240 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



These same Malays of Perak, H. H. Rajah Dris tells us, are 

 still specially noted for many strange customs and superstitions 

 "utterly opposed to Muhammadan teaching, and savouring 

 strongly of devil-worship. This enormous belief in the super- 

 natural is possibly a relic of the pre-Islam State 1 ." 



In Borneo, which has been denned as " 300,000 square miles 

 of savagery," worse practices prevail even than this 

 Bonio yanS in " devil-worship." The periphery of the island has for 

 many centuries been occupied by true Malays from 

 Sumatra, especially along the north-western seaboard (Brunei, 

 Sarawak, Pontianak) ; by Javanese on the south coast (Bangir- 

 masin), who here introduced Hinduism at an early date, but are 

 now mostly assimilated to the Orang-Malayu ; by other Malays 

 on the east side (Kutai); by the already mentioned Bajaus, Sulus, 

 and Illanuns in the north-east ; and by Chinese in large numbers 

 almost everywhere 2 . Later came the Dutch in the south, and in 

 the north the English, who despite their quite recent arrival 

 (Sarawak, 1842; British North Borneo and Brunei, 1881-8), 

 have already effected a great improvement in the rude manners 

 of the natives under their jurisdiction. 



But within this variegated fringe of culture and semi-barbarism, 

 the great mass of the aborigines is still emphatically 

 * n tne w ^ state. Whether grouped as Dyaks 

 (Dayaks) 3 , the most general name, Dusuns in 

 British North Borneo, Kayans farther south, or other conventional 



1 Jour. Anthrop. hist. 1886, p. 227. The Rajah gives the leading features 

 of the character of his countrymen as "pride of race and birth, extraordinary 

 observance of punctilio, and a bigoted adherence to ancient custom and tradi- 

 tion." 



' 2 Too much influence, however, must not be credited to the Chinese 

 element, and M. L. Rousselet points out that the North Bornean Dusuns, for 

 instance, " ne sont nullement melanges aux Chinois, comme on 1'a cru jusqu'a 

 ces derniers temps" (Nouv. Diet. Supplement, 1897, Art. DayaK). 



''' Dayak, unheard of before about 1780, is a term of unknown origin or 

 meaning, though by some referred to a Sarawak word dayah, a tribal name 

 meaning " Man." The final k is often dropped in Malay words, as in Perak, 

 pronounced Ferah ; Sulu and Solo for Sulitk, Solok, &c. But " es bleibt die 

 Herkunft dieses Wortes bis jetzt unklarer als diejenige von 'Papua' und 

 ' Alfuren ' (A. B. Meyer, Ueber die Namen Papua, Dajak und Alfuren, 

 Vienna, 1882, p. 18). 



