CHAPTER XXI 



ETHNOLOGY OF BORNEO 



In the foregoing chapters it has been shown that 

 the six groups which we have distinguished by 

 the names Kayans, Kenyahs, Klemantans, Muruts, 

 Nomads or Punans, and I bans or Sea Dayaks, differ 

 considerably from one another in respect of material 

 and moral culture as well as of mental and physical 

 characters. We have used these names as though 

 the groups denoted by them were well defined and 

 easily to be distinguished from one another. But 

 this is by no means the case. Our foregoing de- 

 scriptions are intended to depict the typical com- 

 munities of each group, those which present the 

 largest number of group-marks. Besides these more 

 typical communities, which constitute the main bulk 

 of the population, there are many communities or sub- 

 tribes which combine in some measure the character- 

 istics of two or more of the principal groups. It is this 

 fact that renders so extremely difficult the attempt to 

 classify the tribes and sub-tribes in any consistent 

 and significant fashion, and to which is largely due 

 the confusion that reigns in most of the accounts 

 hitherto given of the inhabitants of Borneo. We 

 believe, however, that the divisions marked by the 

 six names we have used, namely, Kayan, Kenyah, 

 Klemantan, Murut, Punan, and I ban, are true or 

 natural divisions ; and that the intermediate forms 

 are due, on the one hand, to crossing through inter- 



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