nated by the flickering glare of ‘ dammar ’ gum torches
the effect is melodramatic in the extreme. It was rather
difficult to make any use of these Muruts as collectors__
they showed no powers of discrimination whatever, while
the Kadyans, on the other hand—who are also aboriginals,
but have mixed much with the dominant Malays, by
whom they were years ago converted to the faith of Islam
showed great aptitude, and were of real service; and I
shall long retain pleasant memories of some of the Kadyan
villagers, especially ‘ Moumein,’ of Meringit, who received
me into the little village he had founded with every demonstration
of friendship, and rendered me much intelligent
assistance for many weeks. Of Malays generally one
may say that they live by lying and thieving in one form
or another, but the aboriginal races of Borneo, like the
Papuans whom Goldie met inland in New Guinea, are
gentle and hospitable to peaceably disposed strangers,
and it will be a great pity to see them exterminated in
the way their prototypes, the Incas of Peru, and the Bed
Men of the West, have been.”
CHAPTER VII.
BEAUTIFUL BOENEO.
Borneo—Wild animals—the Malays— Poetry—Bomances—Dewa Indra
: —Native government—Pile dwellings—Intermarriage—Language—
Clothing — Courtship — Marriage — Inland tribes—Land culture—
Native villages—Food products—Textile fabrics—Bark cloth—Native
women — Climate — Native produce— Kayan weapon — Rivers—
Gambling—Opium smoking.
B o r n e o , the beautiful—the “ garden of the sun”— is
the third largest island in the world, and boasts a much
larger area than that occupied by the British Isles. The
equator divides it, and the climate is, perhaps, that most
suitable for vegetation of any other, being uniformly hot
and humid all the year round. There are no volcanoes,
the tiger is unknown, and it is the only habitat of the
wild elephant in the Malay Archipelago. It is also remarkable
as being the home of the wild man of the
forests, or the “ orang utan ” of the Malays. Alligators
abound in the rivers, and are the most dangerous of the
wild animals. Snakes exist plentifully, and in great
variety, but death from snake-bites is very rare. The
two-horned rhinoceros, wild cattle, pigs in abundance,
and several species of deer are known.
The human inhabitants may be roughly divided into
two races, the Malays and the Borneans, or aboriginals.
The origin of both types is obscure. The Malays, however,
are immigrants who inhabit the coasts of all the
large Malay islands where, as here in Borneo, they have