your Kenbar ingan
Tumanak,” frequently occurring in folk-s torie s . I t i s possible
from what I have learnt S ince wri ting the above that theKenhar ingan Tumanabmay be no thing more than the EarthSpiri t (Hantu Tanab) of the Malays. There are Dusunlegend s of men of old having encountered their KenharinganTumanah under various gui se s . In swearing to speak thetruth as wi tnes se s in court Dusuns at the presen t day reci tean oath which runs somewhat as follows “ I swear byKenharingan above and by the earth-god that I wil l speakthe truth . If I do not do so
,may a crocodile sei z e me as
I cros s a river,may my pad i wither
,or a tree fal l on me in
the j ungle.” A Dusun on changing hi s place of re sidencewi ll general ly sacrifice in hi s new home to appease the localSpiri t s
,and I remember meeting some Dusun cool ie s who
were going up— country to work on the bridle-path and were
taking fowl s wi th them to sacrifice — poss ibly to the Kenbaringan Tumanah ; but accord ing to Dusun ideas the wholeworld i s ful l of Spiri t s
,mos t of whom are mal ignant . Doubt
les s the birds would be eaten afterward s,but the spiri t s
would have been called upon to drink the blood firs t,and so
might be considered appeased .
Not only do people going to l ive in a new place have tomake offerings to propitiate the Spiri t s of the soi l
,but
native s of a village re turning home after a s tay in anotherd is tric t require to undergo a sort of “ religious d i sinfectionin order that any evil influences they have brought backwith them may be d iss ipated
,thi s work being done by some
of the women shamans . One of these performances occurredwhile I was s topping in Kampong Tambatuan . S imilarly anex-pol iceman who had returned to Tuaran
,and was reported
Religion Superstition s 1 55
to have taken a head somewhere or other,had to have a
ceremony performed over him to preven t the spiri t of thedead man causing him trouble.The rel igious ri te s performed by the women prie s tes se s
are denominated by natives,when speaking Malay, by t he
general term mengbaj i, a word apparently derived from theMohammedans
,as a kaj i i s a man who has performed
the pilgrimage to Mecca (Malay : naik baj i z to go on a pilgrimage) . The word means to reci te or read out or learnanything connected with rel igion (0g. nzengkaj i Koran = tolearn to reci te from the Koran) . It i s, as far as I know ,
only used by Dusuns when speaking Malay. The wordused by up-country Dusuns of the Tempassuk, which meansto perform a re l ig ious ceremony
,i s memur inait. There are,
of course,meng/Jaj ir for many dif erent purpose s, the mos t
Important being that connected with the annual expu lsion’
of
evil spiri t s from the village . This ceremony,which at Tuaran
i s cal led nzobog, i s carried out by a proce ss ion of ini tiatedwomen
,who go the round of al l the houses in the vil lage
,
attended by men who act as drum and gong-beaters . Thecelebran t s s top here and there
,while offerings are made and
pos turing dance s performed in time to the chants of thewomen and the musical accompaniment of the men . Whenthe circui t of the vi llage has been accomplished the process ion wends i t s way to the river-bank, where a raft ladenwith such things as evil spiri t s may be thought to delight infood
,model s of men and women
,buffaloes
,deer and o ther
animal s — 4 3 moored in readiness . The spiri t s,who are
supposed to have followed the proce ssion to feed on theofferings — at Tuaran they are attracted by the squeal s of asucking pig which the women beat with l i ttle wandspleased at the abundance of gifts before them
,crowd on
to the raft,which i s then pushed off into mid-s tream and
carried away by the current. ‘Needles s to say that if theraft comes to shore anywhere near the village i t i s launchedagain as quickly a s poss ible. The raft-builders do not seem
I 56 Religion Superstit ionsto worry if i t goe s aground near some village farther downstream ; they have got rid of their obj ectionable “ hangerson
,
” and that i s al l they care about .Other nzengbaj is are performed
’
at Tuaran,the most im
portant of which are the the nzeng/yaj i for rain, cal ledmenawar (Malay : tawar or menawar = to neutral i se i) , whenofferings of rice and eggs are thrown into the river a s asacrifice to the water Spiri t s ; the nzengbaj i after harvest,cal led nzenomboi
,when oflerings of rice are said to be placed
on large s tone s ; the mengbaj i of the young rice, maralud, atwhich a cock i s sacrificed among the growing cr0ps
,a rough
image of the bird made with i t s feathers se t up on the spot,
and water thrown over the rice,probably with the o bj ect of
en suring sufficien t rain ; and the meng/oaj i of the sacred Gurij ars
,menga/oau.
A Guri i s a large j ar of ancient Chinese porcelain . I t i susually greeny-brown in colour
,and
,as far as I remember
,
a fairly large Specimen would s tand about three and a halffee t high. At Tuaran
,where these j ars are venerated
they are not found at the present t ime to any extent in theTempassuk, nor, I bel ieve, in the up
-country villages of theTuaran dis trict— the Guris are kept in a railed-off enclosurein an inner room . Accord ing to nat ive ideas each j ar hasan i ndwell ing spiri t, which if not propi tiated by an annualsacrifice of a buffalo
,wil l bring misfortune upon the heads
of i t s owners . U sually a j ar i s not owned by an individual,
but by the members of a family,each of whom is enti tled
to i t s use for any re l ig ious ri te s they may wi sh to perform.
At one time there used to be a great deal of l i tigationwi th regard to the ownership of Gusir, but at lengththis became so troublesome that a proclamation was i s suedwhich forbade a case wi th regard to the ownership of asacred j ar to come to court
,but at the same time s tipulated
that anyone who had contributed a share of the purchasemoney was ent i tled to free access to and use of the Guriwhenever i t might be required . Recourse may be had to
i58 Rel igion Superstit ion sD i s tric t Officer
,North Keppel . I knew the old man myself
,
and he once sold me a shield which I afterward s found outhe had “ l ifted ” from a ne ighbour.Before leaving the subj ec t of religiou s ceremonies I ough t
to say a word or two about the special dres s which i s wornby women at the Tuaran nzengbaj is, and al so about certaininstruments which are used in al l re ligiou s ri te s . The dressof a Tuaran prie ste s s consi s ts of a short
,tight-fittingj acke t of
blue or black Chine se clo th,and a ceremonial skirt of a kind
of old cloth of variegated colours. The lat ter i s said to havecome original ly from Brunei
,and specimens are a t the pre sen t
time valued at abou t a hundred dol lars each . The j acke t i sswathed with a long scarf of somewhat s imilar de sign andcolour to tha t of the skirt
,which i s wound diagonal ly across
the body. The scarves,which are al so old
,are cal led
cbandei,and cos t somewhere about thirty dollars a-piece .
The fron t of the j acke t over the scarf i s decorated witha number of s trings of old beads
,each loop having two
cone-Shaped s ilver ornament s plugged wi th wood strungupon i t. The cones are so arranged that they hang in pairswi th the ir point s d irected downwards to form a slopingserie s on each S ide of the body. The whole ornament i scal led a kanzuggi, and the point s of each pair of cones area s a rule connected by a chain of snake- scale l inks . Longbugle-Shaped beads of cornelian are frequently threaded onthe more expensive kamnggi and on the okob
,another k ind
of ceremonial necklace,which has a roughly cre scent- shaped
ornament of embossed S ilver on a copper background infront
,and a number of small plate s of s imilar material s
depending from it at intervals .The hair
,which i s piled up into a mass on the top of the
head,rather toward s the back
,has a row of four bamboo
pins s tuck into i t running from back to front. The headsof these are ornamented wi th shuttle-cock-l ike bunches offeathers
,general ly those of the peacock pheasan t or domesti c
fowl,while two of the bunches
,those a t the front and back
Re l igion Superst it ion s 159
of the head,are decorated with hanging s trings of green
bee t le-wings or bi ts of tin-foil .In al l re l igious ceremonie s the Tuaran prie s tess carriesin her hand a peculiar rattle
,called tetubit, which consi s t s
e s sential ly of two di scs of me tal perforated at the edge andj oined together by a s tring that i s at tached to a handle madefrom a Single sect ion of the carapace of a fresh-water turtle.S l ightly varying forms are used for different ceremonies .With thi s instrumen t a clanking accompaniment i s kept upduring the chants and dance s.In the Tempassuk the gu nding, an instrument whichcorrespond s to the tetubit
,and i s there usually made of
several small rectangular sheets of bras s,with some bunche s
of charms tied to the end of a Short s tick,is regarded w i th
great veneration,one native even going so far as to cal l i t
the Dusuns’Koran . I t i s kept in a bamboo receptacle whichis hung up agains t the wal l of the house near the door inorder that i t may scare away any evi l Spiri t s who may wi shto eflfect an entry. No man may handle i t
,and only those
women who have been ini tiated as prie s tes se s . In theTempassuk the meng/Jaj i dres s i s much the same a s thatof every day
,except that the curious cowl-l ike hood of nat ive
cloth which the women sometime s put on forfield-work i salways worn
,and clothe s used for religious ceremonies are
some times profuse ly decorated with old shel l bead s. Inaddi tion to the j acke t
,Skirt and hood
,a long cape i s
Somet ime s worn.To turn now to head-hunting in its re l igious aspects .Apart from the Sporting s ide of the pursui t
,where the
head s are considered merely as trophies and Sign s of theprowe s s of the warrior
,there i s to a certain extent an
undercurrent of meaning. According to the old cus tom ofmany countries, the kil l ing of a human vict im was considerednecessary to ensure the success of the crops
,and at the
erection of a new house a head was buried under the centra lpost in order to pacify the outraged geni i of the soil
,who
f60 Re l igion Superst ltton s
had been di s turbed by the operation s of the house-builders .S ir Charle s Brooke
,i n speaking of the Dyaks
,say s that
feas ts in general are “ to make the ir rice grow wel l,to
cause the fores t to abound with l ive animal s,to enable the ir
dogs and snare s to be successful in securing game,to have
the streams swarm withfish,to give heal th and activi ty to
the people themselves,and to ensure ferti l i ty to their
women . All these ble ssings, the pos ses sing and feastingof a fre sh head are supposed to be the mo s t efficient meansof securing.
”
I t i s easy to unders tand how a people wi th such bel iefs a sthese would become attached to the custom of head-hunting
,
quite apart from any ideas of prowess or sport.I do not think that the low-country Dusuns of the
Tempassuk have been addicted to the practice within recenttimes
,and I have never seen any skull s hung up in their
vi l lage s,but in the up-country head-hunting i s s til l remem
bered,and old heads are to a certain extent venerated .
Head-hunting was never so popular among the Dusuns asamong the Kenyah Kayan s of Sarawak and the Muruts
,
s ince they are essential ly a peaceable race of cul tivators,who
have always been the oppre ssed rather than the oppre ssors,
their wive s and chi ldren in former days being frequentlysei z ed and sold into slavery by bands of raid ing Baj aus andIl lanuns from the coas t. S ti l l
,a certain amount of head
hunting did go on be tween vil lage and vi llage,and occasion
al ly a Chinaman paid the penal ty for hi s temeri ty in followingthe pursui t of gain too far up-country.I t i s now very d ifficul t to collec t information with regard
to head-hunting,especial ly if you are a Government oflicer
and s tart asking questions in vil lages where the people donot know you very well . Most of the smal l amount ofinformation I was able to ge t was gathered from Yompo
,a
young Dusun of Kiau with whom I was very wel l acquainted .After the return of a party from a succe ssful head-huntingexped i tion al l the participant s are regarded as unclean unti l
Re l igion Superstit ion s 1 6 1
they have undergone a purificatory ceremony— in this someof the older women officiate
,and ceremonial bathing forms
a part.There was one small recrudescence of head-hunting Shortlybefore Iwen t to the Tempassuk, the murderers- two youngDusuns of Wasai in the U lu Tuaran — being executed atJe sse l ton short ly after I firs t took up my residence in the
dis trict. They,apparently being wishful of di s tingui shing
themselve s,went and hung about the j ungle near Kiau
village,with which Wasai in the old days had been at feud
,
and seeing a woman working alone in one of the gardens,
killed her. They were about to take the head,when
,think
ing that they heard someone coming,they ran away and
made for Wasai as fas t as they could . After a long timesufficient evidence was obtained to bring the two offendersto trial
,and they were in due course convicted.
Three mementoes of the affair came into the hand s of MrH. W. L. Bunbury
,then D i s tric t Officer
,North Keppel
namely, two l i t tle wooden mode l s of a human head and ahat
,which was of an ord inary Dusun conical type
,except
that i t s top was decorated with a short wooden pil lar tothe apex of which was tied a bunch of cock’s tai l-feathers.According to Yompo
,the se. wooden models
,which he said
were called tenampak, repre sented the head which the menwere unable to obtain
,two mode l s being made in order that
each man might have a memento of the exploi t. He furthertold me that a fre shly taken head was put on a s tone set inthe ground .With regard to head-hunting customs at Tuaran I wasinformed by Adu
,a middle-aged Dusun of that place
,that
the ceremonies performed on the return from a successfulraid were called domali. At Tuaran, where many of thedwell ings are communal houses
,the skull s are hung up in
the common verandah and are decorated wi th bunches ofthe long dried leaves of a plant cal led rilad. In one case Iwas lucky enough to see a port ion of a ceremony connected
16 2 Re l igion Superst itionswith head-hunting at thi s place. I t appears that a pol iceman
,a native of Tuaran
,who had been serving away from
home had taken a head,probably in some small skirmi sh
with a rebel lious tribe,and had re turned home on leave .
Thereupon i t was de termined that a ceremony must be performed and a buffalo ki l led
,partly in order to ce lebrate the
event and partly in order that the spiri t of the deceasedmight be pacified
,so that the head-taker might suffer no
evil consequences .The portion of the ceremonie s that I witnessed was aproce ss ion of seven or eight men walking in single file neara village
,whil e they kept up a continual cry which had a
pecul iar whi s t l ing sound . Each man was wearing one of thebrass-hil ted sword s known as pedang (see Chapterbut thi s was sheathed in a scabbard about four fee t long
,
which broadened out to a width of six inche s at i t s fartherend . The lower edge s of the scabbard were profuselydecorated wi th human hair and i t s outer face with carvedpatterns
,the whole weapon being called a tenunzpam an.
The leader of the party carried a conch - shel l trumpet, onwhich he blew occasional blas ts
,and al l wore attached to
the ir be l t s large bunches of rilad leave s. One man hada human vertebra to which was t ied a triangular plai tedornament of the same kind of l eaves .I t i s now unusual to see Dusuns wi th much tattooing ontheir bodie s
,as thi s was usual ly connected with head
hunting,but I have been informed that Tempassuk Dusuns
who had participated in a successful head-hunting exped it ion used to tattoo their bodies wi th two band s of pat ternsrunning from the Shoulders to the hips
,though I have never
seen a man so decorated . S ir Spencer S t John corrobora testhe information g1ven to me, as he says that he saw menwith “ a tattooed band two inches broad
,S tre tched in an
are from each shoulder,mee ting on their s tomachs
,then
turning off to their hips ; and some of them had a tat tooedband extending from the Shoulder to the hand .” Accord
1 64. Rel igion Superstit ion s3 . No one must hold or wear anything whi te
,yel low or
red where a religious ceremony i s in progre s s .4. Nothing white
,yel low or red must be brought into a
house where women are dyeing clo th .
Taking into account the Dusun’s fear of evi l spiri ts andthe trouble which he takes to propi tiate them
,i t i s only
natural that he should set great s tore by al l kind s of obj ectswhich he considers useful a s tal ismans . Charm-belts arevery general ly worn , and are made ei ther of s tring ne tworkor of C lo th
,each tal i sman be ing net ted or sewn into a
separate compartment. Any obj ect out of the commonwhich a native finds i s cons idered to have a magical value
,
and I have seen foss i l shel l s,so-called bezoar s tones
,quart z
crystal s,rhinoceros’ tee th and piece s of wood used for thi s
purpose . The piece s of wood used as tal i smans are usual lyt ied up into l i t t le bundle s and are probably the fos s ilwood which Burbidge call s kayu lagundi (tree of youth) inGardens of the Sun, p. 2 56. These charm-bel ts are alwaysput on when a native leave s his house. Smal l brass bell sare frequen tly worn by chi ldren : the se are regarded a s aprotection agains t spiri t s
,and pos s ibly the li t tle bel l s at tached
to the tops of Dusun women’s skirts may al so serve the samepurpose.To turn now to the subj ec t of sacred trees . In the Tem
passuk a certain tree, cal led the limpada, is much venera tedand feared by the Dusun s : i t i s by no means uncommon
,
grows to a fair height,has large leaves and a long
,smooth
skinned,red frui t
,which is of oval shape and about a foo t
long. Accord ing to Dusun legendry, Kenharingan has puta curse upon anyone who shal l violate a tree of thi s Specie s
,
the punishment being that the offender shall di e of incurableulcers . W hen
,however
,one of the se tree s i s found grow
ing on a piece of ground which i s required for a clearing i tmay be fel led
,but no t until a rel igiou s ceremony has been
performed .
I remember that once when walking along the bridle
Religion Superstit ions 1 65
path which leads to the Interior, with Lengok of Bengkahakand Gumpus the headman of Tambatuan
,I turned to the
latter,who was wearing a sword (gayang) , and told him to
cut away one or two branches of undergrowth which wereoverhanging the path . He replied that he was afraid thathe would blunt his weapon
,but a s he had been using i t
pretty freely all the way along for a Similar purpo se I d idnot qui te see the force of hi s remarks ; however, I saidnothing more about the matter
,as the branche s did not real ly
block the road . When we arrived at our d estination,
which,i f I remember rightly
,was Gumpus
’s own village
,
Lengok,who was alone with me, said : “ Tuan
,do you
remember that when we were coming along the path youtold Gumpus to cut some branche s and he said he wasafraid of blunting his sword P” “ Yes
,
” I said,
“ I rememberi t ; but what about i t ? Well
,that was not the reaSon
he would not cut the branches,
” said Lengok ; “ i t wasbecau se i t was a young limpada-tree you wanted him to chopdown .”
Another tree which i s regarded by the Dusuns wi thsome reverence i s the banyan
,and accord ing to the people of
Tuaran a tree of thi s kind i s the dwe l l ing-place of a Spiri twho keeps a large number of Gusi j ars among i ts branches .Natives who have gone into the j ungle are said to have seenthese j ars arranged in rows under a banyan-tree
,which they
have come upon suddenly ; but on taking a second look thej ars have vanished
,for the Spiri t has se i zed them up again
into the tree.Trees on rivers
,e specially those near river months
,are
frequently hung with shreds of cloth as propit iatory of eringsto the water spiri ts
,one special tree being general ly set
aside for the purpose . Another matter which plays a veryimportant part in the everyday affairs of the Dusuns i s thebelief in omens . Omens may be ei ther good or bad
,but
most of those to which the Dusuns pay attention seemto belong to the latter class . A flying swarm of bees is
166 Re l igion Shperstitio‘
n s
considered a bad omen,and to hear the kyang (called pans by
the Dusuns) or muntj ac (Genoa/us muntj ac) bark when on aj ourney i s considered such a bad S ign that a native wi l le ither s top for the night at once or el se go s traight backhome. The large mil l ipede (Iulus sp.) may be ei ther agood or a bad omen if met wi th on a j ourney: i f i t i s goingin
'
the same direction as the travel l er i t i s a good portent,but if i t i s proceed ing in the opposi te direction
,or cros sing
the path,some piece of bad luck i s sure to happen to anyone
who pers i s t s in continuing on hi s way. I remember beingmuch amused
,when we met a mil l ipede which was walking
acro s s the path,at watching old Lengok trying to coax i t
in to going in the same direction as ourselve s .In addi tion to the fac t that the Dusuns pay great heed toomens when working in the field s or on j ourneys
,they have
a pecul iar monthly calendar of good and bad days whichregulate s their Work in the padi-fields. On bad days nowork must be done among the rice
,or perhaps work may be
done in the hil l-rice fields but not among the swamp-ri ce .The month consi s ts of two period s Of lucky days , and twoof unlucky
,the las t day of each of the good period s being
called kopopusan (fini shed) . With regard to the good days,ka— in-duob
,ka-ia-telok
,e tc . , these are merely the Dusun
ordinal numbers,2 nd
, 3rd, etc. I have to thank FatherDuxneuney of Putatan , Bri ti sh North Borneo, for eluci
dating a difficul ty I had in connect ion with the meaning ofthe se word s .The d isease which the Dusuns mo s t greatly fear, and notwi thou t good reason
,i s small-pox. Consequently resort i s
bad to magic in order to keep thi s dread foe at bay. W hennews i s brought that a neighbouring vi llage has become infected
,wooden model s of spears and men are made and set
Up on the Sid e of the village facing the source of infection.The idea i s that protecting spiri t s are called up into themodels by a religious ceremony which i s performed , andthat these figh t wi th the Spiri t s of smal l-pox.
1 6 8 Rel igion Superst itionfew minute s the fel low had recovered
,and s tumbled ofl
’
to the neare s t water for a drink,remarking that he was
hungry and he supposed that thi s had made him faint.In s icknes s offerings are made to appease the Spiri ts which
are supposed to be the cause of the di sease : smal l offeringsare made at first
,and if the se do not have the desired eflect
then something more expens1ve ls tried .
“ Firs t of al lwe offer a fowl
,
” said a Dusun to me,
“ and then,i f that
doe s no t appease the Spiri t,we kil l a pig .
Before bringing thi s chapter to a clos e there are one ortwo o ther subj ec t s about which I should <like to say a l i t tl e .One of these i s wi th regard to the Dusun’s be l ief In anafter l ife. Accord ing to general ideas the spiri t s of thed ead find their way to the top of Mount Kinabalu, which i stheir final abode . From the accounts given me, soul s bothof th e good and the bad seem to reach thi s land of the dead
,
though de Crespigny says that“ the wicked ones are l eft
unsucces sful ly trying to struggle and scramble up the rockySide s of the mountain.” I intend
,however
,to say some
thing more about the soul’s passage to Kinabalu in thechapter which deal s wi th burial cus toms.There i s one class of tabu in force among the Dusuns ofwhich I have up t i l l now omitted to make any mention
,that
deal ing wi th the tell ing of personal names . According toDusun custom it is tabu to mention your own name
,that
‘
ofyour father or mother
,your father-in-law or mother-in-law.
If a European asks a Dusun his name he wi ll u sual ly givei t,but he would no t think of doing so to another native.
A man who wishe s to know a person’s name must seek theinformation from a friend of his
,who may Speak the name
without commit ting any breach of custom. The Dusunssay that if they were to men tion the name of their mothertheir knee s would swell . These tabus seem to be morestric tly observed wi th regard to female relations than in thecase of males .The makin g of blood-bro thers is by no means uncommo
Rel igion Superst ition s 1 69
among the Dusuns . Omboi, a native of Tuaran, told methat when two men were wishful to become blood-brotherseach made a cut in hi s wri s t and then the o ther drank al i tt le of the blood from the cut. After that, presents areexchanged
,either fowls
,tobacco or rice. In the Tem
passuk a fowl i s sacrificed in the making of blood-brothersand each man says : “ If I cheat you
,may I become as thi s
fowl,which has j u s t been kil led.”
There i s among the Dusuns a pecul iar custom cal led“ paying sagit.
” Sagit may often be merely compensationor damages for some offence committed . For instance, i f aman’s wi fe i s insul ted
,he may demand sagit from the
oflender,the guil t of the lat ter and the amount of com
pensation being decided by the elders of the vil lage. Thereare frequent cases of thi s kind of sagit at Tuaran . However
,sagit occasionally takes qui te another meaning, of whi ch
I became aware through buying some human hair to re
decorate the scabbard of a sword . Having found a manwith long hair
,I asked him if he was will ing to part with it
,
and,i f so
,how much he wanted to l e t me “ crop ” him.
He answered that he would sel l hi s hair to me for sixtycent s
,but that I must give him a fowl in addi tion to sacrifice
as sagit. This was for the purpose of ward ing off any evi lwhich might happen to him owing to his hair
,a part of him
se l f, passing into my possession. Needles s to say, I gave himhi s fowl
,a matter of only another ten cents .
CHAPTER XVIII
LEG END S
HORTLY after my return from Borneo I happened toremark to a certain learned e thnographi s t that I hadmade a rather large col l ection of nat ive folk- tal es .
From what he said I gathered that he thought I would havebeen be t ter employed had I devo ted myself more to thes tudy of sociology and o ther matters . With al l humility Icannot say that I agree with him in thi s opinion . The folktales of a primitive people are
,I think
,one of the firs t
things that should be col lected,as through them we obtain
an insight in to the native’s rel igion,hi s way of thinking and
his method s of accounting for natural phenomena : besid esthi s
,in folk-tale s we often come upon casual reference s to
customs and bel iefs of which we should probably never haveheard under ord inary circumstances
,and through these i s
opened a field for inves tigation which would otherwi se haveremained closed .Of course i t may be obj ected that folk-tale s are some
what similar almos t the world over. To thi s I wouldanswer tha t if we find that the people among whom we arel iving have similar tale s to those of a people elsewhere
,we
have e s tabl ished a possible connection with thi s secondpeople
,and we may then search and see whe ther there are
any o ther re semblance s . Comparat ive rel igion and comparative s tudy of customs are always interes ting, whetherbel iefs and customs of a like nature have ari sen independently in d ifferent places through the similari ty of men’sminds
,or whether they have originated at some remote
period in the hi s tory of man before our primitive ance s tors170
172 Legendsdo not laugh at him
,or Show contempt
,he will/ very l ikely
tel l you abou t other matters which he would be chary ofmentioning to anyone who had not gained hi s confidence.One folk-s tory often lead s to others
,as the fol lowing l i t tle
epi sode wil l show.
In the course of a j ourney up-country I once put up ina small hut not far from a vil lage which I had never visi tedbefore . AS i s usual
,the vil lage headman
,accompanied by
s everal followers,came down to meet me. After talking
for a Short while on local matters,the hut meanwhile
becoming rapidly fi l led wi th natives,I soon became aware
that the people were very suspic ious and sulky. They satand glowered
,and would hardly answer the most innocen t
questions . I was able to guess without much difificulty thereason for their att i tude
,as an importan t man among them
had recently been tried and sentenced for compl ici ty in ahead-hunting outrage .Having tried to Show them
,as far as possible
,that I
had not come to make any fre sh trouble,l began to talk
to them about folk- tale s,and to ask if they did no t know
any which they could tell me,only to be met with the
answer : “ Oh yes, the old people of long ago knews tories
,but we
,their de scendants
,have not heard them.
”
“ Why i s that ?” said I . “ I expect we did not ask forin s truction from them
,
” repl i ed the man who was answeringme . “ Well
,if that’s the case
,
” said I,
“ you ought to beashamed of yourselves
,for in every other Dusun vil lage
where I have been they had no lack of stories . However,
i f you won’t te l l me a s tory,suppose I te l l you one ins tead .
”
So I told them a short tal e that I had heard a fewdays before at Kampong Piasau . W hen I had finished
,
one of the old men said,wi th a chuckle at having been
found out : “ W hy, Tuan , how long have you been inthe country that you know so much about the Dusuns’affairs ?” That night I got as many s torie s as I couldtake down .
Legends 1 73
Very often a village has one or two folk- tale s peculiar toi tself
,the incident s re lated being said to have happened to
some man of the village in ancient times . Of thi s kind arethe s torie s of “ Why the Dusuns of Tempassuk do not eatsnakes
,
” peculiar to the village of that name,
“ The OrangU tan of Kiau
,
” and “ The Man of Nabah .
” Roughlyspeaking, I think that Dusun folk-tales may be sai d to fallinto S ix or seven classe s : of these the local s tory
,those
concerning religion or cus toms,those which accoun t for
various natural phenomena, tho se which re late to thedoings of people of old times and the marve l lous adventures which befel l them
,those which tel l how the
Dusuns became acquainted wi th useful inventions andarticle s of diet
,and those of a humorous character are
the most important .The classe s
,however
,often shade off in to one another
,
particularly in the case of the firs t four. To the Dusunhis folk-tale s are in mos t cases much more than meres tories told to while away the time
,for in them are
enshrined hi s religious be l ie fs,hi s ideas with regard to
the things of nature which affect him,hi s explanat ion
of the origin of var ious customs,his astronomy and his
hi s tory.Concerning folk-tal es dealing with native religion I have
already said something in a previous chapter,and if any of
my readers Should wish to read a large number of thestories which I collec ted they willfind them in Tbe 70urnalof the Royal Antbropological Institute, vol . xl i ii . Theusual t ime for te ll ing folk-s torie s i s during harve s t
,both in
the fields and after work i s fini shed,thi s being the season
for rej oicing,toddy-drinking and feasting. I am enabled by
the courtesy of the Royal Anthropological Insti tute toreprint be low a tale of each type. The s torie s were told inMalay
,the lingua franca of Borneo, and were taken down
straight from the l ips of the ir narrators .
I 74 Legends
TH E ORANG-UTAN (O rang-Utang )A legend of Kiau onfine slopes of Kinaoalu , told by Tampa
Long ago some men went into the j ungle carrying blowpipe s
,and when they got near to the River Tenokop they
heard someone Singing verse s among the trees . Then theylooked and saw an Orang-U tan (Kagya) s i t t ing on theground s inging
,and this was his song : “ Firs t of al l I
l ived at the River Makadau,but I went to the River
Serinsin ; from there I went to the River Warin ; fromthe Warin to the Penataran ; from the Penataran to theKilambun ; from the Kilambun to the Obang, and fromthe Obang to the Tenokop. I cannot go up in to the treesagain for I am old and mus t die upon the ground . I can nolonger ge t fre sh young leaves to eat from the tree s ; I haveto eat young gras s .”Then the men who had been l i s tening said to one
another : “ Thi s Kagya i s c lever at verse s, l e t u s shoot himwith our blow-pipes .” One man was about to shoot whenthe Kagyu saw him and said : Do not shoo t me, but makeme a hut and le t me l ive here ti l l I d ie . When you havemade my hut
,bring your si s ters here and I wil l teach them
magic,for I am Skil l ed in i t.” So the men made him a but
and they brought their Si s ters to him,and the Kagyu in
s tructed them how each s icknes s has i t s own magicalceremony. He taugh t them the spell s for snake-bi te andfever
,and for the bi te of the centipede .
Then the men went home,about three days’ j ourney
,
to ge t ri ce for the Kagyu, but when they came back withthe rice the Kagya was dead ; and from . that day whenever there was s ickne s s in Kampong Kiau they calledthe women who had been instructed by the Kagyu, andthose who were il l recovered
,and if a man was wounded
and was treated by the women no blood came from thewound .
1 76 Legendsrice . All the animal s al so arose from pieces of thechild .When Kenharingan had made every thing, he said : Who
18 able to cas t ofl hi s skin ? If anyone can do so,he shal l
not d ie.” The snake alone heard and said : “ I can. Andfor this reason t il l the present day the snake does not d ieunle s s ki lled by man . (The Dusuns d id not hear or theywould al so have thrown off the ir skins and there would havebeen no death.)Kenharingan washed the Dusuns in the river, placingthem in a baske t ; one man, however, fel l out of the baske tand floating away down the river s topped near the coast.This man gave ri se to the Baj aus
,who stil l l ive near the sea
and are sk ilful a t u s ing boats . When Kenharingan hadwashed the Dusuns in the river he performed a religiou sceremony over them in hi s house ; but one man left thehouse before Kenharingan had done so and went off intothe j ungle to search for something ; and when he came backhe could no t enter the house again
,for he had become a
monkey. This man is the father of the monkeys.
THE OR IG I N or A DU SUN CU STO MTold by Sir inan of P iasau , Tempassuk Distr ict
Once there was a woman who had newly given birth toa child . The house she l ived in was a large one, ten doorslong. One day the women of the other rooms were dyeingcloth wi th tabum (a kind of indigo) , and the men of thehouse were away hunting
,some in one place
,some in
another. About midday i t began to rain,and wi th
'
therain came much thunder and l ightning. While i t wass t i l l thundering
,the woman who had newly given birth
performed a ceremony in the house, and while she wasperforming i t she saw a woman chasing a boy outs ideon the ground below, and their appearance was as if theyhad been quarrell ing
,for the boy was weeping and the
Legends 1 77
woman kept snatching up s ticks to throw at him. Butshe did not manage to hit him
,and she kept calling out
S top,s top
,for the people here do no t know the custom.
”
So the woman who was in the house stopped her performance and going to the door cal led out : “Why are youtreating your boy like that?” The other woman s topped ,and said : “ I am treating him l ike thi s because you peopledo not know the custom.
” “ What sort of cus tom ?” saidthe firs t woman
,and while she s til l Spoke the thunder
s topped,and the boy al so s topped running away. The
woman outs ide answered her : “ In this you do not knowthe cus tom
,and that i s why my son i s fighting me . I t i s
because you women are dyeing cloth when your husband shave gone to hunt
,and i t would be good i f they
,your
husbands,were all together in one place in the j ungle . See
when they come back,some wil l bring white
,some red and
some yellow ; these women are dyeing their cloth black.
”
Then the women of the house said : “ W e d id not knowof any custom like thi s. What i s i t?” The womananswered them :
“ This i s the custom : when you wish todye cloth (black or blue) you must not take hold ofanything white
,red or yel low.
” Said the women of thehouse : “ Instruct us in this custom. And the womanoutside said : You must keep this cus tom
,and i t would
be good if men did no t ge t hi t by things thrown by myson [i.e. thunderbol ts] . If the things he throws about onlyhi t a coco-nut-tree i t doe s not matter
,but if they hi t a man
,
there will be trouble for that man. Another time yourhusbands must no t be seeking for things to eat
,red
,white
or yellow, when you are dye ing your cloth black . Anddo not bring these colours into the house while you ares til l dye ing cloth .
” Then the woman and the boy vanished .After a time came the men who had been hunting ; fourhad go t a deer (red blood) , and the other S ix had broughttumeric (tumeric is yellow) , and the young white shoot s ofthe be
’
luan-tree . When the women saw the men coming,M
1 78 Legendsthey called out : “ Whatever you have brought from thej ungle
,do not bring i t into the house this night .” So the
men slept outs ide wi th the good s they had brought fromthe j ungle . On the morrow they brought their deer ando ther things into the house
,and the women of the house
told them how the woman had chased the boy. And tothe pre sen t day women may not touch red
,yellow or white
when they are dyeing cloth .
[“ I think that the boy who was being chased by hi s
mother was the Spiri t of Thunder.” — S IR I NAN.]Note. -The colours mentioned would appear to besymbol ical of a thunders torm
Black or dark blue The cloud sWhite The rainYel low and red The lightning
TH E MAK I NG or TH E BLUNTONG (RA I NBOW)Told by Sir inan (low-countryDusun) of P iasau , TempassukD istr ict
Long ago the rainbow was a path for men. Those whol ived up
-country used the rainbow as a bridge when theywi shed to go down-country in search of wives. For thoughthere were women up
-country,the up
-country,
men werevery fond of the down-country women . Because of themen’s des ire for wives from the coas t they made therainbow as a bridge
,and you can see the floor and
hand-rai l of the bridge in the rainbow to the presentday. The men when they had firs t made the rainbowwalked on i t to the women’s houses . When the menhad fed , the women fol lowed the men along the,
rainbowto the ir homes. When they arrived up
-country themarriages were celebrated wi th a feas t
,and the men
became drunk . Then came a headman from anothervil l age and said to them :
“ You men are very clever ; howlong have I l ived in this country
,but never ye t have I
seen anything l ike your rainbow. Do you intend to leave
1 80 LegendsNow the Baj au had promised to re turn in three months’t ime, and, when he came, he brought a tongkang (a kind ofsmal l j unk) ful l of goods , while he found the Dusun’s housefull of bee s’ nests. So the Dusun got much good s from theBaj au, and became rich, and that i s how the Dusun got toknow about beeswax.
TH E LEGEND O F NO NO K KU RGUNGTold by O rang Tua L engok, a low
-countryDusun of Bengkabak,TempassukDistr ict
Long ago, when there were no people in this country ofthe Tempassuk, there were two people at Nonok Kurgung,a man and hi s wife . The woman became with chi ld andgave birth to seven chi ldren at one t ime
,both male and
female ; four were female s and three were male s . Whenthese children were grown up they wi shed for husband s andwive s, and asked their father and mother how they were toge t them
,as there were no other people in the country.
Their father and mo ther said to them :“ Wait
,and i f your
dreams are good you w i l l ge t your wi sh .
W hen the woman was asleep Kenharingan came to her inher dreams and said : “ I have come because I have pi ty onyou that you cannot ge t wives or husband s for your children .Yo ur children must marry one another
,as that was the reason
I gave you seven children at one birth .
” In the morningthe woman asked her husband if he had had any dreams,and he said : “ No.” Then he asked his wife i f she haddreamed
,and she said that Kenharingan had come to her
and told her that the ir children must marry one ano ther. Sothey consul ted together and ordered their chi ldren to marry,and after they had been married for some t1me al l the womengave birth to twenty ‘
children each at a time, and thesechildren in their turn intermarried .Now at thi s t ime the people had no plantations, and theygot their rice by cutting down bamboo stems, the rice coming out from the inside of the s tem. There was a river with
Legends 1 8 1
many nonok-tree s near the vi l lage , and the children used togo and bathe there and l ie under the tree s . Every day theywent to bathe there
,and every day a child was los t. This
went on unti l twenty children had been los t, and the fathersdecided to try and find out what was happening to them.
They searched the river and they searched the banks, butcould find nothing , and there were no crocodiles in the river.After they had hunted in vain for three days they wenthome
,and when they met together they decided they would
run away fromthe place. So they collected al l their goodsto s tart
.One night al l was ready, and the next morn ing
they started out,taking wi th them the ir wive s and children
,
their baggage and bamboos to give them padi . After theyhad j ourneyed for a day one man and his fami ly stoppedbehind to make a house, a second man s topped on the secondday
,and so on til l there was nobody left to j ourney on .
These families which s topped formed vil lages,and from
their bamboos came al l sorts of food-plants,vegetables
,rice
and caladium,and these they planted in their gardens. Thi s
i s how thi s country became peopled with Dusuns to a s faraway as Marudu.
TH E OR IG I N O F TH E BLATEK,THERO R AND TH E PURU-PURU
(THREE CoNSTELLAT IONs)Told by Sir inan , a low
-country Dusun of P iasau , TempassukDistrict
Long ago men planted only tapioca,caladium and beans ;
at that time there was no rice. When they had plantedthem they fenced them round, and after a time they clearedaway the weeds in the crop. At weeding-time they foundthat wild pigs had been getting in and had eaten al l theircaladium.
“ What use i s i t,
” said they, “ our plantingcrops? The wild pigs only eat them.
” In the eveningthe men went home to their houses, and when i t was nightthey went to sleep.Now one man dreamed, and in his dream an old mancame to him
,and he said to the old man : All my caladium
1 8 2 Legendsand tapioca and beans which I planted have been eaten bywild pigs .” Said the old man : “ You must make a blatek[Malay, blantek] [spring-trap] at the edge of your fencewhere the plgs enter.
” Then the man awoke,for i t was
near morning,and thinking over the dream
,he resolved to
make a blatek near the edge of hi s garden . So he ate,and
when he had fini shed he went out to hi s c learing and startedmaking a blatek. When he had fini shed i t he set i t andre turned home
,and on the fourth day after he had set the
trap he went back to his plantation to look if i t had caughtanything. When he got there he found a wi ld pig in thetrap
,but i t had become decayed and was not fit to eat. He
poked i t wi th the end of hi s walking- s t ick,and found that
i t s head was separate from the body,and that the under j aw
and teeth had fallen away from the head .The man went home
,and at nigh t he went to s le ep and
dreamed that the same old man came to him and said : “Whatabout your blatek P D id i t catch a wi ld pig ?” Yes
,
” saidthe man
,
“ I caught a pig,but i t had become rot ten and I
was not able to eat i t.” “ D id you take a walking-s tickwith you ?” said the old man . And did you prod the wi ldpig’s head wi th the S tick ?” I d id
,
” said he . Verywell
,
” said the old man,
“ do no t plan t caladium and beansthi s year ; plant rice in stead .
” “ But where shall I ge t ricefrom ?” said he
,for there i s no rice in thi s vi llage.”
“ Well,search for i t in o ther vil lages,
” said the old man .
“ If you only ge t two or three measure s that wil l be enough.
The mark s where you thrust your s tick into the pig’s headshall~be cal led the puru-
puru . The lower j aw shal l have i tsname of the ror
,and the blatek al so shal l keep i t s name
,and
al l these shal l become s tars .”
Then said the man : “ I want in s truction from you, for ifI ge t rice how am I to plant i t?” Said the old man : Youmust watch for the blatek
,the ror and the puru-
puru toappear in the sky
,and when , shortly after dark, the puru
puru appears about a quarter way up in the sky, that is the
1 84 Legendspeople passed there
,but no one noticed the bayong unt il a
rich man came along and,see ing i t
,said : “ I wi l l take thi s
bayong to marke t, as i t wil l do to hold anything I buythere, and if the owner i s at marke t I can give i t backto him.
”
Presently the rich man came to the market,and he asked
everyone there if they had los t a bayong, but nobody acknowledged i t . “ Well, then,
” sai d the rich man,
“ i t i s my gain,
and I wil l put what I have bought into i t and take i t home ;bu t if anyone claims i t they can come to my house and geti t.” So the rich man put al l hi s goods- ‘
sirek,l ime
,cakes
,
fish,rice and bananas— in to the bayong unti l i t was full, and
while the man was talking to some of hi s friend s the bayongs tarted off on i t s own accord to go home to the lazy woman’shouse. When i t was s ti l l some l it t le way off from the housei t began cal l ing to the lazy woman : Come here
,come here
and help me,for I can’t s tand the weight ! ” Then the
woman went to the bayong, though she was nearly weepingat having to go and fe tch i t home
,but when She saw
that i t was full of al l sort s of good things she said :“ Thi s i s a splendid bayong, but perhaps i t wil l wantsome payment. At any rate
,i f i t i s always l ike thi s
,I
Shall ge t an easy l iving by j us t leaving the bayong on theroad to market.”So on marke t days the woman always placed the bayong
near the s ide of the path , and i t always came home full ; buti t never met any of the men who had found i t before untili t had cheated six men . Now at the seventh marke t themen who had fi l led the bayong on the six previou s occa s ion s,and had thus lo s t the ir property
,happened to be go ing to
market al l together,and when they saw the bayong le ft near
the road,they all recogni sed i t as the one which had cheated
them. So the six of them col lected buffalo dung and fil ledthe bayong to the top For
,
” said they,
“ thi s bayong i s aproper rascal ! ” Then the bayong, being full , s tarted off
s traight for home and did no t go to the marke t. When the
lazy woman saw i t coming she rushed to he lp i t home,but
when she found i t was ful l of buffalo dung She began to cry“ For
,
” said she,
“ if the bayong does not bring me foodsurely I shall die.” As for the bayong, i t would never bringfood from the market again .
Legends 1 85
CHAPTER XIX
WARFARE,HEAD-HUNT I NG <8 » WEAPO N S
HOUGH the Dusuns may be said to be headhunters
,thi s cul t never seems to have attained the
same popularity wi th them as among the KenyahKayans and Sea Dyaks of Sarawak. In the Tempassuk thevil lages of the plains do no t appear to have indulged in headhunting s ince they have been in contact wi th Europeans .The lowlanders of Tuaran
,on the other hand
,have at the
presen t day some fairly large col lec t ions of skul l s in theirlong house s
,and how these were obtained I will explain
later. In the hill country of both d is trict s head-huntinghas only ceas ed since the Chartered Company has acquired afirm hold
,and one case has even occurred within the las t few
years,the principal s in the affair being executed at Jes selton
shortly after I went to the Tempassuk.
The reasons for head-hunting among Bornean tribe s ingeneral seem to have been threefold : first ly
,the practice
was not wi thout rel igious s ignificance ; second ly , i t was considered a Sport and the heads regarded as trophie s ; andthirdly
,among some tribe s no youth was considered fi t to
rank as a man until he had obtained a head,the women
taunting those who had been unsucces sful as coward s .With regard to Dusun head-hunting in particular
,i t certain ly
had a great deal of religious significance— thi s s ide of thematter I deal with in another chapter— but i t could scarce lybe considered a sporting pursui t
,the method s employed in
obtaining head s being the very reverse of fair fighting.The usual procedure was for some of the “ braves to setout from home and proceed ' to hang round another villagewi th which they were at feud
,taking care to hid e them
1 8 6
1 8 8 Warfare,Head -hunt ing Weapons
are a Pro to-Malayan and brachycephalic (Short-headed)people .The vil lage of Kaung s ti l l has a head-house
,but I was
unfortunately never able to vi s i t i t,as on the couple of
occasions when I was near the vil lage the Tempassuk wasso badly in flood as to be impassable, and I was unable tocross from the res ting-hut which l ie s close to the bridle-pathon the opposite bank of the s tream. I
,however
,vi s i ted the
village in 19 15. There were then three head-houses,each
contain ing two or more skull s ; one of the huts had, however,fal len down. Mention i s made by Burbidge of a “ l i t tleflat-topped head-house at Kiau containing about fifty skul l sbut though i t may stil l exis t
,I have never seen i t.
Acco rding to tale s told by the nat ives,regular battle s
be tween village and vil lage did occas ional ly occur ~ in formerdays
,but they were admit ted to have done so very rarely.
Except for hi s sneaking penchant for head-hunting,the
Dusun i s a man of peace , i f not a coward ; and, being akeen agricul turi s t
,he di sl ike s war extremely
,as i t interferes
with hi s chief pursui t. In head-hunting regular scores/
of
head s were kept between vil lage s which were at feud . Forinstance
,i f Kiau had got eight head s from Kaung
,and
Kaung only four heads from Kiau, i t was up to Kaung toget at leas t an equal number, and, i f possible, one or twomdre . If both vil lage s wished to close the accoun t, thi scould be done by the vil lage which had taken most head spaying for the balance at a rate agreed upon by the e ldersof both parties .Thi s method of settl ing old feud s was a good deal u sedwhen the Tempassuk was brought under proper control bythe Chartered Company, after the defeat and death of MatSaleh
,and when the subsequent operation s agains t hi s
l ieutenants Kamunta and Langkap had been brought to asuccessful conclusion . I t was in the final battle agains t MatSaleh at Tambunan that the Tuaran Dusun s are said tohave got most of the heads which can now be seen in the ir
Warfare,Head -hun ting Weapon s 1 89
vi l lages . At the time that the Government was preparingfor the expedi tion which ran him to earth
,the Tuaran
Dusuns,who were terrified at the mere name of Mat Saleh,
were very much agains t the ir w i l l pressed into serviceas carri ers.After the battle
,the Tuaran men
,who by this time fel t
qui te courageous,ran about wi th drawn parangs, cutting
off the head s of the enemy who had been sho t by the S ikhmili tary pol ice — whence these skull s. No doubt on theirreturn to the bosom of the ir famil ies the “ warriors ” re
presented themselve s as being the conquerors of the muchdreaded Baj au leader. I heard a s tory that one of the mencut the top off a skull that he took
,picked out the dried
brains,and made i t in to a drinking-cup
,but as he died very
shortly afterwards i t was thought that he had been killedby the dead man’s Spiri t for hi s impie ty
,a skul l taken in
head -hunting being a thing which will bring good luck ifpropitiated and sacrificed to at regular interval s
,but a very
unlucky pos ses s ion if no t treated with due re spect.Dusun weapons of offence are largely procured from
other tribe s ; indeed probably the maj ori ty of those found inthe extreme north of Borneo have not been locally mad e ,many of them being of Sulu type. The cutting weaponsfound among the Dusuns are the pida (or barong) , a verybroad-bladed knife which tapers to a sharp point and i scapable of inflic ting a most dreadful wound— I had a Dyaklance-corporal who had once had his face laid open from thebridge of the nose to the angle of the j aw with one of theseweapons ; the pedang, a sword wi th ei ther a s traight orcutlas s form of blade and a cross-Shaped handle ; and the
parang ilang, a sword with a blade narrow towards its handleand broad towards the po int
,with one s ide of the blade con
cave — that on the left when the sword i s he ld back upwards-and the other convex. The peculiar form make s i tnece ssary to give a sort of scooping cut in using it
,which
renders the parang ilang a very awkward sort of weapon in
190 Warfare,Head -hun ting Weapon s
the hand s of a tyro. Probably most of the pedangs foundIn North Borneo were made in Brunei . The weapon has awide di s tribution and i s largely used in the Malay Peninsula .The type of hi l t i s said— . I should think qui te correctlyto have been derived from the swords used by the oldCrusaders . Not only i s the hil t in the shape of a cross, butthe upper l imb of the cross i s converted into a smal l roundchal ice
,which i s
,of course
,entirely meaningle s s to the nat ive .
No doubt the pedang was introduced into the Eas t Ind ies byArab traders . The parang ilang i tse lf i s not so common inNorth Borneo as a variant of i t which i s often called thegayang : thi s i s of simi lar shape, but the blade has not gotconvex and concave side s . The handle s of both the gayangand the parang ilang are generally made from the base andbrow-t ine of a s tag’s an tler
,and are highly carved
,but wood
i s occasionally used as a subst i tute.The gayang i s manufactured in one or two vil lages in the
Tempassuk, the be s t spec imens coming from Kiau . In thi scase I know that the smi th s learnt how to make the weaponfrom a Dyak who was for a long time re s id ent in thed is tric t. With regard to the much rougher specimensturned out in other vi l lage s , I am not quite certain if theyare truly nat ive product s or not
,but I rather suspect that
they are copied from weapons seen in the hands of wandering Dyaks
,though they differ from the Dyak type in several
small parti culars .Apart from spears
,the only s tabbing weapon in use i s
the large sword-l ike dagger known as sundang or serundangto the Malays of the Peninsula
,but locally called a kr is
,
which can al so be used for cutting. This,again
,is,I bel ieve
,
really a Sulu weapon : i t may have e i ther a waved or s traightblade
,and the hil t
,which i s made of wood
,ivory
,elephan t
or sperm-whale tooth i s always cut to represent a perchedbird. The true Malayan kri s with a hil t in the shape ofa squat ting human figure i s rare ly seen in the Tempassuk,and has never been made local ly.
1 9 2 Warfare,Head -hun t ing Weapons
though probably i t was much commoner in former days.So much has been wri t ten about the Bornean blow-pipe andthe methods by which i t i s manufactured tha t I do not thinki t worth whil e to go in to the matter again here
,as the
Dusun blow-pipe,except in a few unimportant detail s
,i s
exactly s imilar to that used by the Kenyah-Kayans and o thertribe s . I t consi s t s of a cylindrical tube of hard wood
,while
the muz zle end i s fi t ted with a small wooden S ight aboveand with a flat spear-blade a ttachment below
,which i s Said
to be of use in guid ing the dart on l eaving the muz zle,but
can if nece ssi ty arises be al so used as a weapon.The short darts
,of which the po int s are covered with
ipobpo i son, have a conical head made of pi th, the upper orlarger end of which close ly fit s the bore of the weapon. Indi scharging the dart from the blow-pipe the weapon i s no theld l ike a gun a s might be expected
,but i s gripped wi th
both hands close to the mouth-piece,the knuckle s be ing
upward s .The dart-quiver i s a bamboo box made from a large in ternode
,with one of the adj oining nodes left untouched to
form its bottom . I t i s usually covered wi th a cap madefrom the same or a simi lar bamboo
,which consi s t s of an
unbroken node,with a few inche s of an adj oining internode
to form the S ide s . A sl ight shaving down of the outside ofthe quiver at the top allows for the fit t ing of the cap. Theblow-pipe 18 at present used for hunting monkeys
,though
in former days i t was largely used a s a weapon of offence .Mention may be made here of the working-knife, which
i s carried by every native. This i s worn on the left S ide ofthe body
,being attached by two cord s around the wais t
which are fas tened by a loop and toggle . Though theparang i s no t primarily intended for a weapon, i t i s veryoften pu t to thi s use
,and i s general ly kept in a s tate of
razor-l ike sharpnes s.Before bringing thi s chapter to an end I must makemention of Dusun war coats and helmet s. The former are
A DUSUN MAN O F TAMBATU AN IN W AR DRE S S .
H e wears a th ick coat of c lose ly-woven fibre,wh 1ch 13 frInged at the bo t tom and tr1mm ed W 1th
c owr1e she l ls The round sh teld 13 made of wood , and the sword , su spended from a cowr .e
covered bandoher,has a tal l of human haIr Inserted 111 the pomme l .
A HEAD-HO USE AT KAUNG U LU ,TEM PAS S U K D IS TRIC T .
T he basket wh 1ch the m an has removed from the l1tt le house ,or hu t , con tam s several human
shu l ls and also some of the O rang-u tan W hen a m an was wounded m afigh t , bu t 1115 read nots ecured
,the Kaung people added an ape’
s sku l l to the baske t as a subst i tute for the man ’
s
THE BAJAUS ILLANUNS
CHAPTER XX
RAC ES O F TH E TUARAN 6 : TEMPASSU K D I STR I CT S
HE Baj aus re semble the Dusuns in speaking alanguage be longing to the Malayo-Polynesiangroup
,but are racial ly nearly all ied to the Malays
proper,while the Dusuns
,i f they are related at all
,are only
d istantly so. Scientifically speaking,the Baj aus are Proto
Malays,but thi s practi cal ly only means that they are an
early evolved Malay people . They have,I believe
,the
rounded skull of the Malay,and they al so conform to
type in other re spects,though their feature s are more
roughly cut than those of the Peninsular or SumatranMalay. These remarks apply equal ly wel l to the I l lanuns
,
except that they are,perhaps
,a be tter-looking people .
These two people s dwell,a s has been already remarked
,on
the sea-board and lower river reaches. In re ligion they arelax Mohammedans
,but their customs are sl igh tly different ;
yet,owing to the ir being of the same fai th and of very
similar habi ts,they may be conveniently de scribed together.
In personal appearance,dre s s and character they are almos t
identical,while i t i s generally imposs ibl e for a European to
d i s t inguish between members of the two tribe s. A native ,of course
,can do so
,but then he would l i sten to see which
of them were talking I llanun and which Baj au ; beside s this,he would probably be able to make a fairly good gues sby taking into accoun t smal l d ifference s of facial type orof dre ss — such as the tying of the head-clo th— which aEuropean would no t no tice.The Baj au man i s rather a dark-skinned person of low
stature . His cheek-bones are fairly high and hi s eyes small,194
Races ofTuaran TempassukD istr icts 1 95
hard and bright. S t John says in speaking of the tribeNo one can accuse the Baj aus of be ing a handsome race ;they have general ly pinched-up, small faces, low forehead s,but bright eyes . I never saw a good-looking faceamong them
,j udging even by a Malay standard ” ; and this
description is,on the whole
,not unfair.
In character the Baj au i s a laz y spendthrift,a liar
,a cheat
,
a thief,a wheedler
,a blusterer and a swaggerer. Some
Europeans have the same idea about the Baj aus that theWe s tern American i s said to entertain wi th regard to RedIndians the only good Inj uns i s dead ’
uns but s til l theBajaus have some redeeming features
,which are not without
the ir appeal to me. Firs tly, the Baj au i s above al l things asportsman : organi se a deer-drive
,a pony or a buffalo-race
,
and the usually la z y Baj au become s a different person. Ido not think that the Baj au’s love of hunting i s by anymeans to be sole l y ascribed to the desire for meat
,or that
of racing to the wish to win a wager. No doubt boththe se matters add to the ze s t w i th which he pursue s thesport
,but sport he loves for sport’s sake. Excitement of
any kind i s the Baj au’s de l ight,and exci tement he must
have . P iracy,raid ing and burning Chinese shops
,which i s
the Baj au’s idea of the highe s t kind of pleasure,gambling
,
buffalo or pony-racing,cattle-thieving
,cock-fighting or
hun ting — al l the se are,or used to be
,indulged in with the
greate s t ardour.L ike the Malay
,the Baj au i s incapable of properly per
forming work which require s long and continuous effortbut if he can be interes ted in a task he wil l work at i t wel lso long as the in tere s t las ts . The Baj aus
,having been
undi sciplined free-hooters and rovers for many generations,
did not take kindly to the rule of the Chartered Company,
under which they were forced to give up their amusementsof thi s kind . The consequence was that both they andthe Illanuns
,having found a leader in the so-called rebe l
,
Mat Saleh,proceeded to res i s t the threatened re straint of
1 9 6 Races ofTuaran Tempassuk D istrictsthe Company’s rule to the bes t of the ir abili ty ; but theMat Saleh rebel l ion ” was the only serious trouble whichthe Chartered Company have had wi th the natives fromthe t ime that they firs t began to tighten the ir hold on thecountry.Piracy and pillage having been now suppressed
,the Baj au
has to make shift to content himself wi th such amusementsas remain to him. Buffalo-thieving i s s ti l l a popular amusement
,whil e gambling
,cock-fighting, and horse and buffalo
racing rece ive their fair Share of at tention . To theserelaxations many Baj aus have now added the sometime sprofi table pursui t of trying to extrac t advance s from estatemanagers pre tending that they are going to recrui t labourersand give them advances . With money so obtained a Baj augeneral ly re tires to a gambl ing shop
,and has a splendid
t ime unti l the day of reckoning arrives.The character of the Il lanuns i s somewhat Similar to thatof the Baj aus
,
“ only more so.
” The Baj au is a truculentswaggerer ; the Il lanun can outdo him at his own game.The Baj au is a braggart
,a l iar
,a spendthrift and a gambler ;
the Il lanun i s a bigger one. The Illanun’s chief idea ofpleasure is to swagger about in fine clothes and do no work
,
unle s s an occasional piracy or inland raid can be so de scribed .In the days of o ld the Il lanun pirate s mus t a t any ratehave been fine seamen
,for their name was feared through
out the Archipelago,and even around the coast s of the
Malay Peninsula. They s ti l l cl ing to the memory of the irformer prowess
,and Show their fanc ied superiori ty in their
ind ependent bearing and truculent demeanour. The bes tthat can be said for them is that
,though their deeds are
evil,they are gentlemanly rascal s . The ir wors t actions are
often partly redeemed by some humorous touch or plausibleexcuse
,which makes one want to laugh even when ex tremely
angry.The Illanuns are a rather better-looking people than theBaj aus
,though they certainly cannot be call ed hand some.
1 9 8 Races ofTuaran $ 3Tem passukD istr ictsve i l themselves except a t fe s tival s
,not even wearing a scarf
over the head as does the Malay woman - the scarf beingused to vei l the face whenever the wearer has a fi t ofmodes ty. Baj au and Illanun women frequen t all the lowland m arke ts and prove themselves exce l lent sale swomenof fish
,fruit
,native-made cloth
,be te l nut
,sire/7
,l ime
,etc.
They even j o1n in dances wi th the men , and re spectablewomen wil l play musical ins truments before mixed company.The lad ie s are usual ly anything but beaut i ful
,and are
rendered even les s attractive than nece s sary by their un love lymethod s of dre ssing the ir hair and the c lumsy fashion oftheir dre s s . In addi t ion
,a large quid (if sire/9 S tuffed into
one cheek or partly protruding from the mouth,with trickl e s
of blood -red sal iva running down the chin,scarce ly add s to
the charms of even the mo s t at tract ive face .The character of the Baj au and Illanun women i s
,how
ever,I bel ieve
,a good deal higher than that of the i r men
kind . Scandal s are comparat ive ly rare,though considerable
l iberty,i f not l icence
,i s allowed to widow s and divorced.
women . Prost i tution i s unknown .
Both Baj au and Illanun women are expert cloth weavers,
and those of the lat ter tribe often support the ir menkind inidlene s s by sell ing the product s of the ir looms .Unfortunately nearly al l the money 011 which ei ther aBajau or an Illanun man manages to lay hi s hand s i s los t inhi s favouri te pursui t of gambling . Probably in the old days
,
when native gambled wi th nat ive,the effect was not so bad
a s i t i s a t pre sent. For though losse s and gain s no doubthad an unset tl ing effect
,the money or valuable s at any rate
remained in the tribe . S ince the Chartered Company’s rulehas been e stabl i shed
,however
,the monopol ie s for l iquor
sell ing,pawnbroking and
,
gambl ing have been put up forauction to the highes t b idder. The farmer, invariably aChinaman
,has shops in every place of the leas t importance,
and into them he put hi s agent s or sub- le s see s . In eachshop there are two doors opening in the frontage , one
Races ofTuaran TempassukD istricts 1 9 9
giving entrance to the gambl ing-room,the other to the shop
proper,where pledge s are taken
,l iquor sold and
,in out
s tat ions,a considerable busine ss done in general goods
.
At Kotabelud the gambl ing Shop used to be crowded al lday long by a crowd of la z y Baj aus apparen tly engaged inridding themselve s of al l the property in the ir posses sion inan attempt to make money without exert ion. When a manhad been “ cleaned out ” of all hi s ready money he wouldre turn next day wi th some family he irloom
,a dagger with
an ivory hil t,a fine old bras s be tel-box or a Silver ornament
,
and pledge hi s property in the pawnshop,so conveniently
under the same roof with the gambling e s tabl i shment. Withthe money thus obtained he would again tempt fortune
,
probably wi th no be t ter luck than he had experienced onthe day before. Even then his appe ti te for gambling wouldremain unsati sfied
,and frequently Baj aus gamble t il l they
have stripped themselve s and the ir houses of every scrap ofvaluable property.The very bes t of the pledged article s comparative ly se ldom
find the ir way to the She lf kept for unredeemed pledges,as
the Baj au or I llanun owner manage s to keep paying intere s ton hi s mos t treasured he irlooms
,but they are frequently left
in pawn for long period s,and if redeemedfind the ir way
back to the pawnshop almos t at once . To do the pawnshopkeepers j ustice
,they are usual ly fairly good to the natives
,
and do not declare their good s forfe i t even after the legalperiod has expired wi thout payment of interes t, being wil lingto allow old customers t ime to scrape toge ther the nece ssarymoney to renew the t icke t.The chief harm done to the coastal people by the l icensedgambl ing shops i s not so much that the Baj aus and Illanunsare encouraged to gamble — they would do that anyhowbut that al l the ir weal th i s passing into the hands of anotherpeople — the Chinese . The Government of the FederatedMalay S tate s has recently closed al l the gambling shops inthe S tate s of the Federation
,bu t some few years ago, when
2 00 Races ofTuaran Tempassuk D i strictsthey were allowed
,i t very properly forbade Malays to stake
any money in them.
A Chartered Company which has to try and earn d ividend sfor i t s Shareholders and control s a poor country cannot
,
however,afford to be qui te so nice in these matters as the
Government of a rich country l ike the Federated MalayS tates
,though I should scarcely say that thi s was an argu
ment in favour of the continued exi s tence of charteredcompanie s in general . W hat the fate of the Baj aus wi l lbe in the future i t i s difli cult to say, but though they areeconomically an almost use les s people
,I am incl ined to think
that they wil l cont inue to exis t,i f only because they are
such rascal s . In mos t case s i t seems to be the S imple andinoffensive tribe s and race s who are crushed out in thes truggle for existence , while nobody can accuse the Baj ausof being either one or the other. The Illanuns will
,as I
have remarked above,probably become absorbed by the
Baj aus,owing to the ir smal l numbers
,common rel igion and
s imilari ty of customs and me thod s of l iving. Even at thepre sent day there are many native s who have a Bajau fatherand an Il lanun mother
,or ‘vice versa.
CHAPTER XXI
AGR I C ULTURE, HUNT I NG 6 FI SH I NG
HE Baj au man i s but a poor agricul turi s t. Therei s nothing intrinsical ly wrong wi th his me thod s
,
but to him agricul ture seems to be a comparativel ymodern deve lopment
,to which he has not taken very kindly.
I t i s seldom that enough rice i s planted to las t the family t i l lthe next harvest, and through his ind ifference and la z ines she i s often late in ploughing the land and setting out theyoung seedlings. S ince al l the Baj au vil lages are in thelowland di s trict s
,they chiefly plant wet padi
,but a l it tle dry
pad i i s al so grown on land which i t i s d ifficult to irrigate.The ir me thod s are Similar to those already described for theDusuns
,but les s ingenui ty i s usual ly shown In 1rr1gatmg
the soil . Each group of field s i s surrounded by a strongbamboo or Wooden fence in order to keep out wanderingbuffaloes and cattle .Near harves t-time
,when flocks of smal l bird s collect to
feed on the ripening grain,scarers s imilar to those u sed by
the Dusuns are erected,and al so windmill s on tripods of tall
bamboos,the bamboo sail s of which make a creaking and
a humming noise as they revolve. From the back of thesail s, at the centre , there usually proj ects a long tail , made ,I be l ieve
,from a leaf of the coco-nut palm
,the pinnae of the
leaf hanging downwards . The tai l i s supported by a cordattached at one end to the top of the windmil l frame and atthe other to the leaf at a di s tance of about three-quarters ofits length
,so that the inner portion i s s lightly raised from
the hori z ontal,while the t ip fal l s downwards . The vibration
caused by the sail s make s the tai l quiver and j erk,and adds
greatly to the effectivene ss of the windmill a s a bird-scarer.2 0 1
2 0 2 Agriculture,Hun ting Fishing
When the land i s lying fallow,buffaloe s are turned loose
in the field s and help to manure the ground to a certainextent.A considerable amount of sugar-cane i s planted
,and both
Illanuns and Baj au s make rough sugar-mill s which areworked by a buflfilo
,which walks round and round in a
circle, yoked under a movable hori zontal beam which operate s two vertica l rol lers . The se in terlock at the top andbase wi th rudely cut worm-gear. The lengths of cane arethrust between the rol lers and the expres sed j uice runsdown and percolate s
,through a s trainer of shee t bamboo
,
into a receptacle below . The j uice i s taken from thi s andcooked in large iron pans unti l i t a t tain s the consi s tency ofthick molas se s
,when i t i s ready for use.
Of late years some Baj au s in the neighbourhood ofKo tabelud have taken to growing a cons iderable acreageof ground-nuts
,having
,I believe
,l earnt how to do thi s from
a few Javanese sett lers who firs t s tarted plant ing them.
The crop appears to pay well,and there seems to be a
pos s ibil i ty that more land may be util i sed for thi s purposein the future. Indian corn i s plan ted to a smal l ex tent
,-as
are al so certain vegetable s,chiefly French beans
,cucumbers
and brinj al s . Coco-nut palms , which bear well , and frui ttrees
,such as belunoes
,mangoes
,memplum s
,pawpaws
,l imes
,
langsat s’ and bananas
,grow round mos t vi llages
,but receive
l i t tle at tention .Large herds of catt le and buffaloes roam the plains and
marshland s be tween Ko tabelud and Pindasan, but no sort ofat tempt i s made at mating or breed ing sui table animal s
,and
the herds are to al l in tents and purposes wild,except that
every animal has an owner. Young animal s are riddendown on ponies
,caught wi th nooses and marked by nicking
the ear,or ears
,each man having hi s own particular Sign .
Cattl e-catch ing afford s an opportuni ty for a very fine d isplayof horsemanship
,and shows the Baj aus at their be s t
,for
they are,above everything, fine riders.
2 04 Agricu lture,Hun ting Fishing
of i t in orderly folds,partly into hi s left hand
,partly into his
right.In casting the arms are held a lmos t hori zontally
,and bent
so that both hands are close together,the left being Slightly
lower than the right ; both arms are then swung quickly tothe left in a hori zontal d irection
,the body following them
with i ts weigh t thrown on the left foot . The part of thene t held in the hands i s released and the arms are droppedsl ightly. The net flie s out
,and fall s on the water in a
perfect circle,but s t i l l remain s a ttached to thefisherman’
s
l eft hand by the cord from i ts centre . The chain round theedge S inks quickly
,enclosing thefish wi thin the net
,and
i f these are only of smal l s i z e the net can be wi thdrawnSlowly from the water with the catch in i t
,for the fish are
prevented from escaping by the drawing toge ther of theheavi ly we ighted ne t edges .Large skates are often speared wi th a barbedfish-spear
consi s ting of an iron head,shafted with bamboo or wood
,
thefish being vi sible at the bottom as thefisherman’s l igh t
dug-out canoe gl ide s over the clear water of the shallows .One kind of smal lfish much resembling the European
whi te-bai t,which i s cal led in Malay ikan bilis
,i s a favouri te
delicacy among the Dusuns,and up
-country nat ive s come innumbers to the coastal markets to purchase the se fish fromthe Baj aus at the season when they vi s i t the shores . Kingcrabs (L inzulus) are frequently on sale in the markets, andare sought after for their eggs .A good varie ty of fre sh and dried fish
,mol luscs — chiefly
kind s of clams and cockle s — crabs and prawns are always onsal e
,while turtle s’ eggs are not uncommonly seen. The
las t-named are dug ou t of the sandy beache s where theturtle s lay them. Giant clam s (Tr idacna) of fair si ze arefound among the coral reefs in clear water and are eaten bythe Baj aus
,but a s I do not remember having seen them
brought to marke t,probably they are no t considered
sufli ciently good eating to be saleable.
Agricu l ture,Hun ting Fishing 2 05
She ll s producing mother-of-pearl are obtained in smallquantitie s
,and fe tch a very fair price when sold to the local
Chinese traders,but among them there are usually very few
specimens of the pearl oys ter (M eleagr ina margar itgfera) ,
the maj ori ty of the She l l s being those of species of Trocbus(Trocbus niloticus) and Senectus (Senectus argyrostonza) . The seshel l s are collected more by the Orang Bernadan (Taw iTawi Islanders) , who visi t the coasts, than by the localBaj aus . Ql ite large pearl s are often found in the she ll s ofTr idacna
,and I brought one back from Borneo which is
almost as large as a sparrow’s egg ; but they pos se s s l i tt lebeauty
,be ing merely white and Shiny
,so that they are
,I
be l ieve,almost worthles s
,except as curios i t ie s . I t is of
those pearls that the wonderful s torie s of breeding smal lone s are told by the people s of the Malayan region, i t beingoften asserted that if one of them is placed in a small boxtoge ther wi th some grains of rice
,after a time the mother
of-pearl will be found to have produced young,while the
rice grains wil l have been broken at the ends as i f they hadbeen nibbled by m1cc.
The Baj au regards agr1cultural pursui ts and the tradeoffisherman— especial ly the former— as necessary evil s tobe endured with s toici sm
,but i t only require s the magic
word hunting to be whispered to rouse him to a s tate ofwild enthusiasm. Whatever may be his sins of omissionand commission
,and they are many
,he i s certainly a sports
man,and takes part enthusiast ical ly in hunting
,horse-racing
and other sports . It is thi s quali ty which, in spi te of hisotherwi se more or le ss undes irable character, finds hima warm corner in the hearts of many Engl ishmen, and make sthem cherish a sneaking regard for him of which they arehalf ashamed .To see a Baj au mounted on hi s s turdy l i t tle pony, andarmed wi th a throwing-spear
,galloping over the most break
neck country in pursui t of a muntj ac, locally some time scal led the Bornean roe-deer
,i s a Sight not easily forgo t ten.
2 06 Agricu lture, Hun t ing Fishing
Thi s s tyle of hunting i s fairly frequently practi sed on andaround the grassy and scrubby foot-hil l s near Kotabelud.
Though not numerous in such open country,an odd deer or
two of thi s specie s can generally be found in the fold s ofthe hil l s wherever there i s scrubby cover
,and e specially
where a small s tream of water i s shut in by clumps of tree sand bushes .Probably at a remote date al l these foo t-hill s were fore s tcovered
,but fel l ing for clearings and continual fire s
,bo th
inten tional and accidental,have now
,in the lower reaches of
the Tempassuk, driven back the fore s ts from the foot-hi ll s,while virgin j ungle is only found on the mountain s whichtower above them. The lofty fore s t trees which onceoccupied this area are now replaced by the very coarse andpers i s tent gras s known as lalang, bushe s of the so-calledS trai t s rhododendron (Polyantbema nzelastonzunz), and o therShrubs — indeed
,except near springs and water-courses
,i t
s eems doubtful whe ther the trees could ever as sert themselve s again even should fire s be prevented .Some of the d es truction of t imber mus t
,I imagine
,have
been fairly recent, as several o ld men of the Dusun vil lageof Bengkahak
,which l ie s in the foot-hil l region be tween
Kotabelud and Pindasan,were agreed that the fores ts had
re treated considerably since their youth . I imagine theconstan t gras s-fires which the Dusuns l igh t in the dryseason are part ly responsible for thi s
,as no doub t they
sometimes reach and attack the edge s of the fores t zone .Clearings for hi l l-padi plant ing had
,and have
,al so a great
deal to do with the denudation of the fores ts,but much le s s
in the foot-hill s bordering the plains of the coastal d i s tric t sthan up the valley of the Tempassuk, though here, when aclearing i s abandoned
,a secondary fores t growth
,chiefly of
soft-wooded tree s,rapidly springs up again . The lalang
grass, as remarked before, i s periodical ly fired,chiefly, I
believe, wi th the view of affording fresh pasturage to theherd s of cat tl e
,which obtain more nutrimen t from the fre sh
2 0 8 Agriculture,Hun ting Fishing
for throwing away game which has d ied immediate ly onreceiving the charge .When a cow is kill ed for the feas t the Baj aus can somet ime s scarcely re s train their impatience unti l the wre tchedanimal has gasped ou t i t s las t breath
,and I have seen lumps
of fle sh hacked from the bones and thrown into a heapwhich sti l l twitched and quivered for some second s afterthey had been severed from the carcas s.Snares and traps very Similar to those made by the
Dusuns are al so used among the Baj aus for trapping game .Guns are now almos t unknown in their hands, as S ince theMat Saleh and Kamunta troubles the Bri ti sh North BorneoGovernment has absolute ly prevented any native s
,with the
exception of a few favoured chiefs,from obtaining weapons
of preci sion,while they were deprived of those they posses sed
when the ri sing was put down and the country broughtproperly under control .
CHAPTER XXII
DRES S,DO MEST I C AFFA IR S (Sr G O VERNMENT
BING by nature a somewhat truculent and swaggeringscoundre l
,the Baj au or Illanun i s by way of feeling
that hi s clothes should give some'
indication of hissentiment s towards the re s t of the world. The young mene special ly l ike to add to the bo ldnes s of the ir appearance bywearing brightly coloured head - cloths
,s ti ffened with rice
s tarch,and so t ied that two or three peaks s tand out
abruptly from the head . Gaily coloured trousers of narrowstriped native cloth are also to be seen
,which are baggy
around the wai s t and as far as the knee,but very closefitting in the calf, while long enough partly to cover the
ins tep. This kind of garment,which i s w i thout buttons
,i s,
I be l ieve,of a type much worn in the Sulu Islands . I t is
secured under the bel t by folding over a portion of thebaggy top.A bright-hued scarf
,often made of two long s trips of
diA'
erently coloured cloth s , i s thrown negl igently over oneshoulder
,and is used as a handkerchief, or for carrying
small art icle s . The ful l dress of young Baj au men i s thetightly fit ting short j acke t with embroidered facings andtwo rows of si lver buttons
,the native-woven head-cloth and
saputangan (around the wai s t) , the Short and baggy blue orblack trousers
,and the loose cloth worn over one shoulder.
The elder men do not sport the bright colours in favouramong the young bloods. Their usual dress is a pair ofloose Chine se-pat tern trousers
,often of black or dark blue
cloth,or of white calico
,and a rather short coat of the same
material,which fi t s somewhat tightly in the arms and around
the chest, but i s cut loosely below.
2 09
2 1 0 Dress,Domestic Affairs Governmen t
European s ingle ts have of recen t years come very muchinto fashion among the nat ives
,and are often worn without
a coat. The head-cloths of the older men are al so usual lydarker in colour than those of bachelors . Cheap foreignmade belt s are now in very general u se
,while the cloth
which i s frequently worn over the Shoulder,or a hand
kerchief (saputangan) of nat1ve manufacture , wound roundthe wai s t above the be l t
,contain s the bras s be tel-nu t box
which a nat ive man invariably carrie s.Personal j ewel lery worn by men consi s t s of S ilver rings
,
often of s triking,though somewhat crude
,design
,set wi th
cornel ians,rock cry stal s
,or glas s
,and sometimes wi th what
I believe are natural crys tal s of iron pyri te s . Coco-nut pearlsand those from the giant clam (Tr idacna) are al so mountedin rings
,as we l l a s be zoar s tones
,reputed to have the
property of absorbing the poi son from snake-bi te s andscorpion- s tings . Hanging s i lver tobacco-boxes
,shaped l ike
a watch,and possibly really derived from the old fat Dutch
watches,are rare
,but are s t il l sometimes worn
,being attached
to the bel t by a chain . Shel l-brace le ts,the manufacture of
which I have described e l sewhere,are affec ted by bo th men
and women, and bracel et s of si lver al so adorn the arms ofboth sexe s.I learned
,on the authori ty of a Baj au named S i Ungin or
Sungin, that in the day s of yore long hair was commonlyworn by Baj au men
,at any rate unti l they married
,but i t
i s now except ional to see a man wi th long hair in theTempassuk or Tuaran dis trict s, and I can only recollec t oncehaving done so. Thi s was on the Sulaman Inlet
,the man
in que s tion being one of my boat’s crew.
Bajau men are s eldom handsome,and the same can usual ly
be said of their women,but what looks the women do
pos ses s are spoiled by their fashions in c lothes and hairdressing. Except
,perhaps
,on feast days
,when clothe s of
bright colours are worn,i t would not be far wrong to say
that Baj au and I l lanun women always look untidy. Thi s
2 1 2 Dress,Domest ic Affairs Governm en t
women,S ince ne i ther tribe i s by any means rich
,and w ive s
are kept in a s tate of poverty by the lazine s s and gamblinghabit s of the husbands . Round ear-s tud s
,usual ly of silver
,
more rarely of gold,are worn by unmarried girl s
,and these
are often remarkably pre tty example s of gold smith s’ work.
Many of the old si lver ornaments,sirek and tobacco boxe s
and o ther article s,are of very fine design
,and are
,I be l ieve
,
the work of Il lanun s i lversmiths,who at one t ime establ i shed
qui te a reputation for themselves. Some of the old article s,
which can even now be occas ionally picked up by a co l lector,
were,however
,almost certainly made in Brunei .
Nowadays the Chinese Silversmi th is 'finding his way in tothe out-s tat ion s and i s beginning
,or in many case s has
already managed,to shoulder ou t the native craftsman
,who
i s unable to compete wi th a special i s t . Some si lver-work s ti l lfinds it s way from Brunei to the Tempassuk by the handsof Malay traders
,but the specimens are usual ly trumpery in
the extreme,the workmanship being rough
,the pat tern s
degenerate and the silver of paper- l ike thinnes s . Themodern s ilver article s which I have seen brought for saleby Brunei Malays were small , hol low Si lver buttons in , theform of a flower bud
,and the somewhat coronet- l ike head
ornament s worn by brides .In add ition to the head-cloth s which I have mentioned
above,Baj au and Il lanun men
,and sometime s women, when
on a j ourney or working in the field s,wear large sun-hats,
which they obtain from the Dusuns of the interior. I fancythat one type of hat used by the Mengkabong Baj aus i smade by themselve s. To these they frequently attach achin-cord of twi s ted yellow and red wool , the material forwhich i s obtained from the Chinese shops .Perhaps the working-knife Should be mentioned as partof the native outfit
,S ince
,when he leaves hi s house, every
native,Baj au
,Il lanun or Dusun
,almos t invariably girds
himself wi th one of these useful weapons. The knife, in i t swooden Sheath
,i s worn on the left s id e of the body, being
Dress,Domest ic Affairs Gove rnment 2 I 3
attached to wai st-cord s fastened in front by means of atoggle
,a Chine se cash or a Sarawak coin general ly fulfil l ing
thi s purpose,or more rarely a d isc cut from a Trocbus she ll .
The use s to which the parang i s put are various indeed ,among them be ing clearing away weeds and undergrowth
,
cutting firewood,opening coco-nuts, cutt ing up deer or
cattle for food purpose s,and preparing material s for house
building,while
,i f nece s sary
,i t becomes a weapon of defence
or offence .Baj au vil lages may be buil t on land
,over the water of
some e s tuary or sal t-water inle t,or on the sea- shore
,ei ther
above or below high- t id e mark . All the Illanun vil lagesthat I have seen have been bui l t on land . In any case thedwe l l ings of both peoples
,l ike those of the Dusuns
,are
rai sed on posts . Baj au or Illanun houses are never of thecommunal type . Much of the household refuse i s throwndown through a hole in the floor
,thi s being quite a sanitary
method of di sposing of i t if the house i s over the water oron the shore below high-t id e mark, but by no means so onland .In Spite
,or perhaps because
,of the absence of pigs
,
those scavengers of Dusun villages,Mohammedan (Baj au or
Illanun) vil lages are usual ly a good deal cleaner than thoseof the pagans . Nor do I think, though i t breeds d iseasecarrying flie s
,i s the accumulated refuse directly responsible
for s ickne s s among the villagers,s ince there i s always a
curren t of air under the house .A Baj au vi l lage i s general ly si tuated in a coco-nut grove,where the trees belong to various owners . Scattered about
,
too,are other frui t trees
,such as mangoes and bb’lunoes.
The rice-fields wil l probably be j ust outs ide the grove oftree s which shelters the village
,and here
,after the harvest
,
the buffaloe s roam about or wallow in the deep mud-filledexcavation s that they make for themselve s .The houses of the village are walled and roofed wi thpa lm-leaf attaps , and before some of the larger dwel l ings is
2 14 Dress,Domestic Affairs Governmen t
a platform— reached by a ladder from the ground — on whichclothes are dried and various household work i s performed .
Male vi si tors to the house ride up to the s teps, di smountand
,before entering
,t i e the ir buffaloe s
,bull s or ponie s to
one of the pos ts supporting the platform. A Baj au houseusually cons is t s of a single room with perhaps a cook-housebuil t ou t behind . A pas sage or gangway lead s from thedoor
,which i s near one corner
,to the opposi te end of the
build ing,the re s t of the room being sl ightly rai sed above the
l eve l of thi s to form a sort of Si t ting and sleeping dai s .Here i s s tored the fami ly property
,boxes containing
clothes,bras sware (trays , sirek boxes , gongs , and here
al so are placed the sleeping-mats and pillows,covered in
with mosqui to net s suspended from some of the cros s-beams .In the house s of well-to-do men the top of the mosqui tocurtain s are sometimes ornamented with patchwork hangings .The blend ing of colours in these i s often quite pleasing
,not
at al l l ike the horrible patchwork articl e s so often seen athome.Brightly coloured di sh-covers made of S trip s of pandanus
l eaf are placed over plate s of cakes or o ther food set asideon the dai s
,and perhaps some old bras s cannons wil l be seen
tied up or supported again s t one wall of the house,cannon
in the old days having pas sed as l egal tender,so that the
posses sion of a number of them ind icated that the ir ownerwas a man of weal th. A kri s, a pida or some other nat1veweapon wil l very l ikely be hanging up again s t a post of thehouse
,and some of the women will be occupied in weaving
on the ir ra ther primit ive looms the brightly coloured wais tor head-cloths, for the manufacture of which the Baj ausand Il lanun s of the Tempassuk are held in such high repute.The house s of the poorer peasant s are often small andwretched in the extreme
,especially in the vil lage s buil t over
inle t s of the sea,such as the Sulaman or Mengkabong. The
type of house I have been so far describing i s that of a nativechief
,or of a man in easy circumstance s ; such a dwe l l ing
2 1 6 Dress, Domestic Affairs $ Governmen tIn the v illages buil t over the waters of e s tuarie s or inlet s
of the sea the small dug-out canoe or gobang replace s thebuffalo or pony a s a means of conveyance from place toplace
,and the vi s i tor to a house t ie s up hi s canoe to a pos t
j us t a s a man on land does his buffalo. Owing to the position of their se ttlement s
,the Baj aus of these vil lages
,as i s
only natural,look to the sea and to the brackish water of the
inle t s to provide them with a l iving rather than to the land,
though many of them have a few rice-fields.Their chief occupat ions are
,therefore
,fishing
,sal t-making
and the cutting of nipa-palm leave s for use a s attaps to
thatch and wal l their houses . Where fi shing i s undertakenon a large scale
,boat s of fair S i z e (pakerangan or perabu
Iembu) and seine nets are used , and the greater part of thecatch i s pre served by drying i t in the sun . A good deal ofthi s dried fish find s i t s way to market
,where i t i s sold or
bartered to the Dusuns . Where le s s wholesale method sare employed
,thefish are ei ther consumed at home or so ld
fresh to the Chinese shopkeepers or to other native s .Though making pret ty pictures in photographs
,e special ly
in the case of Mengkabong,where the house s are no t
arranged in a regular line,these vil lages buil t over the
water prove on close in spection to be as semblages of mostcrazy and dilapidated hove l s . S t i l l, here and there may beseen a larger and be tter-buil t house
,deno ting that i t i s the
dwell ing of some more prosperous native.The Mohammedan native s have a great deal scantier menuthan the pagans
,s ince their rel igion forbid s them to eat pork ;
and such game as snakes , rat s , squirrel s , moni tor-l i z ards,monkeys and o ther Dusun del icacie s are also tabu to them.
On the occasion of a marriage or other ceremony,or at a
rel igious fes t ival,a buffalo or an ox may be kil led
,otherwise
the native s seldom eat meat, unless they can hunt down adeer or a muntj ac. Excel lent fish i s obtained on the sea
coast,and the river fish are al so quite eatable
,so the Baj aus
and Illanuns probably do not feel the lack of meat ; but they
Dress,Domestic Affairs Governmen t 2 I 7
are very keen about i t i f they can get i t for noth ing,e i ther
by hunting or by attending some feast . Rice forms thestaple article of d ie t
,eked out wi th a l i t t lefish
,some sal t
,
chil l ies,and poss ibly a few spices .
Cookery i s mos t primit ive,but the women know how to
make a few kinds of cakes . Coco-nut oil,generally made
by boil ing the kernel s in water and col lecting the oil whichri ses to the surface
,i s used for frying sweets
,in native
medicines,and al so for dressing the hair. Cane-sugar
,or
rather molasses,i s used for sweetening in native cookery ;
thi s i s obtained by pressing the fresh canes between twoupright rollers 11] a mil l worked by a buflalo and boil ingdown the resul ting l iquid . Coarse sal t i s also madelocally
,and I have described the proces se s of manufacture
el sewhere .Nowadays l ife in a Baj au or Il lanun village i s veryhumdrum compared with what it must have been formerly
,
for s ince the young blood s are no longer a t l iberty to goon plundering expedit ions
,which provided them both with
exci tement and a l ivel ihood,they are reduced by neces si ty
to the unpleasant task of having to do a l i ttle work in orderto l ive. The monotony of their l ives
,however
,i s somewhat
brightened by visi t s to the gambling farm,an occasional
hunting or racing party,cock-fighting, or perhaps a small
buflalo-steal ing expedi tion. Their natural d i sl ike for workmakes them but ind ifferent agricul turi st s
,but they are
much better fishermen,partly because they are essential ly
a mari time people,partly, I bel ieve, because fishing
,
with i ts uncertainty, contains some elements of sport andexci tement.A fair number of Baj aus make a l i t tle money by transporting ” on buffaloes good s for the Chinese shopkeepers
,
the main traflic of thi s kind be ing to and from Usakan Bay,
the fortn ightly call ing-place of the local s teamer. Manyyoung men from the Tempassuk, at tracted by the prospectsof handling ready money and change of scene, go to work
-2 1 8 Dress,Domestic Affairs $ 1 Governmen t
on rubber es tate s at Beaufort or el sewhere,and often do
no t re turn for several years .Crime in the Mohammedan vil lages i s no t serious
,except
in regard to buffalo-s teal ing. Most of the case s coming tocourt are trivial case s of cheating and pet ty s tealing. W hileI was at Kotabelud there were some rather ingenious theftscommit ted from the Chinese shops
,by means of a long and
slender rat tan cane to which a few thorns were left adheringnear one end . An opium-sodden Chinaman would be lyingfas t asleep at night in hi s shop on a bamboo platform behindthe counter
,with a number of nat ive-made head-cloths
,vary
ing in price from two to twenty dollars,hanging on a l ine
above hi s head . A thief who has observed the pos i t ion ofthe cloths during the day-t ime crawls under the shops atnigh t - they are sl ightly rai sed from the ground on po s tsand making a smal l hole in the bamboo floor
,or util i s ing
one already there,pul l s down the cloth s from above the
Chinaman’s head,and
,having landed hi s catch safely
,
quie tly takes h i s departure,l eaving hi s fishing rod behind
him as a souvenir of hi s vi s i t .Another method i s sometimes used in s teal ing rice. Thethief
,having observed that a sack of rice i s s tored in a
certain house,makes hi s way under the dwel l ing at nigh t
,
breaks away a l i ttl e of the flooring— no t a d ifficul t taskimmediately under the sack of rice
,and
,cut ting a hole in
the bot tom of the sack,l e t s the rice off in to a receptacle
held below— his canoe if the house he i s S teal ing from i s buil tover the river.Offences agains t the person, a ssaul t s, woundings and
murders,are rare
,though I once had to deal with a case in
which a man was s tabbed through the floor of the house,
his as sailan t temporari ly e scaping. He was, however, eventually d i scovered by having all the weapon sheaths in thevillage O pened and examined for blood - s tains . On doingthi s
,i t was found that the inside of a kris-sheath belonging
to a young Baj au was caked wi th dried blood — the weapon
22 0 Dre ss,Domestic Affairs Governmen t
and of native ways,make s hi s assi s tance invaluable to a
young Civil servant fre sh from home.Another clas s of people who have a good deal of influence
with the Mohammedan tribe s are Sarips, men partly ofArab
,partly of native extraction
,who claim descen t from
the Prophet of Islam . They are on account of thi s claimnatural ly looked upon wi th great respec t
,and are considered
enti tl ed to wear yel low,which is the royal colour.
In the old days, as far as I can ascertain , the maj ori ty ofthe chiefs exerci sed but l i t tle authori ty over their lawlessfollowers
,and any man who had gained a reputation by hi s
bravery,or by bluster and caj ol ery
,was sure to attrac t to
himse lf a fol lowing of reckles s freebooters .The Illanun head chief traces hi s origin from the Illanunmagnates of M indanao and i s a descendant of Ba Tabok
,
the pirate , concerning whom I Shal l say something in a laterchapter. I llanun chiefs have a pecul iar custom of taking(or receiving) more high-sounding ti tle s as they advance inyears
,thus a Dato may eventual ly end up with the ti tle of
Sultan .
Some of the Baj au ti tle s , such , for in s tance, as that ofDato Temengong, seem to have been bes towed by the Bruneiroyal ty on petty chiefs
,or men of some capaci ty who made
themselve s u seful to the Brunei Court,or to Brune i officers
who vi si ted the country to col lec t duitbuis (tribute) — exactedby threats from some of the Baj au vil lages . The duit buis
,
a sort of pol l-tax,was given in kind
,and in add it ion
,when
the boat wi th the Sultan of Brunei’s representat ive on boardcas t anchor
,the village had to contribute two pikul of bras s
,
and the same amount when anchor was weighed again.Mengkabong
,Inanam
,Menggatal
,Tuaran and the Sulaman
vil lages acknowledged the Brunei potentate a s their lord
(chiefly , I expect, when they were overawed by a displayof force) . Accord ing to Haj i Arsat
,who i s my informan t
wi th regard to these matters,one pikul of cannon (brass) was
at that t ime reckoned as being worth fifty dollars (Mexican) .
CHAPTER XXIII
FO O D (fr I NTO ! I C ANT S
HE Baj au’s s taple food is rice,as i s the case with
the maj ori ty of the people s inhabiting the tropicaland some of the sub- tropical and temperate regions
of Asia . Rice by i tse lf would,however
,be but a poor
diet, and so i t i s supplemented wi th vegetable s,fish or fle sh
,
while in the tropics i t is further he lped out with seasoningsof spice s
,red peppers and other condiments . The Baj aus ,
being dwellers on the sea-coast s and the lower reache s ofthe rivers
,are not unnaturally great consumers offish ; and
they al so supply the inland tribes from the ir superfluity,fishbe ing one of the chief article s they barter with the hil lpeople . Various vege table s are eaten
,the commone s t be ing
a kind of s tringy French bean,brinjalS, gourd s and cucumbers,
as wel l a s leaves of various wild plants .The Baj au’s women-folk make a few kind s of delicacie s
,
one of the commonest being penj aron, small round cake s ofnative sugar
,or molasse s and rice-flour
,which are sold in
the marke ts and,i f fresh
,have a not unpleasant taste.
Tapai cakes I Shal l mention below, and in addition to theseI have seen pierced rice-flour cake s in fanciful shape s takento the mosque s at the end of the fasting month .
In Spi te of owning large herd s of cattle and buffaloe s, theBaj aus
,l ike the maj ori ty
,if not all
,of the people s of the
Malayan region,do not drink milk
,nor do they use i t or i t s
derivative s (butter and gbi) for cooking. Animal s are butrarely kil led for eating
,and then only on such occasions as
marriage s or feast-days . Venison when obtainable i s eagerlysought after
,but pork
,both from wild and tame pigs , i s of
course forbidden to them as Mohammedans .
2 2 2 Food In toxican tsCoco-nut oil
,obtained by boil ing the kerne l s of old nuts
with water and skimming off the oi l which ri se s to thesurface
,or by pres s ing them
,i s used for cooking and for
many o ther purposes . In former days coco-nut oi l wasburnt in the old Grecian-shaped s tandard or hanging bras slamps
,which can s ti l l he sometimes purchased in the vil lage s
,
but are now only used on occasions of ceremony.Sugar-cane i s planted to a fair extent
,and from i t i s
obtained the brown molasses which enters in to the composit ion of so many kind s of native cakes ; but i t i s large ly eatenraw
,e special ly by the children . Ind ian corn i s al so grown
,
and i s baked or boiled for eat ing. Frui t i s an importantarti cl e of native d ie t ; frui t tree s, e special ly mangoes , impaluni , bé
’
lunoe,l imes
,j ack frui t and other s
,are to be found
in mos t vil lage s,whil e pine-apple s are occasionally to be seen
on sale in the market s,together wi th pommeloes
,large
orange-l ike frui ts,which have been introduced
,and are
,I
bel ieve,grown in one of the Il lanun vi llage s around Fort
Alfred . Red peppers of various kind s form an importan tcondiment in both Baj au and Il lanun cooking.
Tapui cakes , made from fermented rice , are commonlyeaten
,ahd ball s of rice-flour mixed wi th the subs tance s
used ins tead of yeas t are often t o be seen hanging on al ine outside Baj au houses
,where they are left unti l fermenta
t ion has set in . Tapai cakes a re not unpleasant to eat, thel iquor from the fermented rice-flour tas t ing some thing likebrandy sauce .Unhusked rice i s prepared for cooking exactly as amongthe Dusuns — that i s to say, by pounding the padi, as rice inthe husk i s called
,in a wooden mortar unti l the grain i s
separated from the chaff,winnowing away the latter in an
open tray-l ike baske t,and washing the rice before cooking
in two or three changes of water.Intoxicants are of course forbidden to both tribe s a sMohammedans
,but though infraction of thi s ord inance of
their rel igion i s not very common,a few Mohammedan
2 2 4 Food IntoxicantsChinaman can usual ly be detected by certain bodi ly Signs .What the reason for thi s i s I do not know. Possibly theMalayan people s have naturally more weakly consti tutionsthan the Chine se ; or the vice, being of more recent introduction among these peoples
,has a greater demorali sing effec t
on them than on the inhabi tants of far Cathay ; or the Malayi s more reckle ss in hi s indulgence than the Chinaman .
CHAPTER XXIV
LO VE,C O URT SH IP é
’
y MARR IAGE
O URTSHIP and marriage among the Baj aus are notsubj ect s about which I can wri te a great deal
,though
I was once pre sent at a Baj au marriage,or at any
rate a t the ceremonies performed on the final day. Thenumber of wives which a Mohammedan native may takeunto himself— name ly
,four— i s l imited by Mohammedan
law,based
,I presume
,on the teachings of the Koran.
As among the pagans,Mohammedans pay a be’r ian at
marriage , though thi s, instead of being looked upon as aperquisi te of the woman’s relat ions
,is frequently put by
for the benefit of any children who may be born,and held
in trust by the mother and father of the girl . The usualbér ian mentioned in the case of a commoner i s three pikul sof bras s (cannon) . The pikul i s 100 kattie s ( I kattie i s equalto A pikul of brass was formerly valued at $5o °
oo
Mexican . The present value i s about $2 o °
oo according toOrang Kaya Arsat. At the presen t day cannon may not beactual ly included in the be’r ian given, cat tle, buffaloes, gongsor other bras s-ware
,reckoned to be their equivalent in value
,
being received instead .The portion
,or portions
,of the marriage ceremony which
I saw was the process ion of the bridegroom to the bride’shouse
,escorted by a number of young men wearing kri ses
,
and the whole,or part
,of the actual wedding ceremony.
As I made no notes at the t ime I have to rely on my memoryof an event which happened some five years ago
,hence
there may be errors in my description . The firs t par t ofihe ceremony that [ witnes sed in the house was a generalmeeting of al l those interested in the marriage
,except the
r 2 25
2 2 6 Love,Courtship Marriage
bride,who was not pre sent. The terms of the contrac t
were reci ted and the husband publicly - in s tructed in'
hi sdut ie s as a married man by one of the e lders of the mo sque
- the Imam,I bel ieve. The res t of the performance con
s i s ted of ceremonially putting the couple to bed and themomentary appearance of the bride in order to sit with thebridegroom before the assembled company ; but I cannotclearly remember which part of the ceremony camefirst— I
rather think the putting to bed .
The Baj au bride and bridegroom are lucky in not havingto endure the lengthy bé’rsanding (ceremony) which Malaycouple s have to undergo
,both bride and bridegroom Si tt ing
almos t motionle ss,perhaps for hours together
,while their
re lat ions and friends come to pay their re spec t s and makepresent s of money. The gl impse we obtained of the Baj aubride was fleeting
,and I was told that she would no t have
s topped a s long as she did had I not expre s sed a wish tosee the bridal costume . I do no t remember that the bridegroom’s dres s differed in any important particular from thatworn by the average young Baj au on occas ions of ceremony
,
with,perhaps
,the exception that he wore a kri s
,but the
bride’s head was crowned with a kind of silver tiara,and she
wore a set of s ilver ornament s exact ly l ike the guard s usedby rich Chinamen to pro tec t the ir longfinger-nail s. As faras I can recol lect, these are used on the right hand only, andthree of them form a set
,the poin t s of the thumb and second
finger no t be ing covered . At any rate two se ts which Ipurchased comprise only three guard s each.
Of course a Baj au wedding i s an opportuni ty for a feas t,
which i s not likely to be ignored,hence there i s always a
large gathering of vi l lagers a t every wedding. Matriarchyobtaining to a certain extent among the Baj aus
,the bride
groom does not take hi s bride home to hi s father’s house,
or immediately se t tle down in a dwe l l ing of his own,but
s tops for about two months wi th hi s wife’s people,employing
hi s t ime,perhaps
,during thi s cus tomary
2 2 8 Love,Courtship Marriage
very trying experience, and he seemed comparat ively seldomto in s tal l a substi tute. The reason for thi s practice i s thata body-snatching spiri t
,the B erbalan
,i s thought to be con
tinually on the prowl to plunder newly made graves, and ,j udging by the Il lanun’s procedure
,he has a particular desire
to di sturb those of persons of good family.D ivorce among the Baj aus and Illanuns i s given accord ingto Mohammedan cus tom
,the third or final d ivorce be ing
absolute . In the Malay Penin sula a man who has final lyd ivorced hi s wife can take her back by get ting her nominal lymarried to another man
,known as a China buta (blind
Chinaman) , who then divorce s her before she re-marrie sher former husband . Thi s absolute d ivorce may be g1venin the firs t place. Firs t d ivorce or second divorce (talak dua,talak tiga) are le s s severe forms, and the husband may takehis wife again wi thout ceremony
,provided that thi s i s done
within a s tated time,while during that time his wife may
not marry ano ther man . Should the allot ted period haveexpired
,and the husband
,having though t matters over
again,wish to take his wife back
,he can do so
,but mus t
re-marry her. D ivorce doe s not, however, seem to be veryfrequently resorted to.
CHAPTER XXV
MANUFACTURES
HE Illanuns,and e special ly their women
,are makers
of article s of considerable beauty. The Baj aus ofthe Tempassuk are much less Skil led , but the
women are fairly expert cloth-weavers,an art which they
seem to have learn t from the ir Il lanun si s ters . Formerlythe Il lanuns had a great reputation as s i lversmiths
,but um
fortunately the Il lanun Si lversmith i s now extinct,having
been ous ted by the enterpri s ing Chinaman . The nativeworker in Malays ia i s
,owing to hi s methods
,always at a
d isadvantage as regard s the latter ; for the Chine se craft sman i s a special i s t, who, when he i s not working on ordershe has received from customers
,i s turning out good s for
stock,so that he may have some thing to sel l when a poss ible
purchaser comes along.Supposing you want an article made by a native craftsman
,
the following sort of experience probably befall s you,the
article you want being,say
,a bras s betel-box. Firs t of al l
you must find out where there i s a brass-worker. Aftermany futile inquirie s you hear that there i s one in a villagethree miles away . Sett ing out for thi s place, and havingtaken several wrong turns
,you at las t arrive at his house
,
only to find that he i s out catching a buffalo or has gone toa vi llage a mile or so away in order to vi s i t a s ick re lative.A messenger is sent to fetch him
,and after a wait of a
couple of hours he arrives .The next trouble i s that he has no ready-made boxes instock
,no metal from which to manufacture even one
,and
no money to buy i t wi th . This makes i t neces sary to give hima money advance
,and he then has to search for someone
2 2 9
2 30 Manufactureswho has some broken bras s article s sui table for meltingup. The metal once obtained
,he will work upon your
order in the in terval s be tween padi-plant ing and fishing,
therefore you must not expect to receive the comple tedart icl e for a month or more ; but i f you give him a freehand and pay a good price
,so that he is interes ted in show
ing you what he can do,he will probably turn you out
a really beautiful piece of work. Unfortunately,unles s
native craftsmen can be taught to special i se,i t seems l ike ly
that as a clas s they are doomed to extinction,owing to the
competi t ion of the Chinese worker,and of the cheap and
shoddy imitat ions of native-made article s which are manufactured in Europe .Probably cloth-weaving wil l be carried on in the Tempassuk
long after bras s-cas ting,wood-carving and weapon-making
have become lo s t art s . The Baj au or Illanun young man isextremely fond of dres sing himself up in fine clothes
,and
the article of clothing by which he se t s mos t s tore,i f he
posses se s one,i s an expensive native-woven head-cloth.
Some of these cloths,e specially i f they contain much
gold thread,are priced at anything up to thirty dol lars
,
though the cheaper kinds can be purchased for a dol lar or adol lar and a half.Tempassuk cloths have a considerable reputation outs id e
the di stric t, and are exported to some extent to Tuaran ,where the Baj aus do not weave cloth
,or even farther afield .
Many of the Baj au and Illanun women of the di s tric t spend agreat deal of their t ime in weaving these cloths ; and in somevi l lages
,e special ly the I llanun settlements near Pindasan
,
the clack-clack of the weaver’s sword as She heats up thelast-placed thread s of the cloth can be heard i ssuing fromevery house. The man whos e wife i s a good weaver needdo very l i t tle work
,but can l ive on the proceeds from the
sale s of her manufactures,which she herself often peddles
In the local markets .In former days native- spun cotton thread and native dyes
2 3 2 Manufacturesfil led in with floral patterns in rai sed weaving
,while in the
more expensive specimens the whole of the border andcentral portion s i s a lmos t sol id rai sed weaving.
Two varie ties of sleeping-cloth are made : one,the kain
noga, i s composed of either two or three piece s of clothplaced edge to edge and s ti tched together. The maj ori tyof these cloth s are s triped
,and the stripe s are worn
hori zontal ly across the body,the longi tud inal edge s of the
compound cloth being sewn together so that i t forms a sortof bottomle ss sack like the Malay sarong : the wearer usuallydraws the garment on over hi s head and sl ips i t off over hi sfeet . When Sleeping the whole body i s wrapped up in thecloth.
I was lucky enough to obtain one magnificent spec imen ofthe other type of S leeping-cloth
,the kain anzpik, of a mos t
unusual kind,which
,cOnsidering the time that i t must have
taken to weave,was a bargain at the price I paid for i t
-four dol lars,or about seventeen Shil l ings . '
The bordersof the cloth were ornamented wi th a sol id band of rai sedweaving in d ifferen t colours and gold thread ; the body ofthe cloth was black relieved by a somewhat Sparse arrangement of yellow and white s tar-l ike flowers in rai sed weaving
,
except for a s trip of sol id rai sed weaving about a foot widerunning from top to bottom. There are s everal varie tie sof the kain anzpik, but thi s band of pattern down the back i si t s d i s t ingui shing feature.This
,a mos t wonderful piece of work
,was decorated wi th
small geometrical and o ther patterns in red,yellow
,white
and gold thread . As every colour and d ivi sion of thepat tern require s i t s own smal l needle-Shut tl e
,or i s S imply
worked in by hand,i t will be real i sed that the Ski ll meces
sary for weaving such a cloth mus t be of no mean order,
and the t ime taken to complete i t many months .Il lanun cloth i s of better qual i ty than that produced by
the Baj au women , the weaving be ing finer and the texturecloser. ‘This i s
,I bel ieve
,partly due to greater skil l in
Manufactures 2 33
weaving and partly to the thread s of the woof be ing be t terbeaten up wi th the weaver’s sword . The loom used byboth peoples i s only a l i tt le les s primitive than that of theDusuns
,there being no loom-frame proper beyond the cloth
and warp-beams. The treadle s are worked by strings ;there i s a hard-wood sword for beating up the warp threads,and a comb for keeping the woof threads in proper order.Two other handicrafts in which the Baj au and Il lanunwomen are experts are the making of mats and ' baskets .Both are manufactured from the l eaves of the screw-palmor pandanus
,cut into long strips
,and some of the bes t mats
are of extreme ly fine texture. The round,squat and open
mouthed basket s used chiefly for holding pad i are alsoexcellent specimens of work
,and are sometimes ornamented
with pat terns in colours. Small two-piece walle t s for holding tobacco
,gambier
,etc.
,where one section sl ips over the
other,and which somewhat resemble cigar-case s in shape,
are made from the same materials,and these too are
decorated wi th pattern s in various colours.Embroidery i s no t much used for ornamenting article s ofclothing
,but I have seen some long mats w i th very nicely
worked embroidered corners at the ir heads,and embroidered
ends are sometimes found on the round and rectangularpillows which are in general use. Small breast-pockets onmen’s coats are occasionally embe ll i shed with foliate pattern sin red thread or s ilk
,as also are ornamental false lacings on
the fronts of j acke t s .Allied to baske t-work i s the making of covers for d ishes.These are in the Shape of a truncated cone and consi s t of awooden framework
,covered with broad strips of pandanus
leave s running perpendicularly,which are dyed in various
colours and sewn to the frame. Ornaments,cut ou t of
pandanus leaf,either geometrical or in the Shape of flowers
,
are often s t i tched on the outside of the cover,e specially if
the covers are used on the occasion of feasts .The Bajau men of several vi l lage s near the sea
,no tably
2 34 Manufacturesthose of Kampong Kolambai
,near the Pangkalan Abai in
the Tempassuk di stric t, are expert s in making she l l brace le tsand armlets. The cheapes t kind i s made from a specie s ofgiant clam or Tr idacna
,which the natives call kima. A
Single valve of a large Tr idacna shel l wil l have a thicknes sof an inch or more except near the edge s . From theselected shel l — which mus t be an old one
,as new shell s are
said to be too bri t tl e — a piece of sui table s i ze i s cut,and a
large hole i s then roughly chipped out in the centre of thepiece. After thi s the edges of the embryo brace le t are rubbeddown with sand and water on a large s tone . The sameblock of s tone
,and the same part of i t
,being always used
for thi s purpose,a deep groove i s worn in i t
,which helps
material ly in the forming of the bracele t. The article,
having been brought to a regular shape,i s smoothed and
pol i shed,and when finished fe tches about a dollar in the
local markets .The finer kind of brace le t i s made from a specie s of large
Conus shell,local ly cal led sulau. The top of the shel l i s cut
off and treated in a fashion S imilar to that already describedfor making Tr idacna bracelets ; but as She l l s of suffi cients i z e are d ifficul t to obtain
,and the material i s bri t tle
,and
therefore more diflicult to work,ful l-S i zed bracele t s of thi s
kind are sold for a s much as three or four dollars.Brass-cast ing and S ilver-work have already been mentionedthe former indus try i s s t i l l carried on by a few Illanuns
,the
method employed being the cira perduta process . Thechief art icle s now made are heavy rectangular sireb-boxes
,
often qui te plain,or with only a few slightly engraved floral
pat tern s on the cover ; but I have seen some modern piece sornamented wi th large lozenges of copper inlay. The artof brass-working i s rapid ly dying out
,and very probably wil l
be actually dead in another twenty years’ t ime . The price sa sked for large piece s of modern work are prohibi t ive
,and
thi s probably mil i tate s against the chance s of the art everbeing revived .
2 36 Manufacturesin to each funne l and allowed to percolate through the ashesand down into the canoe. The proce s s i s repeated severalt ime s ti l l i t i s cons idered that al l the sal t mixed with theashes has been carried off
,and an almos t sa turated sal t
solut ion has fil led the canoe. The sal t-maker then s tart sa fire in a fireplace cons i s t ing of two long paral lel mudwall s
,set near together and about three and a half to four
fee t high,one wall being pierced at the base with hole s set
a t regular in terval s,which al low of the fire being at tended
to,and perhaps make a draught. The sal t solution i s then
poured out in to shal low rectangular di shes made of palmSpathes
,each about one foot six
,or nine
,inches long by a
foo t broad . These are placed in rows transverse ly on topof the wal l s of the range and the contents cooked unti lal l the water has been driven out . Just before the sal tbecomes dry i t i s marked out in to bars with a knife in orderto fac i l i tate divi s ion of the cakes into smaller piece s. Thefini shed product i s greyi sh whi te in co lour
,and each cake
has a browned or blackened crust at the bot tom where i thas been in contact wi th the di sh .
The making of po ttery is in the hands of the women and ,though no po t ting wheel i s u sed
,very credi table cooking
pots and water-gourd s in reddish-coloured ware are turnedout. Some pieces are s lightly decorated with pat ternsproduced wi th the aid of small wooden s tamps, and aregiven a coating of damar gum.
One other small indus try i s perhaps deserving of mention ;thi s i s the making of l ime for mixing with the sireh-chew.
Lime i s made by burning coral, the shell s of sadd le-backoyster
,or of other marine molluscs . At Tuaran pink l ime
i s often to be seen on sale in the local markets,but I am
unable to say by what method i t i s coloured . Both limeand sal t are largely traded with the up
-country Dusuns,but the latter sometimes make an inferior qual i ty of l imefor themse lve s by burning fresh-water shel l s .The amount of trading carried on by the Baj aus of the
Manufac tures 2 37Tempassuk i s now not large, and i s chiefly l imi ted to thebartering of fish
,sal t
,sireb
,l ime
,Baj au cloths and a few
other article s with the peoples of the interior. In formerdays they seem to have acted as midd lemen between theChine se buyers of j ungle produce and the Dusun collectors ;but as the country i s now in a peaceful s tate the Chine seare no longer afraid to attend the markets
,and so deal
d irectly wi th the Dusuns,wi thout employing an expensive
and generally untrustworthy go-between. Occasionally aBrunei trader who does not wish to make a prolonged s tayin the di stric t wil l commiss ion a Baj au to buy a largequanti ty of Dusun tobacco for export ; but as the Baj augeneral ly i s minus both money and mos t of the promisedtobacco when the Brune i man’s boat puts in again
,the
transaction rarely has a very sati sfac tory ending for e i therparty
,the Baj au being haras sed by the law
,which i s set in
motion by the Brunei,and the lat ter
,i f he ever see s hi s
money again,probably having to be content wi th somewhat
irregular instalments.As the Baj aus have large herd s of cattle and buffaloes
,
and a fair number of ponies,quite a trade in them is
developing as the country becomes more opened up. Alarge number of cattle for kil ling purpose s are embarkedon the small local s teamer for shipment to the towns everytime she cal l s at Usakan . Buffaloes are exported to theMarudu d i stric t
,where they can be sold at a good price
for work on the e s tate s ; but a fair number are al sopurchased by up country Dusuns e i ther d irectly from theBaj aus or from the Chine se
,who buy animal s from the
Baj aus in order to barter them to the Dusuns for j ungleproduce. The be s t of the Tempassuk-bred ponie s arein fair demand local ly
,and also among the Europeans of
Tuaran and Jessel ton.
CHAPTER XXVI
C O CK-FIGHT I NG,GAMBL I NG ts O THER AMUSEMENT S
O CK-FIGHTING and racing,together with hunting
,
which I have described e l sewhere,are probably the
three amusement s mos t in favour among the Baj aus .The firs t i s largely prac ti sed on every occasion when matche scan be arranged . During my residence at Kotabelud thereused to be cock-fighting every Sunday afternoon at theChinese Shops . Here used to assemble numbers of localBaj aus
,some of the more sophi s t icated Dusuns
,Chinese
shopkeepers and native policemen.The matches had usually been fixed in advance and
,in
mos t case s,the meri t s of the respective bird s were fairly
well known . I have never seen artificial spurs among theBaj aus
,though they are used by the Dyaks of Sarawak ;
consequently the sport was no t so cruel a s i t would havebeen with these aids . Charms are largely employed by theowners of fighting cocks to ensure the invulnerabi l i ty oftheir champions
,and to cause them to inflic t serious wounds
on the ir opponents . Ancient stone implements are thoughtspecial ly potent for this purpose
,i f the bird’s beak and spurs
are rubbed with them.
An umpire preside s at cock-fights, he and the owners ofthe birds being the only persons admitted to the ring
,which
i s sometimes enclosed within a bamboo fence . The two
owners squat opposite to each other,hold ing their bird s on
the ground between their hands,and after an invo luntary
peck or two on e i ther s ide,which they are forced to give
by their mas ters,at a signal from the umpire the combatant s
are released and the battl e begins . I t i s necessary for abird to run from it s opponent three times before i t i s
2 38
2 4 0 Cock-fighting, Gambl ing , Amusemen tsProbably gambl ing takes rank even before cock-fighting
as a Baj au amusement. S ince the es tabl i shment of theChartered Company’s rule
,gambling
,as was the case unti l
recently in the S trai t s Settlement s and the Federated MalayS tate s
,has been mad e a monopoly
,the righ t to erec t
gambl ing-house s in townships and out-s tations being knockeddown to the highes t bidder
,invariably a Chine se towkay.
With the gambl ing monopoly go the monopo l ie s for dealingin opium or Spiri t s and pawnbroking : in smal l se ttlementsl ike Kotabelud or Tuaran al l three busine sses are oftenconducted under one roof
,though a separate part of the
house or an adj oining shop i s reserved for the gamblingestabl i shment.I have always been very much opposed to grandmotherly
legi slat ion,passed by cranks and faddi s t s
,usually a small but
very active minori ty,who sometimes manage to impo se their
wi l l on the people of Britain and o ther countrie s,owing to
the maj ori ty being too la z y to band together to defend i t sl ibert ie s . Furthermore, I believe that at tempts to makepeople good by law are seldom permanently succes sful , theusual resul t being that a vice which has been rigorouslysuppressed
,ins tead of be ing control led wi thin decent l imits
,
i s supplan ted by ‘another whose effects are even moredisas trous .Thi s does no t
,however
,imply that I look upon the
gambling shops,where the Baj au squanders hi s weal th, with
any friendly eye ; but the reason for my d isl ike i s not basedon Puri tanical grounds . When Baj au gambled wi th Baj auaffairs were probably quite bad enough, and the di scomfortand damage caused to the communi ty at large undoubtedlysevere ; but the loss of one man was the gain of another,and the property or money s taked st i l l remained within thetribe .A much worse s tate of things i s now prevalent ; the
Baj au’s property and money go to enrich the owners of thegambling monopoly ; hi s goods are pledged in order to
2 4 2 Cock -fighting, Gambl ing , Amusemen tsnative s themselve s
,a smal l fee be ing paid to the manager
of the gambling- shop to al low them to use i t.Among the chief articles which find their way into the
pawnshop to supply money for gambling are heavy oldbras s betel-boxes — often very beautiful specimens of thebras s-cas ter’s art— old S ilver-ware and various types ofweapons . The very bes t weapons
,with fine blade s
,l arge
ivory bird-Shaped tops to the hil t s and silver mountings,are
somewhat rare ly to be found exposed for sale among theunredeemed pledges
,S ince they are regarded as heirlooms
by the natives ; and though there may be many of them inthe pawnshop
,their owners nearly always manage to keep
the interes t on them paid up and to renew the t icket speriod ical ly. Nevertheles s the pawnshop i s a happy huntingground for those who have sufficient ins ight to be able toadmire the beauti ful old brass-ware
,while the les s highly
priced native weapons and betel-boxe s can be picked uprid iculously cheap .To obtain a good col lect ion
,perseverance
,t ime and trouble
are as nece s sary for succes s as in most o ther matters. I t i squi te use les s to go once to the pawnshop and come awaygrumbling that there i s nothing nice in the place. Vi s i t smus t be paid periodically
,say every fortnight, and before
long some beautiful Specimen wil l be obtained which wil l bemore than suflicient reward for the trouble taken .
The very bes t weapons,even if obtainable
,are
,accord ing
to European ideas,extremely expensive. The large ivory
hil t of one of these alone may,accord ing to nat ive ideas,
be worth anything from twenty to thirty dollars ; andSixty dollars (about £7 Engli sh) would no t be at al l anout-of-the-way price for a fine kri s (sundang) . Parang
ilang, real ly Dyak or Kayan weapons, so-called krises withfine blade s but wooden or very smal l ivory hil t s
,and heavy
bladed Sulu pida (sometimes called barong) can, however, befrequently bought for anything from one to three or fourdollars .
Cock -fight ing,Gambling
,Amusements 2 4 3
The gambling-house in an out-s tation with a Baj au population i s generally crowded with natives the whole day long ,and I am afraid that beside s the Baj aus some of the lowcountry Dusuns
,e specially those of Tuaran
,are rather
badly infected with the gambling fever.Racing on ponies
,buffaloe s or cattle i s also a very favourite
amusement among the Baj aus . When I was stationed in theTempassuk regular race-meetings used to be got up (if Iremember rightly) every Thursday on an Open space nearthe bridle-path which leads from Kotabelud to Usakan Bay
,
while native sport s arranged by Europeans,especial ly i f
they include pony-races,are most enthusiast ically welcomed .
The l i ttle native ponie s,though extremely hardy
,are given
practical ly no at tention ; the ir rough coats are never brushedor groomed
,and great patche s of hair are often destroyed
by the ravages of numbers of large cat tle-ticks.A saddle is frequently absolute ly dispensed with ; the
reins are of rope and the bi t i s a curious native-made brasssnaffie . I have seen natives riding in the most reckles s wayduring a race
,apparently intoxicated wi th exci tement : they
ye l led,threw their bodies and arms about
,and apparently
guided their ponie s almost entirely with the ir knee s,though
they now and then be laboured their s teeds wi th a rattanSwitch
,a very effective l i t t le instrument consi s ting of three
or four smal l round canes bound together at one end toform a handle.An account of Baj au and Illanun amusements would not
be comple te w i thout some reference to native dancing, andespecial ly to the berunsai, a form of dance which i s, I be l ieve,peculiar to the Baj aus . In the ordinary native dances, inwhich only one or two male performers take part
,the
posturing motions so much in favour in Java and other island sof the Archipelago are much in evidence .In dance s i llustrating warfare a sword of the type called
sundang i s placed on the floor,the blade and the sheath
be ing crossed . Round these the sol i tary performer, a man,
2 4 4 Cock -fighting, Gambling, , Amu sem en ts
revolve s to the music of gongs and drums. His arms,wris ts
and hand s are cons tantly in mot ion,and hi s body turns
s lowly, whi le his fee t keep time to the music wi th curioushalf-s tamping
,half-shuffl ing steps . He 1s Showing the
audience how strong and how bo ld a man he i s ; the s tre tching of the arms in tense po si t ions, the slow upward turningof the palms of hi s hand s
,the defiant stamping of the fee t
and the fierce air of the dancer al l being calculated to conveythese impres s ions . The onlookers by thi s t ime have becomeStirred up to a tremendous pi tch of exc i tement
,and yell s of
applause gree t every fresh po s ture of defiance . Suddenlythe performer shade s hi s eyes wi th hi s hand — he has spiedan enemy. He sei ze s the weapon from the ground andmanoeuvre s to gain an advantage over his approaching adversary. He sinks to the ground and s teal thily crawl s toward shi s imaginary opponent
,who presumably i s us ing identical
tact i c s . Final ly there comes the dash into the open,the
quick s tabbing of hi s enemy and the conqueror’s dance ofdefiance and victory. A clever dancer can 80 work thenat ive s up that they seem to lose al l sense of the unreal ityof the performance
,whil e the air i s rent with yel ls and
war-crie s .I once saw a very amusing monkey-dance performed bytwo men who had s tuck pieces of raw cot ton on their eyebrows and chins
,the make -up being intended to give them
the appearance of kra-monkeys . Their antics were so
ridiculously comic that they brought down the house,
” thenat ive s
,another European and myself, being absolute ly
incapable wi th laughter.The peculiar Baj au dance call ed be‘runsai i s preceded bya musical entertainment
,and sometimes by o ther dance s,
which may las t for anything up to a couple of hours, theperformance starting at about eight or nine R M . and last ingtil l dayl ight . At one berunsai which I wi tne ssed the musicalin s trument s consi s ted of three large
,broad-edged gongs with
large and proj ecting bo sses of the kind called tawag-tawag ;
2 4 6 Cock -fighting, Gambling , Amusemen tswomen en ter the circl e by thi s gap
,and the leader of the
women grasps the scarf which hangs from the left Shoulderof the men’s leader
,the other women at taching themselve s
behind her in single fi le . The men then begin to pay thewomen al l Sorts of extravagantly Eastern complimen ts
,each
verse being chanted by the men’s leader and taken up byhi s fol lowers
,to which the women reply that the men are
making fun of them. The pace becomes increased,a
regular s tep taking the place of the walk ; the circle i sentirely closed and the women move farther into the cen tre
,
but re tain the ir posi t ion wi th regard to the men’s leader.The men pres s their at ten tions on the women only to mee twi th a sharp rebuff ; and as the fire of sally and re tortbecomes hotter and hot ter
,so the dance increases in pace
until the men are (supposedly) worked up to a great pitchof exci tement and the whole circle i s revolving at a tremeudous rate
,almost every s tep of the dance becoming a terrific
s tamp.Then the women
,feigning to be frightened at the angry
pass ion s they have s tirred up in the men,re l en t somewhat
,
and as their an swers become les s provocative,so the ardour
of the men also le s sen s in degree,ti l] at length the dance
fall s away into a Slow step and finally into a walk,though a
slow chanted interchange of compliment s and repl ie s i s s t il lkept up. Present ly the dance again increase s in in tensi tywi th a quicker exchange of pleasantries
,but only to d ie
away gradually as before . Thus the performance continue st i l l the early hours of the morning.
CHAPTER XXVII
REL IG IO N 6 FO LKLO RE
OMINALLY bo th the Baj aus and the I llanuns areorthodox Mohammedan s of the Sunni te sect
,but
actual ly they are extremely lax in the observanceof the precepts of the ir re l igion ; not that their belief in i t struth i s any way weak, but their ideas are somewhat similarto those of the Peninsula Malays
,who seem to reckon on
late repentance as a mean s of ridding themse lve s of theburden of the ir s ins . The Baj aus have the further excusethat Mohammedan teachers of any erudi tion are extreme lyrare among them.
The great mass of the people i s i l l i terate,and therefore
not even books on re l igious subj ect s,wri t ten in Malay
,can
be read by them . Of course even the l i terate Malay of thePeninsula i s unable to unders tand the Koran
,al though he
can read the Arabic,s ince the characters in which Malay
i s now written were originally introduced by the Arabs whoconverted so many of the tribes of the Archipelago to there l igion of the Prophet. He has to rely on the exposi
tions of Koran teachers,and on pious commentaries in the
vernacular. So far as I know, no attempt has ever beenmade to translate the Koran into any language used in theEastern Archipelago
,and I be l ieve that anyone making an
attempt to do so would be excommunicated ” for impiouslydaring to tamper with the sacred book by translating i t intothe common tongue .The average Baj au man
,at any rate in hi s young days
,
se ldom attend s mosque on Fridays or keeps the fastingmonth of Ramadan. All Mohammedan youths undergocircumci sion
,but beyond thi s, and abstention from pork,
2 4 8 Rel igion Fo lkloreand generally from intoxicating l iquor
,their re l igion seems
but l i t tl e to affect their dai ly l ife. The five dai ly prayertimes are neglected
,except by such as aspire to be
considered pious,and by old men who are preparing
themselve s to pas s into the next world .Sharips
— al leged descendant s of the Prophet,of partly
Arab blood — of whom there are a fair number in theTempassuk, are, however, regarded with great re spec t, asare al so baj is or re turned Mecca pilgrims, a fac t of whichunscrupulous impos tors have not been slow to take ad
vantage . In one case a bogus holy man travelled aboutthe country
,present ing the S imple inhabi tant s wi th spurious
gold d inars (a Turki sh gold co in) , which he was careful toinform hi s host s were extremely old
,valuable and sacred
,
as he had brought them al l the way from the holy ci ty ofMecca. As in the Eas t a pre sent cal l s for a pre sent
,and
usual ly a larger one than that received,the good man was ’
soon loaded with valuable property presented to him by hi sgrateful admirers. Unfortunately for him
,someone at las t :
found out that the valuable co ins were only gi l t,and the
good man was arres ted . The plea that he had given awaythe coins
,on which he depended for an acquittal
,should
hi s trick be di scovered,did not avail him
,and
,as far as I
remember,he invo luntari ly re tired to a cel l to medi tate on
matters rel igious or otherwise .Ano ther form of imposi t ion
,which would flouri sh were
i t not firmly suppressed,i s the collection of alms (sedekab)
by rel igious impo s tors for the nominal purpose of enablingthem to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca . This sort ofcheating is not usual ly done by native s, but by scoundrellywandering Pathans and o ther foreign Mohammedans fromthe towns
,who have as much in tent ion of going to Mecca
a s to the moon,there being
,of course
,absolutely no
obj ection to a native who really wishe s to vi si t Meccacollec ting local ly. This form of cheating i s extremelylucrative
,provided the culpri t can e scape de tection
,as mos t
2 50 Religion I Folkloreperformers seem to wan t to accompl i sh their obj ect wi ththe maximum amount of noise
,pos sibly in order to Show
forth their plety.
Hari Raya (the Great Day) , the firs t day of Shawal,the
month succeed ing Ramadan,and therefore the firs t day on
which those who have been fasting may take food and drink :
during the day- t ime,i s a general occas ion for feasting and
rej oic ing . The fini sh of the fast a t about six o’clock on thelas t day of Ramadan i s ushered in wi th the firing of smal lcannon and Chinese crackers
,the d in and smel l of gun
powder in particularly pious neighbourhood s being oftenappal l ing. No doubt fast ing i s a sevére trial
,as
,al though
food i s pl ent i fully partaken of at night,not even water may
be touched during the day-t ime,a serious deprivation in a
hot country ; and of course chewing sirek or smoking areequal ly forbidden .Among those who do attempt to observe the fas ting
month some do not persevere ti l l the end,and others
,
though I bel ieve thi s i s not frequently the case in theTempassuk, take both food and drink by steal th, in orderthat they may acquire an undeserved reputat ion for pie ty.The Baj au or Il lanun mosque i s u sual ly a sl ight houseshaped building with a palm-leaf at tap roof and side-wall sreaching only half-way to the eaves. The wall s are also ofat taps, and one end of the building, which has a n iche inthe wall
,face s towards Mecca. The fai thful are cal led to
prayers by beating a large single-ended drum with a longbody
,made from a sec tion of ho llow tree-trunk . The drum
i s often suspended in the build ing. Some of the vil lages ofthe Sulaman Inle t have mosque s buil t over the water.The officers of the mosque are the Imam or prie s t , the :
Khatib,who acts as reader
,and the Bilal, who cal l s the
fai thful to prayers . The man who performs the rite ofcircumci s ion i s known by the ti tl e of Mudin .
Undoubtedly both the Baj aus and Il lanuns,being but lax
Mohammedans,s ti l l cheri sh many supers ti t ions , re l ic s of an
Religion Fo lklore 2 51
older form of rel igion,which would be denounced as heathen
by more orthodox fol lowers of the Prophet ; but to mymind their rel igious ideas are interes ting j us t so far as the i rMohammedani sm i s bad
,or perhaps better
,so far as the ir
earlier animistic beliefs survive. I must,however
,plead
guil ty to having done bu t l i t tle work on thi s subj ect,as I
had so many more subj ects for investigation among theDusuns
,and so l i ttle le i sure in which to make inquiry
,that
I thought i t usele s s to Spend my time in at tempting togather remnants of bel iefs
,many of which had received a
Mohammedan veneer of respectabil i ty .In several cases
,when taking down folk-tale s from Baj au s
,
I have been annoyed to find,after I had been wri ting for
some t ime,that I was getting storie s of the doings of the
Prophe t or some of his followers — narrat ive s which,of
course,were no t native to the soil of Borneo. In fact I
almos t gave up trying to collect Baj au s tories for thi s reasofi,
and I am afraid I somewhat hurt the fee l ings of a Baj auwho was frequently at my house in company w i th a Dusunfriend of mine owing to the marked preference I gave tothe tale s of the lat ter.One of the chief non-Mohammedan ri tes practi sed by the
Baj aus,and also by the Dusuns
,i s the yearly launching of
small raft s or boats wi th offerings on them,in order to bear
away from the village troublesome spiri ts which are supposedto have assembled on the raft to partake of the offerings .S imilar rafts are made use of in the Malay Peninsula, andare generally called ancbak lancbong ; but here , I be l ieve,they are now chiefly set adrift in time s of sickne s s.The practice of medicine among the Baj aus i s a good dealmixed up with magical performances
,while texts from the
Koran,either writ ten on paper or repeated
,and much les s
orthodox recitat ions are used as charms,but I had not the
time to dip deeply into the subj ect. Blowings with themouth on the part affected are al so employed to re l ieve painby the old men who are reputed to be skil led in medicine.
2 52 Religion FolkloreSmall flags
,general ly of whi te cotton s tuff
,are sometimes
to be seen hung outside house s where someone is lying il lthey are possibly placed there with the intention of keepingaway evi l spiri t s .I was told of one rather peculiar remedy which is some
times employed when a chi ld i s thin and has a poor appeti te.Should the parent s hear that a crocodi le has been caughtnear any of the neighbouring vil lages
,the chi ld i s taken to
the spot and i t s hand placed in the dead animal’s mouth .
The idea i s that,as the crocod ile i s extremely voracious
,
a good appeti te will be induced in anyone whose hand i splaced in contact wi th i t s mouth .
2 54 Weapon s Warfarethe Il lanuns themselve s. Types of handle and blade somewhat s imilar to that of the kompilan are, however, found ini sland s farther to the east
,notably Celebes and Timor.
(See B ritisb M useum Handbook to tbc Etbnograpbical
Collections,p. 94 , (b) and
The kind of sword or dagger locally termed kris,but
called sundang or strandang by the Malays of the Peninsulaand of Sumatra (which , i f we are to accept them asau thori ti e s
,i s not a kri s at al l
,the Malayan kri s being u sed
only as a s tabbing and thrus ting weapon) , and the sundang forcut ting
,slashing and stabbing
,present rather a d ifficul t
problem as to their place of origin. Specimens of this typeof weapon are fairly commonly to be found in the MalayS tate s of the Peninsula and I bel i eve in Sumatra al so
,While
they are probably the weapons most in use among thecoas tal peoples of our two d i s tric t s and accord ing to report arederived from the Sulus. (See BritisbM useum Handbook to
tbc Etbnograpbical Collections, p . 95, Where a specimen fromSulu i s figured .) Possibly the sundang may have been introduced into the Peninsula and Sumatra by the pirates andtraders Who annual ly vi s i ted these Water s from Borneo andMindanao .Another weapon which bids fair to rival the kri s
(sundang) in populari ty is the pida or barong, al so a Suluweapon .
The companion of the kompilan or the long Illanun swordi s a peculiar type of sh ield cal led klasug. This s tands aboutfour feet high
,i s about one foot six inches broad , and has
a peculiarly shaped boss . As far as I have been able toascertain— for specimens are d ifficul t to obtain nowadaysthe Baj au shield was general ly circular and made of wood,but I bel ieve that more rarely rattan shield s l ike those ofthe up
-country Dusuns were to be found among the tribe .No doubt
,however
,weapons and Shield s of almost any type
made in thi s part of Borneo,or in those neighbouring
countrie s wi th which there was much intercourse, were in
Weapon s Warfare 2 55
use among the lowlanders,both Mohammedans and pagans
,
s ince I have had a klasug brought for sale to me by aDusun and a kompilan by a Baj au.True krises of the Malay or Javanese type s seem to beuncommon
,and are usually much pr1z ed. The value of
a Sulu kri s (sundang) i s es timated partly on the Workmanship of the blade
,but much more on the material from which
the hil t i s made. Weapons of thi s type,with qui te good
blade s and wooden hi l t s,can be picked up very cheaply ;
but a specimen w i th a fine blade,Si lver mountings and a
large ivory handle will command anything up to seventydollars or more. The art of damascening the blades ofweapons
,which formerly flouri shed in Sumatra
,Java and
the Malay S tates,seems never to have been deve loped
in the part of Borneo with which I am acquainted ; andwi th the except ion of the blades of a few Weapons (mostlyMalay type kri se s) which were obviously of fore ign origin
’
,
I never remember having seen thi s method of ornamentationemployed .The Baj aus and Illanuns appear to have formerly used
brass chain-mail coat s and some kind of bras s he lmet,which
was called atub-atub and very possibly copied from thoseworn by the Arabs. I made many endeavours to obtaina specimen of each of these articles
,but always wi thout
success . As far as I could ascertain , some European ona plantation near Kudat had formerly offered such highprice s for them that the local s tock
,never very large
,was
quite exhausted . Padded and quil ted coats ornamentedwith embroidered texts in Arabic characters
,which probably
had a tal ismanic use,were al so sometimes worn under the
coat of mail .Spears of various types
,which may be used ei ther for
s tabbing or throwing,are large ly used at the present day
in hunting . When not in use the ir head s are protectedby a Wooden sheath
,the two portions of which are bound
toge ther w i th rat tan cane . I was lucky enough to obtain a
2 56 Weapon s Warfarerare kind of Spear which was described to me as being onlyused by chie fs. It s peculiari ty l ie s in the fact that about afoot in the midd le of the shaft i s covered wi th the long anddel icate feathers of some kind of bird
,but i t i s al so decorated
j u st below the blade wi th a beauti ful ly worked s ilver mount .I bel ieve that the use of thi s weapon was ceremonial
,and
that i t was carried before a chief’
as a Sign of rank, j ust as
the short spears ornamented on the Shaft with bunche s of dyedvegetable fibre and known as tombak benderang are to thepresent day borne before Malay Sul tans on occasions of state .Brass cannon
,chiefly of the variet ie s known as lela and
rantaka, are s til l to be found s tored away in many Baj auand Illanun houses
,especial ly those of men of importance .
The maj ori ty of these weapons were cas t e i ther in Brune i orSulu. Li ttle toy cannon of the same metal are al so sometimes me t wi th. These were
,I believe
,and poss ibly s ti l l
are, used for firing blank charges on fes tive occasions, as, forinstance
,a t the end of the Ramadan fast.
The weapons of the Baj aus and Illanuns were uti li sedpartly agains t the ne ighbouring pagan tribes
,whom they
seem to have oppressed very badly ; partly again s t nat iveor even European shipping ; and, as I have mentioned el sewhere
,the I l lanuns were feared as far away as the coast s of
the Malay Peninsula. The Baj aus’ reputation as sea-robberswas only second to that of the Illanuns’
,the word Baj au
being almost synonymous with pirate.Abdullah
,a Malay munsbi (teacher) who l ived at S inga
pore and was somewhat of a protege of Raffle s and otherof the earl ies t admini s trators of that sett lement
,paid a visi t
to the eas t coast of the Peninsula,and in h is Pelayaran
Abdullab Abdullah’s Voyage which he wrote in 1 852 ,
he give s u s some idea of the fear inspired by the Illanunsin Pahang
,Trengganu and Kelantan ; indeed he fel l in ~
wi th a pirate prahu,apparently I l lanun
,at the mouth of
the Kelantan river,but was fortunate enough to e scape
moles tation on account of hi s having busines s wi th the raj a .
258 Weapons WarfareKelambang i n the P eninsula of Malacca . In Septemberand October they qui t these lati tude s in order to re tireto their haunts . During their return they s ti l l find timeenough for plundering the coasts of the I sle s of S iantan
,
Poeloe Laut and Tammelan.
“ The larges t k ind of prahus are d efended by doublene ttings, and have from 50 to 80 men on board . Theyhave two rows of oars
,each of 30, and are armed at the
head with 2 powerful guns of from 6 to 8,beside s 6 or 8
lilla or swivel s .”In another place he says : “ Under the name of Lanouns,we include the pirate s of Magindano, Su loo, and some place sin the neighbourhood of Borneo
,as Tuwara
,Tumbassa,
Mangkabo.
“ No fewer than 100 ves sel s are fi tted out at Magindano
and Suloo, 50 at Tuwara, 2 0 at Tumbassa and 2 0 atMangkabo [i.e. Tuaran, Tempassuk, Mengkabong] ; 5 or 6
are actually sent out from Sumroka t o Borneo,properly
so called [i.e. the terri tor i e s of the s tate of Brune i] , nearTanj ong B atoe .”
A few other quotat ion s from correspondence to be foundin these papers may al so be of in teres t :
“ Subsequent to the departure of her Maj e s ty’s shipSamarang from Bruné i n the month of October 1 844, oneo f the firs t measure s of the Raj a Muda Has sim
,on assuming
the re in s of Government,was an intimation to Sheriff
Hausman of Malludu [or Marudu] and to theTempassuk of his treaty wi th herfor the suppress ion of piracy
,warning them to de sis t
,
ordering them on no account to vi s i t or to trade with Brunéwhils t they continued to pirate .”
[MR BRO O KE to tbe EARL O F ABERDEENS INGAPO RE , 3Ist M arcb1845]
The pirate s on the coast of Borneo may be classed ' in
tho se who make long voyage s in large heavy-armed
Weapon s Warfare 2 59such as the Illanuns
,Balanigni, e tc., and the l ighter Dyak
flee t s which make Short but d e structive excursions in swiftprahus.
“ The next pirate horde we mee t wi th i s a mixed community of Illanuns and Baj ows (or sea gipsie s) , located atTempassuk, a few mile s up a smal l river [poss ibly thePindasan] . They are not formidable in number
,and their
depredations are chiefly committed on the Spanish terri tory.They might read i ly be dispersed and driven back to the irown country
,and the Dusuns or vi llagers (as the name
signifie s) might be protected and encouraged .
(MEMO RANDUM w itb tbe above)The Bornean pirate s were largely put down in the years
1844 to 1 8 49 by S ir E . Be l cher in command of H.M.S .Samarang and Captain the Hon. H. Keppel in command ofthe Dido
,but in the Return of Bounties paid for tbe Captui
ie
and Destruction of P irates in the same papers there is anentry of Illanun pirate s
,subj ect s of the Sultan of Sulu
,be ing
captured off Trengganu by H.M.S . Wob’ as early as 1 839,
while the taking of Malay pirate s,some of whom may have
been Illanuns,i s recorded as early as 1 8 37. Keppe l was
afterwards Admiral,and ti l l hi s d eath a Director of the
Briti sh North Borneo Company. He gave his name toProvince Keppe l . Much good work in suppressing piracywas also done by the Dutch, but this was chiefly elsewherethan on the north-we s t coas t of Borneo.In 1 846 vigorous action was taken agains t the pirates inthe Tempassuk, as i s se t forth in the j ournal of CaptainMundy (Events in Borneo, Celebes, and Labuan) , who was incharge of the Ir is
,which toge ther wi th the Agincour t, the
Haz ard,the Pblegetbon, the Spiteful, the Daedalus
,the
Ringdove and the Royalist took part in the expedi t ion, RearAdmiral S ir Thomas Cochrane
,who had hoisted his flag on
the Agincourt, be ing in command . This flee t, after deal ingwith the Dyak pirates in Sarawak and capturing the ci ty of
2 60 Weapon s WarfareBrune i , the Sul tan of which had murdered all those of hisrelat ions who were friend ly to the Bri ti sh
,proceeded along
what i s now the coas t of Bri t i sh North Borneo,and anchored
near Gaya Island,at the mouth of the Mengkabong river
,
and at Ambong,at which place they found that the
flouri shing vil lage,vi s ited and described by S ir Edward
Belcher only two months before,had been reduced to
ashes by Illanun pirate s in revenge for the help the inhabi tant s had afforded to the Bri ti sh by sell ing them cat tl eand provi s ions .On 3o th July the squadron had arrived at Ambong. On
the 3 l st, on rounding a promontory, a large prahu , whichMr Brooke
,who was wi th the expedi tion
,immediate ly
recogni sed from its pecul iar bui ld to be a war-boa t of theIl lanuns
,was seen pull ing at top speed towards the Tem
passuk river, and chase was given . To quote CaptainMundy’s own word s :
“ The Pblegetbon soon go t between him and the shore ,three boat s were sen t after him
,and pos ses s ion taken with
out re si s tance,for formidable as those pirate s are
,from
the ir number and feroci ty,no wonder they were appalled
a t the Sight of the squadron now before them. The boa twas s ixty fee t long
,and carried one long twelve
pounder,and two brass s ix-pound swivels . She was rigged
for six ty oars,with regular boarding ne ttings, but had
only ‘ twenty men and the captain on board,the s tern
sheets being occupied by a large bier,on which was placed
a mass ive teak coffin,handsomely ornamented . When the
chief was brought pri soner on the quarter-deck , and askedto What nation he belonged
,and why he was so crowded
with arms (she was ful l of kampelans — i.e. large doublehanded sword s— spears and kri se s) , he said at once
‘ I am an Illanun and a pirate chief. I sai led from hencewith four o ther vessel s on a cruise . One of the offi cersdied
,and wi th a portion of my crew I am now bringing him
to hi s home for decent burial .’
26 2 Weapon s Warfarebe at tacked and .destroyed . Sa Tabok admitted that he hadbroken hi s promises
,but he would not say whe ther he
would come to the Agincourt and give the pledge s required .
On the next day,no Signs of submission being shown
,
Captain M‘
t ae of the Badalas, with a force of twohundred and fifty seamen and marines
,was “ sen t in to the
river,wi th orders to des troy the war boats and canoe s
,
unless the chiefs oflered terms of submis sion.” They,how
ever,found the place deserted
,so all the war canoe s and the
principal bui ldings were burned . W hile the burning wasproceed ing the I llanun s were seen in the di s tance “ brandi shing their Spears in defiance
,and the chiefs on horseback at
the edge of the j ungle slowly moving backwards and forward s watching the ruin of the ir s tate ly dwel l ings .” But Ishould scarcely cal l s tately a word which could be appl iedto any Illanun build ing .
On the same day Captain Mundy was ordered to headanother exped i t ion to deal wi th the pirates of the Pandassan(Pindasan) river,
“ ten mile s to the north-eas t of theTempassuk,
” arrangement s being made for the vi s i t tobe paid on the following day (2md August) . S tarting atdayl ight in the Pblegetbon (a s teamer belonging to theHonourable Eas t India Company) , in which the commanderin-chief had hoi s ted the flag
,and with the gun -boats of
the Ir is and Ringdove in tow, the exped i t ion anchored off
the mouth of the Pindasan river,a notoriou s haunt of the
pirates,at eight A .M .
The exped i tionary force s consi s ted of one hundred andfifty seamen and marine s
,
“ exclusive of the Javanese crewunder Mr Ross.” Pindasan town or village was reached insafety
,and was found to have been evacuated by the in
habitants,who
,however
,had not had time to carry oflf the ir
“ furniture .” After sentrie s had been po s ted,Captain
Mundy,the Admiral — who had j oined the party at Pindasan
- Li eu tenan t Vansi t tart and a body-guard penetrated someway in to the surround ing coun try, and exchanged shots wi th
Weapons Warfare 2 63the enemy
,a few of whom were kil led during the ir re treat
to the hil ly ground .The idea had been that the Pindasan expedition should
j oin hands wi th the force s on the Tempassuk river underCaptam M‘
Qihae, but the ground being in a very bad s tate,
owing to heavy rains,thi s plan was abandoned ; so after
burning every house in the town and destroying the warboat s in course of construction
,one of which was a craft
“ fifty feet in length and beautifully buil t,
” the expedi tionre turned to the Pblegetbon and the same day the vesse lreturned to the mouth of the Tempassuk river and j oinedher consorts.On 3rd August the captured pirates were transferred tothe Ringdo
fve for passage to Manil la,where they were to be
given up to the Spanish Governor,and the squadron weighed
anchor and proceeded to the northward . In the afternoonof the same day three pirate prahus were discovered tryingto make good their e scape
,and were chased by the Royalist
’s
boats,when after an engagement twen ty of the pirate s
were k illed and two of the ir prahus destroyed ; there wereno casual tie s among the Royalist
’s crew
,owing to the
pirate s’ bad aim,though the la tter appear to have fought
desperately.After thi s the squadron passe s for a time out of thedi strict s with which we are concerned to vi s i t the Strongholdof Sheriff Osman in Marudu Bay (destroyed the yearbefore) , with a view to see ing whether that piratical Arabhad re turned and rebuil t hi s s tockades . Re turning fromMarudu Bay
,where they had found Sheriff Osman’s fortifications s til l deserted
,the Admiral set sai l for China
,accom
panied by the Dcedalus, Ringdove and Royalist.
Captain Mundy in the Iris, with the Haz ard andPblegetbon al so under hi s command , left for Ambong,anchoring on the same evening (7th August) at Batu Mandiand di spatching Lieutenan t L i ttle in charge of a party ina pinnace and a cut ter on a further expedition up the
2 64 Weapon s WarfarePindasan river. Li ttle was succe s sful in burning an Illanunvillage and had a brush wi th the pirates on the re turnj ourney. He al so captured and destroyed an Illanun vessel
,
whose crew escaped to the shore . The expedi tion rej oinedthe Iris and the res t of the squadron at Ambong
,which
they had reached on the evening of the 10th August.From thi s place sai l was made for Kimanis
,and thence to
the Membakut river to puni sh a pirate and marauder,one
Haj i Saman . Having me t wi th some succes s in deal ingwith thi s gentleman
,Captain Mundy vi si ted Brunei to keep
al ive the fear which Raj a Brooke had inspired in the Sultanduring a vis i t that he had paid to the country a short timebefore .Thence he again sail ed for the Tempassuk di s trict, call ing
in at Kimani s on the way,but was forced to make for
Marudu Bay by a storm before he could V lSlt“ the
pirat ical town of Sarang— only a few mile s d i s tan t from theBato Mande [Batu Mandi] rock s .
” Captain Mundy arrivedin Marudu Bay on 1 st September and on 9 th Septemberanchored off Ambong again
,after nine days of very bad
weather,during which he made three unsuccessful at tempts
to carry out the proj ected exped i tion again s t Sarang, beingon each occas ion obliged to run for safe ty by gales fromthe south-wes t quarter. Considerable fears were fel t forthe safety of the Haz ard, which had become separated fromher consort
,the Iris (the Pblegetbon with Raj a Brooke on
board had left for Sarawak some time previously) . How
ever,at daylight on l o th September the Haz ard was seen
in the ofling and before noon she was safely anchored .
News was obtained at Ambong that the Il lanun s of Sarang,
who had been j oined by the fugi tives from Pindasan andTempassuk, despairing of being able to offer a succes sfulresi s tance
,had removed their famil ie s and good s
,
“ and goneacross the country to the d i s tric t of Tungku
,on the eastern
Shore s of Borneo,
” whence presumably they re turned a ta later date . Having thus attained the obj ect of the
CHAPTER XXIX
ANT IQU IT IES
AM incl ined to think, with regard to ant iqui t ies , thati t i s qui te poss ible that some intere s ting finds may beawai ting the excavator in Bri ti sh North Borneo
,though
I do not mean to sugge st that any large build ings or buriedc it ie s wi l l reward hi s labours . From what I have seen ofthe Tempassuk d is tric t I should say that rel ic s of ancien toccupat ion are by 110 means uncommon. Though unfortun
a tely I had but l i ttl e t ime to devo te to the excavation of thelegendary s ite s of ancien t vil lage s or graves
,I managed to
do a l i tt l e work on one hill-top which was reported to havebeen occupied in former days by a Dusun vi l lage .The mos t in tere s ting col lec tion of antiqui t ie s that I wasable to make was one of stone implement s . These
,I bel ieve
,
had not been reported previously from Bri ti sh North Borneo,
though Dr Haddon had found one in Sarawak,and sub
sequently a fine collection of them was made by Dr Hoseand presented to the Cambridge Universi ty Museum ofEt hnography .The three s tone implements from Sarawak figured by
Ling Roth were,I bel ieve
,reported previously to thi s
di scovery ; but one of these , which i s of palaeol i thic type,was obtained from a dealer
,and i s doubtfully Bornean
,
while of the two others,which were found by Mr Hart
Everett,one i s from a bed of river gravel and appears to
be of palceolithic type, and the other, which was found ina cave
,i s a very rudely chipped obj ec t. All Dr Hose’s
specimens are of neol i thi c cul ture and are axe orad ze-head s .Thinking that i f s tone implements had been found in
2 66
An tiquities 2 67
Sarawak there was no reason why they should not occurin Bri t i sh North Borneo
,I began to make inquirie s among
the natives,aided by a catalogue of the National Museum
of Antiqui ties of Scotland which I happened to have by me.This contained a large number of i l lustrations of S cotti shStone implements
,and I soon found that I was on the track
of what I wanted,for the native s recognised the i l lustra
t ions as being picture s of s tone s S imilar to those knownto them as “ thund er tee th ” (gigi guntor) . These
,they
said,were found at the roots of coco-nut and other tree s
which had been struck by lightning. Disregarding thi ss tatement
,as native s wil l
,i f there be a legend that s tone
implemen ts are thunderbolts,persuade themselve s that they
found one which they posse ss under a tree which has beens truck
,I made a few further inquiries
,but without resul t.
One Sunday on going down to the Chine se Shops asusual to see what up-country natives had come in , and tohave a look at the cock-fighting, which was a weekly fixtureon that day
,I happened to see a Baj au draw out from his
pocke t some thing which I thought looked suspiciously l ikea s tone implement
,and rub the spurs of hi sfighting-cock
with i t. Call ing up Kéruak,the local Baj au chief
,who
happened to be in a shop close by,I asked him to ge t hold
of the man andfind out what sort of a s tone he was usingas a charm. O n our taking the man on one s ide he veryreluctantly produced a beautiful l i t tle axe -head made of agreen stone
,which looked very much l ike an inferior qual i ty
of j ade. He told me that he did not l ike Showing the
S tone to many people as i t dimin i shed i t s potency as acharm
,and he absolute ly refused to name a price for i t.
After this I set two or thre e men to hunt for me , andone of them brought me a very fine specimen
,of which I
was able to get a mode l made ; but here again the ownerwould not se ll
,al though a very tempting price was ofl
'
ered.
Subsequen tly when i t became known in the village s that Iwas hunting for gigi guntar, and offering large price s,
2 6 8 An tiqu it iesspecimens began to be brought in for sale
,some of the
vendors saying that their father or grandfather had seena tree s truck by l ightning and had dug under i t for thethunder tooth unti l he found it
,and others
,in the case
of newly found specimen s,generally tel l ing me fairly
enough that they had picked them up when working inthe ir padi-fields ; that they had noticed them lying atthe side of the track when riding along on their buffaloes ;or had seen them st icking ou t of a bank of earth the oldface of which had fal len away.In al l I managed to make a smal l col lection of thirteen
actual implements and two model s,while I was lucky enough
to find one smal l implement myself,which was lying on a
bank of earth beside the bridle-path leading from Kotabe ludto the s teamer wharf in U sakan Bay .
The material of which three of the implements are madei s a green nephri te ; four are manufactured from a closelygrained s tone which i s almos t j e t-black
,and looks l ike some
form of basal t,though the colour may be partly due to the
Specimens having been cons tantly rubbed and hand led bythe native s who found them ; whil e other three, and amongthem that which I found myself, are of local clays tone, sosoft that i t makes i t d ifficul t to unders tand how they canever have been real ly u sed as cut t ing instrument s. Theremaining two are made
,one of quart z and the o ther of
some k ind of sand stone.Most of the implements may be clas sed as axe or adze
head s of various types,but one of soft s tone has a gouge
l ike form,and two implements and one model are very
curious specimens,a s they are axe-l ike in shape
,but have
a double-cut t ing edge : what the use of these canhave been i t i s very diflicu lt to imagine.All stone implement s are highly pri zed as charms. They
are put into the pad i s tore to keep the padi in good cond i t ion ; water in which they have been soaked i s given tosick persons to drink ; sword s are rubbed with them in
2 70 An t iquit iesde script ions given me they would seem to be too smal l tohave been used for thi s purpose . Fragments of old ce ladonware are
,however
,not uncommonly to be me t wi th around
the base s of the foot-hill s,and I have frequen t ly picked
them up myself.One Baj au who knew that I was in terested in ancient
obj ects told me that he and a companion had once foundan ornament of twi s ted gold — from his description I imaginei t to have been a sort of torque - in hi s padi-field. Theyhad cut i t in two and had each sold hi s half to the localgold smith a t the price by weight of o ld gold . On appl icat ion to the gold smi th he confirmed the Baj au’s s tory
,but
told me that he had melted the pieces down and used themfor making new ornament s .Shortly before I left Borneo a report was brought to me
that there was a rock not far from Kampong Piasau whichbore the imprint of a gigantic foot
,but a s I was busy at
the t ime I was unable to go and see whether i t was anatural d epre s sion which happened somewhat to re semblea footprin t or whether it was an artificial mark, such as Ibel ieve are sometimes found on rocks in Buddhi s t countrie s .With regard to the vil lage si te on the hil l cal led Tudu
,
which I have mentioned above,my intention was firs t called
to the place by Orang Kaya Haj i Arsat,the head Govern
ment chief of the Tempassuk. He told me that i t wasreported that the hil l-top had been occupied in former daysby a Dusun vil lage — that i s
,in the times before the inva sion
of the Tempassuk“ by Baj aus and Il lanuns — and that there
was a legend about the des truction of the vi llage by ’
ahurricane ; further, that men who had cl imbed the hil l inrecent years had found ' its top strewn with fragments ofthe cooking-pots used by the ancient occupants . On askingone of my Dusun friends abou t the matter, I found thatthe l egend of Tudu was well known
,and obtained the
fol lowing story from him.
Long ago some men of Kampong Tudu were looking for
An tiquities 2 7 1
wood to make a fence,and while they were searching they
came upon what appeared to be a grea t tree trunk,which
was lying on the ground . They began to cut i t wi th the irworking-knive s, intending to make their fence from it, butto their surpri se blood came from the cuts . So they decidedto Walk along to one end of the “ trunk ” and see what i twas. When they came to the end they found that theyhad been cutting into a great snake
,and that the end of the
“ trunk ” was its head . They therefore made stakes and,
driving them into the ground,bound the snake to them
and killed i t. They then flayed the skin from the body,
and taking i t and the meat home they made a great feas tfrom its flesh. The skin of the snake they made into agreat drum
,and while they were drinking they beat the
drum to try i t s sound,but for a long time it remained
si lent. At las t,in the middle of the night
,the drum
began to sound of i ts own accord : “ Duk, Duk, Kagu'
;
Duk, Duk, Kagu”(Kagu i s Baj au for hurricane or
typhoon) . Then came a great hurricane and swept awayal l the house s in the vi llage : some of them were carriedout to sea together wi th the people in them ; others se t tleddown at what i s now Tempassuk village and o ther places,and from them arose the present settlements .Being intere s ted in the tale
,and thinking that there was
very probably some truth in the s tory of a vi llage on thehil l-top
,as i t would be an almos t impregnable s i te in war
time,I arranged w i th the Orang Kaya to make the climb
,
and a few days later s tarted from Kotabelud with three orfour Dusun cool ies armed wi th cbangkuls (a kind of Chinesehoe). At Fort Alfred I met the Orang Kaya, accompaniedby an Illanun follower
,and we s tarted a very long and hot
cl imb up the s ides of the hil l,which were covered with
lalang (a rough grass).On arrival at the top we at once saw that i t would makea most admirable s i tuation for a fort, as Tudu commandsthe whole of the surround ing country, and the hil l-top i s
2 72 An t iqui tiessuflficiently flat to accommodate easily a decent~ siz ed vil lage
,
though water seemed to be scarce . The most prominen tobj ects on the hil l were two immense memplum or impalumtree s which were in frui t a t the t ime . These were obvioussigns that there either had been a vi llage on the hill
,or
that people had vi s i ted the hill-top in bygone days .The next thing was to find a s i te for our excavat ions
,and
after search ing for profitable ground for a Short time byuprooting tussocks of [along and inspect ing the soil belowthem
,I decided that one place
,where the humus was very
black,and where two or three pieces of rough pottery were
found near the surface,was mos t probably ground on which
a house had s tood. In thi s opinion Iwas speed ily confirmed,
as on driving two intersec ting trenches,about two and a half
fee t deep,at right angle s acros s the si te we came upon many
fragments of rough po t tery,broken bones of animals
chiefly pigs — and large numbers of sea-shel l s of speciesrelated to the clam and Engli sh cockle.In add i tion to these we found four obj ects of much
greater intere s t : one a water-rounded s tone of grani te witha diameter of about three and a half inche s
,which the
Dusun coolies said would be probably used for smoothingthe inside of cooking-pots during the proces s of manufacture ;another an almos t circular pebble of sands tone of sl ightlyl ess d iameter than the potting-s tone .” Thi s was flattenedon ei ther side and had an art ificial ly made indentation in thecentre of each flattened surface . x
W orked s tone s,some
times comple tely perforated,some times wi th only two
chise l led or dri lled depre s s ions,as in the above case
,are
frequently found in England associa ted with other article sof neol i th ic cul ture . Such s tone s were probably used ashammers
,those wi th a hole having had a wooden hand le
pushed through them,and those wi th depre s s ions only
being held in the hand,the depre s s ion s affording a firm grip
for the thumb and the index finger. I t i s pos s ib le that thebored s tones may have been used as club-headS — cf . the
CHAPTER XXX
THE CH I NESE IN BO RNEO
HE Statement is frequently made by re sident s inBorneo that the Dusuns are “ half Ch ine s e
,
” andthe same as sertion is not uncommonly to be me t
wi th in books. Ling Ro th,for ins tance
,i n hi s map of
Bri ti sh North Borneo ha s printed in red le tters across thewhole coasta l reg1on of North-West Borneo from Brune iBay to Marudu Bay
,including the Tuaran and Tempassuk
d i s trict s : “ Mixed Chinese and Native Tribe s ” (Natives
of Sarawak and Br itisbNortbBorneo, vol . i., and Tbe Br itisbNortbBorneo Herald
,I s t July Now defini te s tate
ments of thi s kind Should no t be made unles s there i s verygood evidence to Show that they are true. I bel ieve thatthe theory of the half-Chinese origin of these tribe s firstarose from a supposed reference made to the Chinese incertain Bornean names
,and from legend s of a former Chinese
invasion of thi s part of the island .
As I had long been annoyed by the cons tan t re i terationof these s tatements
,which re s ted
,to my thinking
,on no
suflicient bas i s of evidence,I wrote
,some time ago
,a le t ter
to Tbc Br itisbNortbBorneo Herald, se tting out the arguments in favour of the Chines e theory
,dealing with them
as thoroughly as I could,and at the same time asking for any
help from those in teres ted in the subj ect which might tendto throw ligh t upon the que stion and , i f possibl e, se ttle i t inone way or another. This le t ter of mine ran as fol lows
TAIP ING , PERAK,
FEDERATED MALAY STATES ,4tbf une I9 14.
SIR,
— I am writ ing to you to ask whether any of yourreaders would be kind enough to help me in a small inve s t i
2 74
The Chinese in Bo rneo 2 75
gation which I am making as to the past his tory of Bri ti shNorth Borneo .
In many accounts of Borneo i t has been s tated that therehas been a large infusion of Chinese blood among theaborigines of the northern portions of the i sland
,some
writers even going so far as to say that the Dusuns arehalf Chinese . I am much inclined to th ink that the ir conclusions have been reached by a very sl ipshod proces s ofreasoning
,and that no large admixture has ever taken place .
The following statements are,I believe
,general ly advanced
in support of the theory,and I wil l endeavour to deal wi th
them ser iatim
( I ) That the Dusuns use hats and ploughs Similar tothose of the Chinese .
( 2 ) That the men of one Dusun tribe wear a pigtail.(3) That the Dusuns look rather l ike Chinese .(4) That there are account s of Chinese embass ie s be ing
sent to Brunei .(5) That there i s a legend of a Chinese expedi tion going
in search of the j ewe l guarded by the dragon, whichwas supposed to l ive at the top of Mount Kinabalu ;and that a party of Chinese
,who were left behind ,
se ttled in the country.(6) That old Chine se j ars , beads and fragments of ancient
Chine se pottery are common in Borneo.(7) That several name s of mountains , vil lages and rivers
begin with Kina and that this means “ China ”
(Chinese) .( I a) Now with regard to the firs t s tatement, both the
conical sun-hat and the same type of plough are used bythe Malays
,and I also believe by the Javane se and S iame se,
Whom I have never heard accused of be ing half Chinese .The plough and the sun-hat may have been adopted fromthe Chinese
,but i t seems to me extremely ri sky to say
because one race,tribe or nation has borrowed from the
culture of another with Whom they have been in contact,
2 76 The Chin ese in Born eothat, therefore, there has been a fusion of blood . I haveseen several mos t excellent copies of European s traw hatsmade by the Dusuns
,and going on the above assumption
,
i f the wearing of these should become general,one might
almos t as Wel l say that there was a large s train of Europeanblood among the Dusuns . Or again, reasoning thu s , why notsay that the Chine se are half European , s ince Chinese bootmakers now turn out boots made in the European fashion ?( 2 a) The men of one Dusun tribe wear a pigtai l. I have
never seen thi s tribe,so I do no t know if the ir pigtail s
re semble those of the Chinese. A pigtail is,however
,one
very convenien t method of do ing up long hair,and i s
,I
believe,not confined to the Chinese . Moreover
,even if i t
has been adopted from the Chinese,thi s does no t necessarily
mean that the Dusuns are half Chinese,though i t would prove
that there had been a s trong Chinese influence in the country.(3a) I t i s s tated that the Dusuns look l ike Chine se, but I
must say that I have never been able to see much similari ty.I do no t
,however
,conte s t the fact that there i s a certain
Mongolian element pre sent among the Dusuns,as
,I beli eve
,
there i s among all the Indone s ian people s,thi s seeming to be
fairly we l l proved by the occurrence of lank,s traight hair,and
occasional ly of the typical Mongolian fold over the innercorner of the eye. What I do be l ieve , however, is thatthe Mongohan element i s not of comparativel y modern — Le.
Chinese — origin,but tha t i t was probably introduced before
the Indonesian race left Southern Asia for i t s pre sent home .(4a) The account s of Chinese writers, translations of which
I have read,do not seem to ind icate anything further than
that embass ie s were sent to Brune i and v ice ‘versa, and that
Chinese trad ing j unks used to make regular voyages to barterthe manufacture s of China for the produce of the j ungle, andprobably
,in South-Western Borneo
,for gold and diamonds .
(5a) The s tory of the dragon seems to come to us fromChinese or Malay source s
,and I have not heard of i t among
the Dusuns,though i t may be known ; nor have I ever
2 78 The Chinese in Borneomean China or Chinese
,thi s again by no means nece ssarily
shows that the Chinese ever came to the country in largenumbers a s colonis t s . Who gave the mountain its ‘
name?
Most l ikely the Dusuns, S ince they appear to be the oldes tinhabi tants of the country at the pre sent day. U nfortun
ately I do no t know Dusun,and so I cannot trace for myself
the meaning of the word in that language,i f a meaning exi st s
other than that of “ Chinese Widow Mountain .
” I have,
however,long had my suspicion s that the accepted explana
tion was no t correct, and have thought that i t was probablyone of those rather clever
,but badly mi s taken derivation s
which Malay pundi t s are such adepts at manufacturinge.g. S ingapura, the Ci ty of the Lion ; Sumatra, Semut Raya.Recently I have come acros s another explanation of thename of the mountain, which I am incl ined to think muchmore probable . Kinabalu, accord ing to Dusun legendry, i sthe home of departed spiri t s
,and W itti says that the spiri t s
of the dead are supposed to bathe in the waters which rushfrom the gull ie s of the mountain and which are call ed“ Tats i d i Nabala.
” Hat ton cont inually speaks of Nabalu,
and not of Kinabalu,and in a recen t article in Tbe Sarawak
Gaz ette, by Mr J . C. Moulton , the sugge s tion i s put forwardthat Nabalu means the home of the d ead —
“ Nabalu,the
”
Dusun word,s ignifying re s ting-place of the d ead .” I t i s
true enough that Kinabalu is supposed to be the restmgplace of the dead
,but does Nabalu mean home of the dead?
Perhaps someone who i s learned in Dusun can help me. I ti s worth noting
,however
,that the mountain is very frequently
Spoken of as Nabalu or Habalu,which appears rather as i f
the Ki were merely some form of prefix.The name Kinabatangan present s more difficul t i e s
,as the
centra l part of i t looks very much l ike the Malay
batang (trunk or water-course) , which i s often at tthe names of rivers — cg . Batang Lupar
,Batang Pahang.
How are we to read i t,Ki-mabatang-an or Kina-batang-an?
The suppos i t ion that Ki,Kin or Kina may be prefixe s i s
,I
The Ch inese in Borneo 2 79think, rather s trengthened by the following North Borneonames
,which all begin with one or other of these syllables
,
while in some it would be diflicult to say that there was anyreference to China or Chinese( I ) Kinoram (a di s tric t near Marudu) .
(2 ) Kinabalu (sometime s called Penelab, and Kampongin the Tempassuk district) .
3) Kinataki (a river in the Tempassuk di strict) .(4) Kinsiraban (the name of an up-country vil lage) .
(5) Kinokop (P inokop or Tenokop, a river in theTempassuk di strict) .
(6) Kinharingan (or Kenarmgan, the name of theDusun creator) .
(7) Kimani s (the name i s said to be derived from KayuManis
,but I Should think that thi s i s doubtful) .
Perhaps the prefix i s e ither Ki,Kin or Kina
,according
to the requirement s of euphony.I believe that there are several rather s trong supportersof the Chinese populat ion theory in the Briti sh NorthBorneo Service
,and I should be very glad if they
,and
others,would give me any fresh fact s ei ther in support of
,
or in opposi tion to,the theory. Moreover
,I should be
particularly thankful for any information bearing on thederivat ion of the names in which reference to the Chineseis thought to occur. So far the subj ect has been but l i ttledealt with in a cri tical manner
,and i t would be interes ting
i f the matter could be thrashed out to a conclusion,be my
views right or wrong . I am,Sir
,yours obediently,IVO R H. N . EVAN S .
To TH E ED ITOR ,
Tbe Br itisbNor tbBorneo Herald,
SANDAKAN.My querie s and que s t ionings resul ted in four most interes ting let ters being received in answer. One of these, fromMr E. O . Rutter, then District Officer, North Keppel,appeared on pp . 136 and 1 37 of Tbe Br itisbNortbBorneo
2 8 0 The Chinese in BorneoHerald of the year 19 14 ; another, from Mr J. C . Moul ton
,
Curator,Sarawak Museum, in Tbc B ritisb Nortb B orneo
Herald of 3rd November of the same year ; the other two- one from Mr E . H. S tephens of Padas Val ley Es tate
,
Beaufort,Bri tish North Borneo
,and the other from the
Rev. Father Duxneuney of the Roman Cathol ic Mission ,Putatan— were addressed to me private ly .
Mr S tephens’ le t ter deal s entirely with s tatements Nos . 1
and 7 of my l et ter. He informs me that the tribe of Dusunswho wear a queue are tho se of Bundu
,on the coast of the
Klia s Peninsula. I t i s worn by young men,who cut i t off
on becoming fathers of famil ies. He goe s on to s tate thatthe tribe Shows “ undoubted trace s of Chinese influence
— e.g. their feast days co incide wi th the Chinese New Year,
and other fes tival s ” — and remarks tha t they seem to have ahazy trad i t ion of a former Chinese connection . Furthermore
,he remarks tha t smce the Chinese have di scarded the
pigtai l i t i s lo sing i t s populari ty in Bundu . He thinks that,
as these Dusuns l ive on the coas t,the infusion of Chine se
blood i s l ikely to have been both recent and local .With regard to the meaning of the name Kinabalu he
says : Not being sati sfied wi th the usual ly acceptedderivation of the name Kinabalu
,I have questioned Dusuns
from district s in the vicini ty and have been told that Nabaladoes not mean ‘ home of the dead
,
’ the Spiri t being said tomengalau Nabula,
’mengalau apparently being a Special word
to de scribe the j ourneying of the spiri t after death . W i thregard to the prefix Ki I can obtain no information .
” Hesums up by saying that he thinks that the supporters of thChinese theory will have great difficul ty in proving howChinese population
,which i s by some writers considered t
have left i t s mark on large sections of the presentpopulat ion of Borneo
,
“ vanished and left such fli
evidence of i t s exis tence .Mr Rutter’s l e t ter from Tbc BritisbNortbBorneo He
I g ive below in extenso :
2 8 2 The Chinese in Born eoLabuk) , where there i s no euphonic na
,and we have Aki
Langalangah with the simple prefix Ki, the a as usual beingdropped by ell ipse . In Kinataki (a river which ri se s inMount Kinabalu) the aki appears to be dupl icated . Thesense of aki i s again well shown in Kinapunan (punan =
Malay pakod (sic) , lit. tree , and hence fountain, source,
origin) , the name the Muruts of the Keningau d i stric t givethe ir dei ty. The prefix i s also to be met wi th in Kinasaluan
,
a tributary of the Talankai in the far interior,and in Kinantu
pong,a tributary of the Sugut : nei ther of these names 13
l ikely to be due to Chinese influence .With regard to Kinabatangan
,there i s one great obj ec tion
to the derivation Kina Batang,for to mean “ the Chine se
river ” the adj ective should fo l low the noun and the nameshould be Batang Kina . Batang (I believe) has the samesignificance in Dusun and in Murut as in Malay, and Isugge s t that the name i s aki-na-batangan— the Father River
,
an appropriate term for a river with many tributarie s or anaksungei.
That thi s theory of personification i s no t whol ly fancifulmay be Shown by parall el s among other nations . CompareFather Tiber
,Father Thames
,Father Zeus. I canno t
recall an in s tance of a mountain being endowed wi th thename of father
,but i t does no t need much imagination to
suppose tha t a race who l ive under the Shadow of a greatmountain could bel ieve that they were under i t s paternaland supernatural care . After all, Mount Kinabalu , glin tingin the morning sunl ight, i s probably the most wonderful thingthat an up
-country Dusun has ever seen. Your obedientservant
, (Signed) E . O . RUTTER .
Mr J. C. Moul ton in hi s le t ter to Tbe Br itisbNortbBorneo Herald makes the interes ting sugges tion that Ki,Ka or K in place-names , e tc . (example s Kadamaian, Kalupis,Kiau
,Klowat, Kappak, Kinataki, Kinabalu , Kaung, Kudat,
Kaningau , Kimanis) , may be the local equ ivalentt of the
The Chinese in Borneo 2 8 3
Sarawak S which i s so commonly found as the first letter ofname s in that country (examples : Sadong, Samarahan, Segu,S imanggang, Sabu , Skrang, Sentah, etc., He thinksthat S in place-names may be equivalent to the Si whichi s often used before names of person s of some s tanding.Si i s possibly equivalent to the Malay incbe == sir or Mr.He asks Mr Rutter to make sure that balu is used for bothwidow and widower among the up
-country Dusuns,remark
ing that “ I t i s qui te poss ibl e that Dusuns,e specially those
of the coas ts,have now followed the Malays in using the
word balu for both widow and widower.” He suspec tsthat closer inquiry among the hill Dusuns wil l reveal ad ifferent word for widower
,as in Kayan
,Kenyah
,Kalabi t
and others of the more primit ive languages. He furtherremarks that we cannot pas s the anomaly “ GrandfatherWidow as a tran slation of the name Kinabalu
,but thi s
of course would only be the case if Mr Rut ter were rightin hi s supposi t ion that Ki i s equivalent to Aki (grandfather)and that balu only means widow and not widower.He further says : “ Although the balance of opinionappears to be adverse to that of Chine se influence we Shouldnot dismi ss i t too summarily
,as Chine se intercourse with
North Borneo has been fairly regular for about twe lve centuries. There i s l i t t le doubt that smal l colonies of Chinesehave se t tled we l l in the interior from time to time.Spenser S t John
,wri ting in 1 858 , says :
‘ To Show howextensively the Chine se formerly spread over the countryI may notice that they had pepper plantations even up theMadihit as late as the remembrance of some of the oldestMurut ! ’ The Madihit i s a branch of the Limbang river,some seventy mile s south of Brune i . Some three years agoI vi s i ted the actual place mentioned by S t John
,but no
amount of inquiry Showed that the native s of that part hadever heard of Chinese in the ir di stric t. On the otherhand
,there can be l i ttle doubt that the native s of that
part exhibi t now some evidence of this former Chine se
2 84 The Chinese in Borneoinfluence
,probably many glaring proofs
,i f the traveller
only knows the nat ive s (and Chinese) well enough tod i st ingui sh between what are obviously non-Chinese andwhat are obviously foreign to that Borneo tribe (sic) .
“ I t may be of intere s t to your firs t corresponden t on thi ssubj ec t (vide B ritisbNortb Borneo Herald
,p. 100) that
I found a smal l rectangular wooden box in a Dusun houseon Kinabalu
,which was used by the owner as a pil low.
The Dusuns appeared surpri sed to hear that i t was ident i calin shape with that used by the Chine se for the samepurpose . Of course i t may eas i ly have been copied fromone purchased a generation or two back in a Chine sebazaar on the coast ; on the other hand , there i s j us t theposs ibil i ty of i t forming an in teres t ing piece of evidenceof a much older and more intimate Chinese influence.
“ The ques tion of whether Nabalu ’ actual ly means ‘ theresting-place of the dead ’
(see Mr Rutter’s le tter) , or
i s only ‘ the name given to the place that rece ive s them,
’
remind s us of the old problem,
‘ which appeared firs t,the
egg that produced the hen,or the hen that laid the
egg ?Now to take the le t ter from Father Duxneuney, whichi s by far the mos t intere st ing communication of those whichI have rece ived privately
,or have been publi shed a s the
re sult of my le tter to the Herald,s ince I bel ieve that he
has solved once and for all the que st ion of Bornean namesin which i t has so far been cus tomary to consider there i sa reference to the Chinese.Father Duxneuney has l ived among the Dusuns ofPutatan a s a mi ssionary for many years
,s ince 1 893, and
a s he , apart from hi s official labours, takes great in tere s tin al l mat ters concerning native belief and customs
,hi s
opinion should carry great weight.I wil l take firs t tha t part of hi s l e t ter which deal s withthe que st ion of Bornean names which are thought to referto the Chinese . He remarks that the Dusun s of Putatan
2 86 The Chinese in Borneo-na denote s the pas t time— ponzobobong z to be
made buried) i s the passwe from memebobang tobury.
Father Duxneuney consrders tha t Kinabatangan i s theMalay word batang
“ Dusunised ”; thus, I suppose, Ki-na
batang-an may be roughly translated the place where therei s (and was from t1mes pas t) a batang-ou or main river.He furthermore give s much interes t ing information wi th
regard to the Chinese in Borneo. Thi s summari sed i s a sfollows — The plough was formerly not used by the lowlandDusuns (Kadasan) of Putatan , and there are s t i l l native sal ive who can remember when al l land was prepared byhand. Hat s of any kind are l i t t l e worn
,the head-clo th
being the covering mos t in use. The hat s are worn by thewomen at harves t, and on the occasion of a marriage
.
aconical ha t which i s worn by the boy (bridegroom) i s takenoff hi s head by the pries tes s and placed on that of the bride .These hat s are manufactured by the hi l l people. Jars
,
gongs and guns were mos tly introduced from Brunei andthus
,
“ i f Chinese,came only indirectly to the nat ive .”
Father Duxneuney, however, te l l s me the Chine se hadgreat (commercial) influence amongst the native s in formtimes
,before Labuan and North Borneo “ came under
Bri tain’s commerce He say s that when he firs t came toP utatan ( 1 8 93) there were only a few Chinamen minterior. If I unders tand hi s l e t ter rightly, these wentto trade from their shops at the Government pos t.remarks tha t the who le trade of the coun try was in Chinhand s (thi s is sti l l true of all reta i l trade throughoutcountry) . “ Everything I had
,
” he says,
“ from a glass tumblerto a Bri ti sh North Borneo dol lar
,from a piece of cloth to i l
my newspaper, Tbe Tablet, was in their eye s made in China.
“ How great was the influence which the Chinese hadas traders i s i l lu strated by the following incident whichhappened here only last year. A lit tle native girl, abouttwelve years old
,and a schoolmate were looking at an
The Chinese in Borneo 2 87
il lustrated Bible hi story— they were unconscious that I wasnear. I heard one of them remark about a picture of Adamand Eve driven out of Paradi se : ‘ I t i s rather bad that theygo without clothing— only some leaves .’ The twelve-yearold lady answered : ‘ Ye s
,but at that t ime there were no
Chinamen.’ She was qui te serious,and evidently thought :
no Chinaman,no shop to buy clothe s at.”
Father Duxneuney points out that the Putatan Dusunshave a legend that one of the hi ll s in the di s tric t wasoriginal ly near Kinabalu (Nabahu) , but moved thence to it spresent posi tion. He thinks that thi s may perhaps be takenas evidence that the Putatan Dusuns originally came downfrom the hil l country around Kinabalu .Though admit ting
,as I do
,that the Chinese have long
had great influence in Borneo as traders,he propound s the
following problems for solution by those who believe thatthere was formerly such a large re s ident Chine se population“Borneo that many of the native tribes
,and especial ly the
usuns,are half Chinese
( 1)“ Language.
— There i s not the leas t S imilari tybetween Dusun and Chinese. Old Chinamen whohave lived in the country for twenty years or moreand have married Dusun wives never acquire theDusun language — not to say master i t. [A Chinaman who goe s to a fore ign country when he i s alreadygrown up seems seldom to master the native language.The China-born Chinese of the S trai t s and Borneorarely acquire any fluency in speaking Malay, andwhen they do
,invariably mispronounce very badly.
Native-born Chinese of Borneo and the S trai t sacquire the language of the country w i thoutdifficulty.] The lat ter has a very intricate grammar(something l ike Greek) and an enormous vocabulary.There i s no trace in the Dusun language ofChinese influence.”
(2 ) Why i s there no trace of any writ ten language ?By
2 8 8 The Chinese in Bo rneothe born trading 1nst1nct of the suppo sed progeni torsof the Dusun onewould expec t that a t least numeral swould have been transmit ted to their offspring.
”
(3) No trace s of reverence for ances tors or parents arefound among the D usuns , worship or reverence ofthi s kind being e s sential ly a Chine se characteri s t ic.”
(4) There seems to be no mention of the Chine se innative legendry.
I think that I have now deal t fairly wi th the greater partof the corre spondence which appeared in Tbe Br itisbNortbBorneoHerald in answer to my original l e t ter. On re-vi s it ingBorneo in 19 15 I resolved to try and inves tigate the matterfurther in the Tempassuk, proceed ing chiefly on the line ssuggested by Father Duxneuney.
Mr Rutter S tated in hi s l e t ter to the Herald thatmean s widow or widower in Dusun (pre sumably ind ialect of Tuaran or of the Tempassuk) . I thereforeque stions to Gumpus of Tambatuan
,in the Tempa
di s tric t,asking him what he would cal l a man whose
was dead,and a woman whose husband was
careful to avoid the use of theme the two word s opus and na-
poud (the latter apparent]a pas t participle W idowed) , which he said were applieeither to a widow or a widower. A Tuaran native sim ilarlques tioned gave me na-
poud only.The Dusuns of Tuaran seem to speak of the mountaimore frequently as Pengaluan (the name Pengaluan is
,
find,mentioned by Whi tehead) than as Nabalu , but thi s
obviously a noun of the same derivat ion (formed asordinary Malay) , the b being dropped for the sakeeuphony (balu, pen or peng-balu-an, Pengaluan) . S ilarly the special word which Mr S tephen s says i s usedthe ghost s ascend ing Nabalu
,which he give s as
bu t which i s in the Tempassuk pronouncedobviously al so comes from the same source
,th
being dropped owing to the d iffi cul ty of saying
The Chinese in Borneo 2 89D irect questioning of a Tuaran Dusun as to whe ther anyobj ects used at burial s or lyings-in-S tate had the term baluapplied, procured the information that the Gusi j ar whichwas some time s placed near a corpse was called pen-a-baluk
(the k was pronounced very d istinctly) . A Dusun ofthe Inter1or (a Tambunan man) told me that balu meantnewly buried , and he and a Piasau (Tempassuk) man bothgave me to unders tand that Pengaluan and Nabalu (orKinabalu) mean the place where the dead go to .Wi th regard to the na in Nabalu (or Ki-na-balu) , I
obtained several more place-names in which thi s syllableoccurs ; in the case of one, Penabalu or Kinabalu, which Ihave already mentioned in my le tter to Tbc Br itisbNortbBorneo Herald
,l was told that the name was derived from
the fact that there was (or used to be) some sort of a holeor cave near the village which had both an entrance and anexi t, and through this a river flowed. Na-labu
,I under
s tand from my Dusun informant,might be roughly trans
lated “ i t goes through ” ; a man, for instance, be ing askedif a hole went right through from one s ide of a bank to theother
,if i t d id
,would reply : Na-labu.
”
Le t u s now consider the evidence which goes to Showthat
,in general
, so-called proofs of the half-Chinese origin
of the Dusuns are of the flimsiest.With regard to the ploughs, hats, pil lows, etc., used bythe Dusuns
,we may d isregard them as proofs of a Chinese
origin for the reasons set forth in my le tter.(2 ) The Mongol ian characteri s ti cs found among the
Dusuns are common to al l Indone s ian peoples to a greateror les ser extent
,and were probably chiefly acquired before
they left the coast s of Asia .(3) I t seems that Ki-na does not mean Chinese, na be ing
a prefix signifying action pas t but st i l l existing,which i s
common in place-name s,and Ki
,derived from Kiwao
,mean
there i s ” (Father Duxneuney) . It i s worthy of note,
2 90 The Chinese in BorneoMalay do talk of Orang Kina (Chinese) , ins tead of OrangCbina
, which i s the proper pronuncia tion, s ince they seemto have difficul ty in pronouncing Cb
,turning i t general ly
ei ther into K or S - e.g. szranun for cbermin,sampur for
cbampur . No doubt the coincidence that certain D usunplace-names begin with Ki-na and tha t Orang Cbinapronounced Orang Kina was eagerly se i zed on by Malayother) pundit s , ignorant of the language of the country;des irou s of making derivat ion for place-names
,and connec
them wi th romantic s tori e s .One subj ect which I have not ye t deal t with cal l s
, pe
for some attention,and that i s the ques tion of an admixt
of Chinese wi th the Dusun s of the Kl ias Peninsula. I havenot been able to inves t igate the matter for myself
,but Mr
W ooley,Commiss ioner of Lands
,tel l s me that locally there
has undoubtedly been a mixture a couple of generationsback or more
,and that many native s claim a Chinese father
or grandfather.Granted that thi s i s so
,i t cannot be taken as a proof of
the assertion wi th regard to the Dusuns in general . Themixture appears to be pure ly local
,and the locali ty i s on the
sea-coas t. There i s,of course
,no barrier of cus tom or pre
j udice preventing Chinese from intermarrying wi th Dusuns,
and given a sufficient number of Chinese se t tlers,a mixed
race would be sure to ari se ; but I do no t gran t that we haveany proof of there ever being a large Chinese population inthe Tuaran or Tempassuk d i s trict s, or in the Interior. The
supposed admixture of Chinese wi th nat ives,which i s said to
have given ri se to the Dusuns,must
,i f i t ever took place
(which I do not be l ieve) , have occurred very much more thantwo or three generations ago, that be ing the period givenby Mr Wooley for the Chinese-Dusun intermixture in andaround the Kl ias Peninsula.
2 9 2 D iary of a Journey to Kinab aluTattoo marks of the kind known to the Sea Dyaks as
kelingai ornamented many of the men’s forearms ; s tar- l iketat too pat terns were to be seen on the mner SldeS of thecalve s of their legs
,and al so V -shaped blocks of pat t
their throats . As,however
,we had to hurry back to the
launch,I had but l i t tle time to make observations. Left
Miri at about 4 R M .
JULY 8TH .— Arrived at Labuan Island shortly after day
break . Mount Kinabalu on the mainland was plainly vi s ible.Labuan i s said to be about nine ty mil e s from the mountain.Went on shore before breakfas t . Not much change to notesince I was here las t , except that the coal mines are no longerworking. The l i t tle town i s a s clean and bright
,and the
i s land as pre t ty,as ever. Hunted for the Malay shop where
I formerly bought some old Si lver-ware, but the owner seemsto have removed to Brunei . Some modern Brune i bras sware was on sale in one kedai, and I purchased a smal l figureof a dragon
,while two other passengers bought a large bras s
sireb-stand and a parang ilang (Dyak sword) re spective ly .
Back to the ship for breakfas t,and then went ashore .
again . S everal Kadayan women in the town,one with
large s i lver buttons in the sleeve s of her coat. All woreblack lace head-coverings and shor t black j acke t s
,and had
open carrying-baske ts on their backs . Returned to s teamerand watched some Malays very clever ly spearing garfish,which were passing up and down near the l ighter fromwhich the Sandakan was load ing coal .Went ashore again with E. at about 3 P .M . with the
in tent ion of reaching a Kadayan vil lage , but we took awrong turning and final ly arrived in a Tutong se ttlement.Nothing was particularly worthy of note there, as the peopleare Mohammedans and very civi l i sed
,but the house wall s
,
made of mid-ribs of palm leave s, laid hori zontal ly, wereinterest ing
,and we also saw a nice carrying-baske t orna
mented with pat terns . Returned to the wharf at six o’clockvia the old co l l iery rai lway. All night at Labuan .
Diary of a Journey to Kinabalu 2 9 3JULY 9TH .
— Left Labuan at daylight,and after great
trouble m coming alongs ide the wharf,owing to an old pile
causing an obstruction, I landed at Jessel ton j ust before4 R M . Hurried off to the Treasury to ge t some money
,of
which I had run short,and luckily found i t open
.Back
again to the Sandakan for dinner. Heard from variouspeople that some of the Marudu Bay and Tempassuk nat ive shave recen tly given trouble. They seem to have beenBaj aus, Illanuns and Dusuns . A number of the insurgent swere kil led or captured near Pindasan
,but things are now
quie t, the trouble having occurred a couple of months ago.Owing to the res tlessnes s of some of theTempassuk people,the D i s tri ct Officer, North Keppe l, has temporarily removedfrom Tuaran to Kotabelud. The j unior ofiicer i s now
s tationed at Tuaran .
Other news was that HaJl Arsat (the head chief in theTempassuk) has lately been given the t i tle of Orang KayaKaya ins tead of Orang Kaya
,which was hi s s tyle in my
time,and has been made Supernumerary Assi stant Officer
wi th 3rd ClassMagi s trate’s powers ; also that the Kotabelud
house,formerly buil t under my supervi s ion
,had been burned
down through a fire which s tarted in one of the bathrooms .Jessel ton has changed a good deal since I was here las t.
A large amount of ground has been reclaimed,a reservoir
constructed,the wharf improved and new buildings put up .
Electric-l ight plant has been ins talled,and w i l l soon be work
ing,while ice-making machinery i s on order from England .
There seem to have been several Government chiefs in therecent di s turbances ; but I do not know which , i f any, of myTempassuk friends were mixed up in the affair. The leaderof the enterpri se was one Ku lindad, Marudu di strict Dusun .Made arrangements at the Treasury for drawing money.JULY 10TH .
— U p to the Re s ident’s oflice at A .M .
and talked over my plans w i th him. Te lephoned to oldSergeant Genang at Tuaran and asked him to try and ge tme e ither my old Chine se cook or my former boy ”
2 94 D iary of a Journey to Kinabalu
(Omboi) . Genang says that he thinks the cook has goneto Jessel ton . Omboi i s at Tuaran and will probably comei f I want him . Arranged to call up Genang at 3 P .M . forfurther information . D own to the wharf to ge t baggageoff the Sandakan. M .
,who i s in charge of the customs
,
kind ly put my baggage through for me without any trouble,
and further helped me by sending off one of his m en to GayaIsland to try and arrange wi th some of the Orang Bernadani.e. Tawi Tawi Is landers , who are se tt l ed there — for a prahuto take me to the mouth of the Tempassuk river, for I havedecided to go as far a s I can by sea. Back from the steamerto the Res t House wi th E .
,who was my gues t to lunch .
Rang up Genang at Tuaran , who told me that Omboiwas wi th him in the ofli ce. Asked him to le t Omboi Speakto me and made arrangements that he should s tart on footfor Jessel ton to-morrow (di stance said to be about twentyfour mile s) . Customs boatman came in saying that he hasnot been able to ge t a boat in Jes sel ton
,bu t sugge s ted that he
should go to the market as earl y as pos sible to-morrow morningand get hold of some of the Bernadans when they come inwith their fish . Out wi th E . to take some photographs ofthe town . Sandakan l eft for Kudat at about 6 P.M .
JULY I I TH .— Out buying provi s ions in the morning.
Omboi arrived at about R M . and the cus toms boatmenbrought in some Bernadans a l i t tle later. These men
,a
crew of three,wil l take me in their boa t to the Tempassuk
for five dol lars per man . W ent to the club at 5 P .M .,
where I d id not meet many people that I knew,and thence
to the Resident’s to d inner. My o ld D i stric t Officer iswith him
,and I was very pleased to mee t him again . This
was a lucky chance,as he i s now Resident of the Interior
,
and has come down for a few days after having a rough timein the Murut country
,where there has been some pret ty big
fighting. Took a wrong turn on the hil l in the dark on theway back from the Resident’s
,and
,after wandering about
for a long time,found a Chinaman’s hut. Knocked up the
2 9 6 D iary of a Journey to Kinabalu
(3) That a ve terinary surgeon now vi s i t s the Tempassuk.
(4) That forced labour has been abol i shed , even wi thregard to the upkeep of brid le-paths .
(5) That the rate s of wages for cool ie s have been sl ightlyrai sed .
(6) That a Dutchman and a Swi ss are going prospectingfor oi l to Saiap (on a spur of Mount Kinabalu) .
(7) That the recent trouble arose partly from the demarcat ion of lands wi th a view to col lecting qui t-rent .
(8) That the Dato Temenggong (a very o ld chief) i s dead .
Arranged to leave for Kotabelud the next day,the
baggage going by buffaloe s, and to cal l in at TamuTimbang
,i t being marke t day
,on the way.
JULY I 4TH .-To Tamu Timbang by boa t wi th Hal rsat.
Many Baj aus there,but only a few Dusuns . Met various
old acquain tance s,and among them Saleh
,my former clerk.
Went round the market,but d id not buy anything. On
from the marke t to the Shops,where I me t Keruak (a Baj au
headman) — he has been i l l,and does not look fi t even now
-and S irinan (a Dusun friend of m ine) , who, I thought,seemed glad to see me. Up to the office, in to which Ipeeped— much the same as in my time . Met several pol icewho were formerly under me.From the office to Arsat
’s Ko tabelud house near the river
,
where I was. to s tay unti l I went up-country. Had a long
talk with S irinan . Much d e lay in get t ing food,as only
three buffaloes turned up at Fort Al fred to take my baggagein the morning
,though six were ordered ; however, the
mis s ing three wi th the res t of my stuff arrived before dark .
Sat up til l la te talking with Arsat . The District Officer i s a tPindasan se ttl ing up affairs after the trouble
,but wil l return
in a day or two ; so I shal l wai t to see him.
JULY I5TH .-U p early, to the office with Arsat and then
down to the shops,where I bought a fine old si lver bel t
clasp,an old brass (Brunei) ke t tle and some other article s .
JULY 1OTH .— Around the shops . Picked up some
IN A R ICE F IELD NEAR TAMBATU AN .
A l itt le Dusun boy left i n charge of art ic les deposited by h i s paren ts The large carrying basket15used for ho ld ing path or tubers upon i t rests a spear wi th blade sheathed The smaller basket
i sused for smal l personal be longings when gom g on a Journey
S O ME DUSUN MUS ICAL INSTRUMENTS .
Theseinstrum
en ts are ord inar i ly p layed together They consist of a set of dulc im er gongs, a
d rum ,a flute , a nose-flu te (one nostr i l l S stopped wi th leaves when playing i t), and two str inged
instrum en ts of bamboo , p layed by women
2 9 8 D iary of a Journey to Kinabalufor a momen t on a Sl ight knoll . See ing us
,she ran ahead
,
cro ssed the bridle-path in front of us,and rushed down
a hil l in to the river. Gimbad,immediately he saw her head
ing for the river,drew hi s parang and dashed off in pursui t.
He followed her into the S tream and wounded her in theback above the hind-quarters . She then turned on him andhe wounded her in the snout. Find ing that she was gett ingthe wors t of i t
,She s tarted to swim away again, only to be
wounded a second time in the back. After thi s G imbadgave up the chase, and I watched the sow gain the O ppos itebank
,weari ly cl imb it
,and di sappear into some brushwood
on the edge of a strip of j ungle . By th i s t1me some of thehunters had come up
,and they cros sed the river
,which was
a t that place only waist-deep,taking a dog wi th them.
They al so vani shed in to the brushwood,but in about three
or four minutes they reappeared,dragging with them the
pig’s carcas s. She had been too exhausted from los s ofblood to go far
,and a spear had given her the coup
-de gréco.
From thi s place on to the Tamu Darat ground withoutfurther adventure. To-morrow we are to try and makeKahaian, and I hope to s e t ou t earl ier than I did to
f
-day,
a s the walk was rather trying,owing to our starting late
,
and thus catching the ful l heat of the sun,for the bridle
path as far as Tamu Dara t i s almos t without shade.19TH JULY. - From Tamu Darat ground to Kabaiau
opis (hal t ing-hut)— the word i s derived from “ office.”
Me t a number of Tamis (U lu Tuaran) coming down totrade hat s
,sireb
,etc ., and al so another lo t , of Dusuns from
Kaung U lu. A probably s tolen cow or buffalo had beenkil led on the bridle-path a few days ago
,as wi tne s s a heap
of dung and leafy branches pu t down in an at tempt tocover the blood-S tains . Thi s was below Ghinambur
Narinang vil lage. Passed the vil lages of Bongul, Sempodan,Kabaiau
,Lengkobang and Paka on the far s ide of the river
and Ghinambur Maku-Paku , Ghinambur Baiaiat, GhinamburNarinang and Lapan Tabobun on our sid e. Kabaiau opis
D iary of a Journey to Kinabalu 2 99
and its ne ighbourhood in a very dirty state ow ing to up
country Dusuns stopping in i t on the way to Tamu .
JULY 2 0TH .-From Kabaiau to Tambatuan : some very
fine views of Nabalu by the way. Left the bridle-pathopposite Tambatuan vil lage
,and climbed down the hill-S ide
through crops of kaladi to the we t-padi fie ld s in the valley,where we found several women at work .
The Tambatuan villagers do not use the plough in preparing these ranau-fields for plan ting. The grass i s cu t
short,and water i s then le t in from the river un ti l the root s
di e . The ground i s rather uneven , and there are somesl ight attempts a t terracing. Forded the river— i.e. theTempassuk or, Kadamaian.
Gumpus (the headman of Tambatuan) , who had beenwarned of my arrival by the coolies
,was awaiting me
,and
came over to help me across . Thence up the long andsteep hil l to Tambatuan village
,rain coming on before we
reached our des tination . After a re st and some food I paidoff my cool ies and Gimbad. Gumpus and crowds of vil lagersin at n ight. All wen t into fit s of laughter on being showntheir faces in my magn ifying shaving-glass. Bought a goodmany specimens. To my disgus t a Dusun dog stole a largeand new ly opened tinned tongue. As many pigs about as ever.Some sicknes s (dysentery?) here , and al so, I hear, at Kiau.
JULY 2 1 3T .
— Developing photographs and buying specimen s . Crowd s of Dusuns in. A fashion in tattooing hasse t in here since my last visit, four years ago, due, I am givento understand
,to a Dyak policeman having stopped in the
vi llage for some time. The patterns to be seen are , therefore
,chiefly debased forms of Sea Dyak designs and are not
truly nat ive to the country. Gumpus has quite coveredhimse l f with these pictures. We are l iving in a spare houseof hi s
,in which he s tore s hi s gongs, of which he is very
proud . Rain al l day long.JULY 2 2ND.
— This day and to-morrow, Gumpus says, areDusun tabu -days
,no work be ing al lowed to be done in
300 Diary of a Journey to Kinabaluthe field s . Purchased a goat and had i t ki l led for thebenefit of the villagers. Out with Gumpus for a strol lround the village . Bought a large number of ethnographi
cal specimens,some of them very fine . I shal l make my
long s tay here,and only put in a night or so at Kaung and
Kiau . Continual rain from noon unti l long after dark. Igo to bed very tired every n igh t
,as I scarcely have a
m inute’s re st al l day owing to the crowds of people Whocome to see me
,talk
,and sel l things. They s tart arriving at
s ix o’clock in the morning and the las t of them leave me atabout or 1 1 P.M . However
,I am very much pleased
with things in general,and have no wish to check them .
My only complaint i s that there i s so much to do,and so
l i t tl e time to do i t in. Usual choru s of pigs under the housea t night . Tinggi , the Tuaran Dusun policeman, s eemsqui te a good fellow. Gumpus looks after me l ike a father.JULY 2 3RD.
— Did not se t foot outs ide all day long as Ispent the firs t par t of i t in developing pho tographs
,and then
with Gumpus’s help se t to work to catalogue some of the
things I have col l ec ted. Dusuns in wi th butterfli e s to sel l .U sual rain in the afternoon.JULY 2 4TH .
—Having given out that I would pay one centfor every butterfly brought to me in good cond i t ion
,and
two cent s for large specie s,I have been overwhelmed by the
amount of work the Dusuns have made for me . So manyinsect s have been caugh t that I have had to throw away dozensof the commoner kinds . I have stopped buying ethnographicalspecimens
,as I think that I have got nearly everything
needful,and I shal l run short of cash before getting back
to suppl ie s a t Kotabelud unle s s I am careful . W ent out inthe early morning with Gumpus to take photographs ofMount Nunkok and of Kinabalu
,al so of two human skull s
hung up outside a padi s tore .JULY 2 5TH .
-A dull day with a high wind,probably the
forerunner of a drought,of which the Dusuns wi l l be
very glad,as they are wai ting to burn the i r clearings . Took
30 2 D iary of a Journey to KinabaluWe had an abominable j ourney to Kaung
,with floods of
rain nearly the whol e time,and were
,of course
,drenched
through and through . I was shivering with the cold andwet
,but Gumpus did not seem much d i s turbed. Managed
somehow or other to ge t to Kaung opis, Where I found thecool ies
,Tinggi and Omboi had arrived safe ly ; the lat ter,
however,had nearly given in on the road and had occasion
al ly to be pushed along by the cool ie s. However,we now
seem fairly wel l recovered,and I hope that there wil l be no
il l effec ts . Paid off S ix coo l ie s . Several Kaung men came overto see me . Bought some specimens from them. The riveri s in flood
,but in spi te of thi s several of the Kaung people
cro ssed i t,though others went round by a bamboo bridge
which they have made a l i t tle way up- s tream from the vil lage;JULY 3O TH .
— Sent a messenger to Kiau to ask Ompo (anold friend of mine) to come and see me . I have decided no tto go to h i s vi l lage
,a s the track i s in a very bad state
,and i t
i s doubtful if I should do as much in the way of collectingspecimens there as I can here, s ince Kiau i s, comparative lyspeaking
,frequently vi s i ted by Europeans
,who are intent
on climbing Nabalu . Ompo arrived at about 5 P.M . Heseems very friendly and qui te fi t. Small toddy (babr ) partya t night. Bought a number of e thnographical specimens .Settled to l eave here the day after to-morrow. River s ti l lin flood after yes terday’s rain, but fordable for local Dusuns.In the morning I cros sed by the bridge to Kaung village
,
taking wi th me Gumpus, Tinggi and Omboi . Took somepho tographs
,includ ing the bridge
,shoo tfish-traps
,vil lage
guardian-s tones,head-house (containing two skull s in a
baske t) , e tc., e tc.JULY 3 I ST.
— Went over to Kaung wi th Ompo,Tinggi
,
Gumpus and Omboi,cross ing by the river
,which has now
gone down . Climbed to the upper part of the vil lage,which
I had not vi s i ted before. Another head-house there,the
human skul l s,contained in a baske t
,be ing mixed with several
of those of the Orang-U tan . There are two head-houses in
D iary of a Journey to Kinabalu 303
the lower vi llage , each containing a couple of skull s, but one ofthem has fall en down. Took more photographs and bought anumber of specimens. Ompo returned to Kiau thi s evening.
AUGUST I ST.— Left Kaung for Gumpus
’s ranau sulap
i.e. watching-hut on the wet-padifields-“ be low Tambatuanvil lage and arrived there . Not a trouble some j ourney whendone in dry weather
,as to-day. S ince there has been no
rain for the las t few days,Gumpus and some of the Tam
batuan men want to burn off their clearings to-morrow,and
the former has asked me to continue my j ourney on the dayafter. This I have consented to do, with the provi so that Ipay no wages for to-morrow. In this bu t there i s hangingup
,under the thatch
,a small bamboo trough
,which was
used as a receptacle for las t year’s rice soul (nzembaraian) ,and close to i t
,and stuck into the thatch
,are two small
bamboo knives wi th which the rice soul was reaped . I haveasked Gumpus to le t me have al l these. A few of the Kiaupeople
,and one Tambatuan man , being afraid that i t may
rain to-morrow,have burned their clearings to day, but I
doubt if they have been very succes sful, as the wood i s notye t sufficiently dry after the heavy rains of a few days ago.AUGU ST 2ND.
— At Gumpus’s sulap. Extensive burnings
of felled j ungle to-day. One burnt on the hil l near usexce l lent
.Several Dusuns
,chiefly Kaung U lu men , passed
by on their way to Tamu Timbang. Gumpus, who hasburned hi s clearing
,but not very successfully, came in to
wards evening,bringing w i th him a bamboo of rice wine.
He says that he wi l l have five days’ work col lecting theunburnt wood on his clearing for a second firing. I noticedthat a Single tree has been left unfe l led in a clearing nearus,and thinking i t probable that there might be some super
stitious reason for this, asked a Dusun why it had not beencut down
.He replied that i t was left as a perching—place
for the birds,as
,if there was no tree left for them in the
clearing,they might curse the crop. Sand-flies and horse
flie s here in plenty, and sleep difficult.
304 D iary of a Journey to .KinabaluAUGU ST 3RD.
— Left Gumpus’s ranau sulap for Kahaian
(abou t four mile s away) and arrived there . To-morrow I
hope to reach Ghinambur Narinang,so as to take raft from
there to Kotabelud on the day following. I am sending off
a couple of l ightly laden cool ie s early to-morrow to te l lthe Narinang people to make the raft. On the way toKotabelud I in tend to cal l in at Tamu Darat, the day afterto-morrow being marke t day. During the early part ofto-day all the country towards Tamu Darat was obscuredby cloud s of smoke
,as the Dusuns there are burning of
the i r clearings,being afra id tha t rain is coming .
AUGU ST 4TH .— From Kahaian to Ghinambur Laut.
S topped at Ghinambur Narinang by the way to inquire ifthere was a pos s ibi l i ty of get t ing a raft, having sent off two
cool ie s early as I purposed yes terday. Found that therewere no bamboos in the ne ighbourhood and that i t wastherefore imposs ible to construc t one . Journey as far a sNarinang not unpleasant, but from Narinang to GhinamburLau t the path was rough and the sun hot. On arrival Iheard that several raft s belonging to the Kabaiau people aremoored at the mouth of the Penataran river
,and that their
maker s are coming down to Tamu Darat on them to -morrow.
The Ghinambur opis i s now in ruins . The village,
though not vi s ible from the bridle-path , i s only a few chainsdi s tan t on the other s ide of a small s trip of j ungle . Put upin a rather small Dusun house . Everybody here (and el sewhere) very much exerci sed about the new twenty-five-centtax on coco-nut-tre e s used for obtaining babr . Got someexcellen t oranges
,which I d id not know grew lower down
the Tempassuk val ley than K iau and Tambatuan,and al so
several durian s . (The orange-tree seedlings seem to havebeen obtained from Kiau .)AUGU ST 5TH .
— Left Ghinambur Laut for Tamu Daratand arrived there. A very smal l marke t to-day, as the upcountry Dusuns are busy working on the ir clearings . TheSwiss oi l-man turned up in the Tamu. He i s on his way to
Diary of a Journey to Kinabalu 305Kahaian . Haj i Arsat
,
‘Keruak,Bagu
,S irinan
,ex-sergeant
Lakui and other old friend s of mine at marke t. Left theTamu by rafts, Gumpus and Omboi on one, I on another.Arrived at Kotabelud in the afternoon. The District Officeraway in Jesse l ton .AUGU ST 6TH .
-Nothing particular doing. Drew somemoney and paid off my coolie s. Sangin (a Baj au, and an oldfriend) came in towards evening from Kagurhan, to whichplace he has removed from Kotabelud . Had a chat with himand told him to let me see some brass-ware
,which he wants
to sel l to-morrow. S irinan al so in for a talk, bringing wi thhim a very nice ly made mode l of a Dusun plough. Boughtan old Chinese j ar and a stone implement from a Baj au, anda couple of large and fine sun-hats
,made by the Tamis (U lu
Tuaran) people , in the shops . We are putting up in anewly erected bungalow on the top of Kotabelud hill , whichi s s i tuated between the fort and the s i te of my old house.AUGUST 7TH .
— Arranged with Sangin to buy some of hisbrass-ware . Repacking Dusun collections with Omboi .AU GU ST 8TH . Sangin came in with hi s brass-ware and the
Il lanun loom (w i th half-completed cloth) which I asked himto ge t for me . Arranged with S irinan to go to KampongTempassuk to -morrow to try and excavate the reputed Si teof an old vi l lage .AUGUST 9TH .
— Left Kotabelud w ith S irinan at about8 A .M . Crossed the river at Gunding and, from there,walked to Gimbad’s house at Tempassuk. On nearing thevillage we came to hi s irrigation canal , qui te a big affair. Inoticed that in one place i t s banks were considerab ly higherthan elsewhere
,and immediate ly suspected that thi s was the
place where he said his canal had cut through an old housesi te
. O n G imbad j oining us,I found that I was correct in
my surmise.The banks of the canal at this place were
strewn with bits of coarse and thick pottery, different fromthat made by the Dusun s at the presen t day.G imbad and S irinan picked up several ye l low glass or
306 D iary of a Journey to Kinabalupaste beads
,l ike those which the Dusuns s til l value ; but
we saw no fragments of Chinese pot tery. W e al so foundtwo s tones (natural ly rounded by river action) which hadeviden tly been selected because of their shape for somepurpo se or other. Possibly they were used for pottings tones
,but they are much larger than the pebble s employed
for that purpose by the modern Dusuns. After trying thesoi l here and there with the cbang/eol, and seemingly exhausting the pos s ibi l i t ie s of the si te, we repaired to G imbad
’s
house,where he produced another bead (blue) , which he
had found while making hi s canal,and a fairly large
,flattish
piece of bras s ornamented with some rudely cas t patterns.This and the bead I purchased.Another in tere s t ing obj ec t found on the same s i te was
al so produced,but the man who owned i t refused to part
with i t . This was a well-shaped l i t tle hone or cleanings tone wi th a hole bored in i t at one end to enable i t to besuspended from a cord . Its l ength was about five inchesand i ts bread th about seven-eighths of an inch
,while i t may
have been one - third of an inch in thicknes s. The s tone ofwhich i t was composed was greeni sh brown
,fine-grained
and fairly hard . Leaving Tempassuk, where we had beenregaled wi th a meal of rice and smal l boi ledfish (bo th driedand fresh) and wi th rice cooked wi th Indian corn , all washeddown by a plentiful supply of babr
,we made for Bunsud’
s
house at Tamboulian,but unluckily found him out.
However,his l ieutenant Lipatan welcomed and entertained
us . From Tamboulian we made our way to Pia sau, where wecal led in at Ransab’
s,but he al so was out. Left S irinan in the
vi llage (hi s own) , and re turned to Kotabelud with the cool iethat I had taken with me in the morning to help in excavating.AUGU ST 1O TH .
— Bought rather a n ice old brass betel-boxin one of the Chinese shops. I was s i t t ing talking wi thS irinan and a Baj au in the evening outside our bu t whena small snake gl ided pas t
,close to S irinan
,going in the
direction of the house . I t s colour was black,and I suspected
30 8 D iary of a Journey to KinabaluBaj au
,who al so brought in a very nice old green crackle
ware Chine se di sh for which he asked ten dollars . Ioffered two dollars
,but thi s was re fused
,bu t I subsequently
got i t for three dol lars . Bengal i,G imbad and two other
Tempassuk Dusuns in wi th a pre sent of babr , which weconsumed between us . Numerous flights of green pigeonpassed under the house after tea .I was s i t t ing outs id e watching these when D r H.,
the oilexpert
,came by on hi s way to Haj i Arsat
’s house
,having
j us t come in from Saiap,where he had gone (via Melangkap)
from Kabaiau . I showed him the s tone implemen t boughtto-day and he seemed surpri sed
,saying that there was a
nephri te (the mineral of which the implement i s made) hil lin the neighbourhood of Tempassuk vil lage . We are tovi s i t th i s on Friday to see i f we can find signs of the s tonehaving been worked . I al so ment ioned the radiolarian“ chertflakes
,which are to be found on Kotabelud hil l, and we are
to search for some of these to-morrow .
AUGU ST 13TH .— Out with D r H . to the end of Kotabelud
hil l in search of chert flake s,of which we found several .‘
From there to the shops to buy Il lanun cloths, and then toKoruak’s vil lage to take photograph s of Hari Raya festivi t ie s .The D i s tric t Officer re turned to-day and came round to seeme towards evening. Dinner with the Dis tric t Officer.AUGU ST I 4TH .
-Down to Haj i Arsat’s house to see Dr
H .,who i s foo t-sore from hi s j ourney up
— country. Thenceto the shops to pay some bil l s
,and then to Diki’s Kampong
a t Perasan to take photographs of the Aari Raya celebrations .AUGU ST I 5TH .
— Rather a bad at tack of fever. Gimbad,S irinan
,Lipatan
,Bengal i and other Dusuns came in to see
me,bringing [ya/yr with them
,but I was not fi t enough to
talk very much to them .
AUGU ST I 6TH .— S ti l l fever. The Bernadans’ boats have
no t ye t come in . Left for Haj i Arsat’s house at Fort
Alfred and arrived there fee l ing very much done up . Ourthree boats in toward s evening.
D iary of a Journey to Kinabalu 309AUGUST I 7TH .
-S ti l l fever. Left Arsat’s house at about
3 P .M . Omboi and I in one boat,heavy baggage in the
other two . Anchored off Ambong at night.AUGU ST 1STH .
— Winds con trary and going therefore slow.
Landed once to ge t firewood and once for water. Anchoredfor the night at the mouth of the Mengkabong river
.
AUGUST 19TH .-U p the Mengkabong river to Mengka
bong vil lage. Omboi off to Tuaran to see his wife. I,
being sti l l unwel l and weak from not eating,did not go
,
though I should have liked to have done so. Took anumber of photographs of the village . Rain al l afternoon .
Left toward s night for Jes sel ton and anchored til l daybreakunder an i sland within sight of that place.AUGU ST 2 0TH .
— Sailed into Jes se l ton,gave up pass at
the customs office and landed close to the Res t House .AUGU ST am t — Repacking specimens . Visi ted one
'
or
two people whom I knew formerly.AUGU ST 2 2 ND.
— TO dinner a t W .
’s to see his excellent
collection of brass-ware .AUGU ST 2 4TH .
— Left Jessel ton for Papar by the e ighto’clock train . The rai lway be tween Jessel ton and Paparpasses partly through mangrove swamps
,partly along the
seashore and partly through padi-fields owned by Dusunsand Baj aus. Arrived at Papar
,made my way to the pawn
shop,always the firs t place I vi si t in a settlement
,and
picked up some nice piece s of brass-ware . In anotherChine se shop I purchased a local ly made Dusun sun-hatdecorated wi th fine patterns
,and a very heavy and beauti
ful ly worked brass be tel-caske t of a type of which I hadlong wanted to get an example. Many of the Dusuns herehave become Chri stians
,there be ing a Roman Catholic
mission station in the vicinity, others are converts to Islam.
Externally,in their manners
,I d id not think that they
compared favourably wi th their less c ivilised brothers,but
perhaps the improvement i s internal only,and thus not
vi sible on the surface . Land in Papar seems to be at a
3 1 0 Diary of a Journey to Kinabalupremium
,and the l i t tle township present s qui te a busy
appearance . The Chinese here grow vegetable s for Jes se lton market ; otherwi se I do not know how they l ive, unles s i ti s by taking in one another’s washing. The new bridge overthe Papar river i s the great engineering work of Borneo.Me t M. in the Res t House, where I went to get a drink .
He and I came out on the same boat to Borneo together ascade ts. He very kindly gave me tiffin and sent hi s boy withme to a Dusun house to see some old j ars
,among which
,
however,there were no true Gurir. The return train to
Jessel ton was over two hours late,but did eventual ly arrive.
The scenery along the l ine i s rather fine in places,especially
where the railway runs near the coas t. Both Dusuns andBaj aus seem to be late in planting their padi
,they st il l being
at work ploughing and harrowing in some place s .AUGU ST 2 5TH .
— F in ished packing . Said good-bye to theResident and to some other people . W en t on board the
Selangor at about 4 P.M . Heavy rain al l day. The boatwil l no t sai l t i l l 3 P .M . to-morrow, though the adverti sed timeis 5 P .M . to-day.AUGU ST 2 6TH .
— Left Jessel ton . Anchored ti l l daylighto ff some small i sland.AUGU ST 2 7TH .
— Weighed anchor a t abou t 5 A .M . forL_abuan and arrived a t about half
-past ten . Decided no tto s top in Labuan (as I had intended to do) . Omboi had ,therefore
,to be sen t back to Tuaran . Lucki ly I found a
launch which was about to leave for W e ston on the mainland ; so, put ting him on board, I gave him directions forreaching Jessel ton via Beaufort.AUGU ST 2 STH .
— Arrived at M iri early in the morning,
but only s topped to take off mail s .AUGU ST 2 9TH .
-Beautiful weather. Passed some islandsthe Natunas) at 1 2 A .M .
AUGU ST 3O TH .— Arrived at S ingapore.
3 I 2 Appendices
APPENDI ! B .
MEASUREMENT S O F “O RANG DUSUN (1915)
SerialRemarks
mm . 138 mm . U p-country
APPENDI ! C .
TH E MALAY LANGUAGE AS SPOKEN IN NORTH-W EST BORNEOMalay, not being the mother tongue of th is part of Borneo ,
al though it is the lingua f ranca, as m ight be expected, is spokenextreme ly badly. V arious words are used wh ich are unknown inthe Malay of the Peninsu la. Possibly they may occur in the native
languages, or in the patois of the Bruneis, who natural ly speak a
Malay dialect . Some of these words are given below :
( I ) Bubut , to pursue (baméat or kq/‘
ar of the Peninsu laMalays).(2 ) Tagz
'
, to dun a man who is in debt .
Appendices 3 I 3
(3) Kelalez’
, to recognise.
(4) Gagau , to be busy, to be worried by hav ing too much workto do .
5) Baloz m'
r , to run (used of either men or horses).(6) Bangkar , a raft (rakit 111 the MalayPeninsu la).(7) Siring, edge
— inc of a river , a box,etc. (tepz
'
in the MalayPeninsu la).
(8) Kaéan , a box.
I have remarked e lsewhere on the difficu l ty the Dusuns seem to
have in pronouncing ab, and the way they have of turning it into
.1 or k.
O ther pecu liarities are that afinal k is pronounced clearly, and not
half swal lowed (glottal cheek), until it sounds l ike a m ixturebetween an 13 and a b, as in the Peninsu la, and that in some wordsin wh ich there are r
’s and 1
’s these letters become curiously
transposed. Thus the ordinary Malay words reluar (trousers)become rerual, lapar (hungry) rapal, Iuar (outside) rual, etc.
Abbreviations are not so commonly used as in the Peninsu la,where tidak mou (don
’
t want) usual ly becomes ta’may and tid
’aa
’a
(there is not) t’ada.
The word dengan, wh ich in the MalayPeninsu la frequently means
w itb (rabya potong dengan parang, I cut it with a parang) , in the
mou ths of the Dusuns becomesj angan (fa/Jyapotongj anganparang).
I N D E !
ative , 50
in the jungle, 6 1AJAU houses, 2 14
occupations, 2 16
ajau and I l lanun women, 198
ajau boatmen, 69ajaus and I l lanuns, character of, 2 2ajaus, 194 improvidence of, 138labourers, 38 , 52amboo, the , 60amboo forests, 6 1anjo, Dusun, 13 1
anyan, the , 165Basket-making, 2 33Baskets, 150Beads, old, value of, 144Beaufort, 44Beer, 2 2 3Bees, 98Beeswax, legend of the, 179Beginningof theW orld , Legend of, 175Bé
’
rian or purchase price forwife, 12 2 ,
Big game, 58
Bird scares, 104 , 2 01
Birds, 57Birds’-nests, edible, 4 2Blacksm iths, 14 8 , 2 35Blatek, origin of the
,1 8 1
B lood brotherhood , 168
B low-pipe, the , 190
Boats, native, 68Bongfa: or beads, 145Borneo, physical geography of, 18
Borneo, 17Bracelets and arm lets, 9 2 , 2 34Brass cannon, 2 56Brass-casting, 151 , 2 34Brass ornaments, 9 2Bridle-paths, 4 4.British North Borneo, 17, 19
3 15
Brunei, 17Brunei brass-work, 2 9 2Buffaloes, value of, 137Buffalo-riding, 62Buffalo- stealing, 84Butterflies, 57, 300
CALENDAR of good and bad days, 166
Casting-net, 2 03Cats, 9 8Cattle , export of, 2 37Cattle in the Tempassuk, 51 , 2 02Census of 19 1 1 , 54Centipedes and scorpions, 59Ceremonial dress, 158Chain-mail , 255Charm s
,stone implements as, 2 68Characteristics of the people, 2 8
Charm -belts, 164.Chartered Company, 19, 4 2Chieftains, 2 19Ch inese names in Borneo, 2 8 1Chinese, influence of
,18 , 34 , 78 , 14 1 ,
143, I 99 , 2 2 9 1 2 74Civil isation, influence of, 3 1Climate , 19C loth , Dusun, 14 8 , 2 1 1, 2 30
C lothing and hairdressing of women,2 10
Coastal people, the, 2 8Cock-fighting, 2 38Coco-nut oil, 2 2 2C oco palms, 4 1
Coffins, 2 2 7Communal dwel l ings, 94 , 96Contracts and treatment of the coolies,40Cooking lamp, the, 66
Cooking, Dusun,100, 1 13, 2 17Coolies, recruiting, 38 , 64Copper, 36
C ourtship, 1 2 3Crime, 2 18
C rocodile shooting, 74Crops, various, 106
3 1 6 IndexCruelty to animals, 97Crusader sword , the , 2 53Currency, 136
DAMAR gum , 4 2
Dancing, Dusun, 134, 2 43Death , 1 2 9Debt amongst coolies, 39Deer drives, 107Dent, S ir A . ,
2 0
Desertion amongst cool ies, 39D ish-covers, 2 33D ivorce, 1 2 2 , 2 2 8Dogs, 97Dress of the Bajaus, 2 09Dress, ceremonial , 158
Dress, women’
s, 9 1
Drink , native-brewed, 8 2 , 1 17Drum s
,133
Daft fair or pol l-tax, 2 2 0Dusun costume , 8 8
Dusun custom,origin of a, 176
Dusun women, 8 1
Dusuns, the, 35, 37, 53 , 79 , 8 2 , 86,
Dutch , the, 2 0Duties, import and export, 4 2
Dyes, 2 30Dynam itefish ing, 1 10EAR ornaments, 9 1
Earth , edible, 1 15Embroidery, 2 33Epidem ics, 3 1
Epi lepsy, 167Epiphytes, 6 1vil influences, 77
Expensive weapons, 2 4 2
F IGHTING on land, 2 65F ish-traps, 108F ishing, 108 , 109 , 1 10, 2 03, 2 04F lutes, bamboo, 13 1
Folk-tales, 87, 170, 251
Food , 2 16, 2 2 8Forest growth , secondary, 2 06Frogs, curious, 59Fruit, 2 2 2Funerals, 1 2 4GAMBLING , 52 , 198 , 2 40
Games,2 4 1
Gayarzg, the, 190
Girdles, 9 1Gobang or dug
-out, 68
Gold, 36Gongs and drum s
,130, 2 45
Government chiefs, 72 , 2 19Grass-fires, 206
Graves, 2 2 7Guests of the Government , 84.
Guri: or sacred jars, 153, 156
H AGI O rang Kaya Kaya Mohamm
Arsat, 2 19Hairdressing, 90, 9 2 , 2 1 1Hqiir, 2 48Halting-huts, 68H ari Raya, 2 50Harrow
,Dusun
,104
H ats and hoods, 9 1 , 146
H ead-cloths, 89 , 2 3 1Head-houses, 18 8
H ead-hunting, religious aspects
Headman , vil lage, 73, 10 1High food , 1 13H il l padi, 105H oney, 99Hospitality, 67Houses, native, 67, 93H ouse-horns, 96H umour, sense of, 3 1
H unting, 2 05
[ Ian bilis, 2 04I l lanun chiefs, 2 2 0I l lanuns, the, 53, 196
Imported articles, 4 3, 52
Inheritance, 2 2 7Intoxicants, 32 , 1 16
, 12 0, 2 2 3Irrigation canal , 305JACK-O F-ALL-TRADES, a, 72
Jackets, 9 1Jars as coffins, 12 7Jesselton
,2 93
Jewel lery, personal , 2 10Jews’ harps, 13 1Jungle, the Eastern, 4 1 , 56,
I 39Jungle-crabs, 59
3 1 8
Reaping, 104
Rel igious impostors, 2 48Rel igious rites, 153Re ligion, 2 47Revenue, 4 2
Rice , dry, 105Rice, wet, 103Rice the staple diet, 1 14
Rubber, 37
SACRED trees, 164Saddle, native , 63Sagit, paying, 169Sago, 4 1
Saint in Sumatra, story of a, 2 9Salt-making, 2 35Sarawak , 17Sarips, 2 20
Semanggang Dyaks, 2 9 1Servants, 77Sharips, 2 4 8
Shields, 190
Shifts, constant, 75S ickness, offerings in, 168
S ilver-work, 2 1 2Singing, Dusun, 134S ingarun, 49Sire/J-boxes, 89 , 2 34Sireb-chewing, 1 15S irinan, 80
Skul ls and bones, habit of preserving,1 14
S leeping-cloth , 2 32Smal l-pox, dread of, 166
Snakes, 58
Snares and traps, 208
Spaniards, the, 18
Spears, 19 1, 149 , 2 55Spear
-traps, 86, 107Spirits, the propitiation of, 152 , 154Splash ing,”fish ing by, 1 10
Stimulants, 2 2 3S tone implements
,antique , 2 66
S tore-bins, 96Sugar
-cane, 2 02
Sulaman, 50Sul tans of Sulu and Brunei, 2 0, 2 3
Index
UNPLEASANT happenings, 76Unredeemed pledges, 2 4 2Up
-country people , 2 8V ARTHEMA, 18
Vegetables, 65, 2 2 1Vil lages, Dusun, 9 3, 2 13
WALLOW S , 64War coats and helmets
, 19 2
W ar tabus, 163W ater-buffaloes, 63W ater vessels, 1 14
W ealth , forms of, 135W eapons, the manufacture of, 1 89 , 2 5Wh istle, Dusun, 133W indows, 95Women, l iberty of, 197, 2 1 1
W omen and rel igious ceremonies, 15W ork ing-knife orparang, 2 12
PRm TED IN G REAT BRITA IN av THE RN ERsrns PREss L 1M 1TED
EDINBURGH
Sun-hats, 89 , 2 1 2Supreme Deity, Dusun idea of, 152
TABU S, 153, 163, 168
Tambatuan, 2 99Tapai cakes, 2 2 2
Tapd i, native intoxicant drink, 1 19Tattooing, 162
,2 99
Telegraphic system , 44
Tempassuk district, the, 4 8 , 51
Tempassuk river, 17, 47Tenumpoéor m ode l of head, 16 1
Thunder teeth ,” 2 67Timber, 4 1 , 60Timber, destruction of, 2 06
T inned provisions, 66
Tobacco, 37, 1 16,144.
Toddy, coco-nut-palm , 67, 1 18
Tooth-fi ling, 90Traps, 106
Travelling in Borneo , 6 2 , 70, 74Tree-ferns, 6 1
Trees, sacred, 164Tuaran, 45, 46, 50
Tuaran river, 17Tutong settlement, a, 2 9 2
gamy 800. If ixtbmany Illustration: 69“ a Map. 12 1. 6d. nett.
IN SU NL IGHT 6 SHADEe beauties of the coun try , the life , habi ts 89” humour of itsabrtants, E?an accoun t of the rehabilitation of a once down
trodden peopleBY
E. TYNDALE BISC O E,
With an Introduction by
AJOR-GENERAL L . C . DUNSTERV ILLE, C B C .S .I.
Au thor of“The Adven tures of the Dunster Force.
S O ME EARLY REVIEWS .
Really ascinating — The Times. A delightfu l book . Saturday Review.
F 1rst-rate.
”— Bn t lsh Weekly. This is no ordinary book . — Chn stian World.
An engrossing narrative with superbphotographs .
"— Dundee Courier.
A real ly fascinatin account of the author'
s reat l ife-work at S rina ar , g iv in the in: ressionhat HERE IS A M N W HO M IT W O U L BE GO O D TO KNO
.
Pre erring eeds towords and dut to dogma , he tau ht Brahmans and Mohammedans to swim , to box , to bu i ldmats , and to p ay football ; bu t he as done even more , for he taught h1s pup1ls that they m ust useheir strengt h m the service of their ne ighbours . All th is has been accom p l ished by } combinatwn1! per suaswe e lo nenee and a strong right arm , not without use of the S ing lest ick , bu t morehan all by exam e andfirm be lief l l ideals. It is the just ificat ion and embodnnent of Brit ishuie in the East. ’
— The Times .“General Dunstervii le de scribe s the author as A BO RN O PT IM IST A STRONG ,
70RCE PU L C HARACTER W ITH A S TRONG S ENS E O F HUMO UR AND GO O DSPO RTSMANSH I P . AND INDOM ITABLE C OURAGE .
’
It is a complnn ent to be desc ribedLS a brave man by the leader of the Dunster Force . that very remarkab le Expedit ion to Eaku.
(“
he humour 18 q u 1et and entertain ing. Acts of phys ica l courage appear as incrdents of ordinarylie .
" Westm ins ter Gaz ette .
Pecu l iar! bree z and most unconvent iona l C LEARLY A M I S S IONARY WHO CHEER7UL L Y F RC F BRAHMANS TO BREAK CASTE ,
AND SUBDUE S PANTHERSNITH A GLANC E ,
IS NO O RD INARY PERS ON. Th is is no ord inarybook
”It IS
irovocative , at t im e s startlin g , but a lways formble , 1117e and a lways fu l l of new nformat ion'
hn s tlan World .
SEELEY, SERV ICE 87’ CC . , LTD 8 8 GREAT RU SSELL STREET, W. C . l
DIPLOMAT IN APANThe Inner H istory of the C ritical Years in the E vo lu tion
of Japan when the Ports were opened and the Monarch yrestored , recorded by a Dip lomatist who took an active
part in the e ven ts of the tim e , with an account
of his personal experiences du ring that periodBY
THE RT. H ON. SIR ERNEST SATOWP .C .
,G LL.D.,
D.C .L.
British Minister at Pek ing, 1900— 5
Formerly Secretary of the British Legation at Tokio.
The Family Crest of the Toxuoawa Suocuns.S O ME EARLY REVIEWS .
A truly remarkable series of impression s of mem orable and notable scenes .S lrefiield I ndrpem/cnt.
S IR ERNE ST SATOW DE SCRI BES ONE O F THE MO ST FATEFU L C HAPTE RS IN THE H ISTO RY O F THE FAR EAST W ITH TH E.
AUTHO R ITY O F A C H IEF ACTO R in the scenes that he narrates. He playedhis part not infrequent ly at the rush of h i s own l ife .
-s es.
“ The renascence of Japan is un iq ue in modern h istory . Half a century ago thecountry was governed b a feudal system more ancien t than me diaeva l ism . The storyof th i s wonden u l trans orm atmn is to l d by S ir Ernest S atow who l ived through i t , andp layed a notable par t in brm '
ng i t about . S ir E rnest S atow reca l ls and willre s e rve a t hou sand de tai l s 0 a story the l ike of which has never been conceived inet ion . L ik e h is fr iend and co l league , the late L ord Redesdale , S 1r Ernest S atow
var ied hi s offic ia l l ife i n apan w ith risky excu rs ions fu l l of incident and unconventional i tTHE M O ST P I TU RESQU E STO RY O F A D I PL O MAT '
S ADVENTURETHAT HAS APPEARED s ince Lord Redesdale’
s famous book , which was based inpart upon S i r E rnest 's l ive ly d iary . ”— Yorkslu reP ort.“ A REMARKABLE BO O K. The author has the abi l ity to make his h istory
in tere sting in the h igh est degree He saw everyt h ing t hat he wished to see . He hadbu sm e ss W it h all c lasses of peop le from the temporal and Spir itua l rulers down to the
h um b le st of the peop le . M os t va l uab le . A book to be read with interest andprofit by all who have to do w ith Japan .
"— Dxm dce Cou r ier .
S ir Erne s t pene trated the ve l l . " -L 0fldon and Ch ina Express.
Not the least in tere sting part of the book consists of the gl impses it gives into theinner workm gs of d ip lomacy .
— M cm c/zes fcr Gua rd i an .
SEELEY, SERV ICE é‘ CO . , LTD. , 38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C .
