ETHNOLOGY OF BORNEO 227 



proportion of these peoples) are features that point 

 to Mongol ancestry.^ 



It was said above that the skin of these tribes is 

 of very pale yellow colour. In this respect there is 

 little to choose between them, but on the whole the 

 Punans are of rather lighter colour than the others, 

 and, as was said before, of a faintly green tinge. 

 This difference is, we think, sufficiently accounted for 

 by the fact that the Punan seldom or never exposes 

 himself to full sunlight, whereas the others are 

 habitually sun-browned in some degree. But the 

 lighter colour of this whole group of tribes (as com- 

 pared especially with the Kayans and I bans) cannot 

 be explained in this way ; for the habits and con- 

 ditions of life of Kenyahs and Klemantans are very 

 closely similar to those of the Kayans ; and it must, 

 we think, be regarded as a racial character. 



The name Indonesian is perhaps most properly 

 applied to this people which we suppose to have 

 resulted from the contact and blending of the 

 Caucasic and Mongoloid stocks in this corner of 

 Asia. The systematic ethnographers use this term 

 in a vague and uncertain manner. Deniker 

 defines the Indonesians by saying that they com- 

 prise **the little intermixed inland populations of 

 the large islands (Dyaks of Borneo, Battas of 

 Sumatra, various '' Alfurus " of Celebes, and certain 

 Moluccas)." ^ He seems doubtful whether the name 



^ In the course of measuring and observing the physical characters of some 

 350 individuals of the various tribes, we recorded in each case the eye 

 characters. Of a group of 80 subjects made up of Kenyahs, Klemantans, and 

 Punans (who in this respect do not differ appreciably from one another), we 

 noted a moderately marked Mongolian fold in 14 subjects, the rest having in 

 equal numbers either no fold or but a slight trace of it. As regards obliquity 

 of the aperture, in rather more than half it was recorded as slight, in one 

 quarter as lacking, and in the rest as moderate. As regards the size of 

 palpebral apertures, half were noted as medium, and about one quarter as small, 

 and the remaining quarter as large. In the main, obliquity and smallness of 

 aperture go with the presence of the Mongolian fold. The most common form 

 of eye in this group may therefore be described as very slightly oblique, 

 moderately large, and having a slight trace of the Mongolian fold. 



^ The Races of Man, p. 486, London, 1900. 



