PECULIARITIES 213 



COSMOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL NOTIONS 



The more intelligent Kayans can give a fairly- 

 good general description of the geographical 

 features and relations of the district in which they 

 live. In order to do this a Kayan will map out the 

 principal features on a smooth surface by placing 

 pieces of stick to represent the rivers and their 

 tributaries, and pieces of leaf to represent the hills 

 and mountains ; he will pay special attention to the 

 relations of the sources of the various streams. In 

 this way a Kayan chief of the Baram would 

 construct a tolerably accurate map of the whole 

 Baram district, putting in Bruni and Usun Apo 

 and the heads of the Rejang, Batang Kayan, 

 Tutong, and Balait rivers. He knows that all the 

 rivers run to the sea, though few Kayans have 

 seen the sea or, indeed, been outside the basin 

 of their own river. To have been to another 

 river, or to have seen the sea, is a just ground of 

 pride. He does not know that Borneo is an island, 

 though he knows that the white men and the 

 Chinese come from over the sea ; he will confi- 

 dently assert that the sea is many times larger 

 than the Baram river, even ten times as large. 

 They seem to regard the sea as a big river of which 

 their main river is a tributary. 



I bans sometimes speak of Airopa (meaning 

 Europe), which they take to mean the river Ropa, 

 as the home of the white man ; and all the tribes- 

 men are apt to think of foreigners as living on the 

 banks of rivers in forest-covered country much like 

 their own. 



Although the Kayans do not observe the stars 

 and their movements for practical purposes, they 

 are familiar with the principal constellations, and 

 have fanciful names for them, and relate mythical 



