24 BULLETIN 137^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



erate their penetration of the most outlying sections of territory 

 that later became known as Malaysia. From Sumatra to the Philip- 

 pines, settlements by them are found in all of the insular groups 

 lying between. Before the spread of the Malays, Hindus had ac- 

 quired a foothold throughout most of the area. Some settlements 

 were made probably as many as 2,000 years ago. 



Borneo received many settlements of Hinduized Malays and prob- 

 ably of Hindus from Madjapahit in Java. Still later groups of 

 Mohammedan Malays, such as the Bugin from the island of Celebes, 

 founded settlements in Borneo. Chinese also arrived to work gold 

 deposits and to mine precious stones which they found there. Con- 

 sequently, for centuries the native population of portions of the 

 island of Borneo was under the influence of foreign civilizations 

 or at least was in contact with cultures of a higher order than 

 its own. 



One immigrant group, the Kayan, is cited by Hose and Mc- 

 Dougall as arriving in Borneo about the beginning of the four- 

 teenth century. These Malays landed near Silaidana and spread 

 throughout central Borneo. The Dyaks of the interior were doubt- 

 less soon brought in contact with either the Hindu-Malay kingdoms 

 of the coast or the Hinduized Kayan immigrants of the interior. 

 Hose and McDougall relate in considerable detail the methods of 

 iron working practiced by the Kayan such as were observed and 

 imitated by the Dyaks, who in turn became the instructors of the 

 Sulu Moros; northern Filipino tribes may well have secured their 

 knowledge of iron working by a different route and from a different 

 source. 



In any account of the arts and crafts of the Kayans, the working of iron 

 claims the first place by reason of its high imiwrtance to them and on the skill 

 and knowledge displayed by them in the difficult operations by which they 

 produce their fine swords. The origin of their knowledge of iron and of the 

 processes of smelting and forging remains hidden in mystery ; but there can 

 be little doubt that the Kayans were familiar with these processes before they 

 entered Borneo, and it is probable that the Kayans were the first iron workers 

 in Borneo, and that from them the other tribes have learnt the craft with 

 varying measures of success. However this may be, the Kayans remain the 

 most skillful ironworkers of the country, rivaled only in the production of 

 serviceable sword blades by the Kenyahs. 



At the present day the Kayans, like all the other peoples, obtain their iron 

 in the form of bars of iron and steel imported from Europe and distributed by 

 the Chinese and Malay traders. But 30 years ago nearly all the iron worked 

 by the tribes of the interior was from ore found in the river beds and possibly 

 from masses of meteoric iron ; and even at the present day the native ore i^ 

 still smelted in the far interior, and swords made from it by the Kenyahs are 

 still valued above all others." 



= The Pagan Tribe® of Borneo, by C. W. Hose and McDoujrall, vol. 1, 191'J, pp. 193-194. 



