230 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



which the Indonesian blend was formed, the Mongol 

 element seems to predominate. 



After the separation of Borneo from the mainland, 

 there came a long period throughout which it 

 remained an isolated area, the population of which 

 received no important accessions from other areas. 

 It is probable that during this period the Indonesian 

 population of the mainland continued to receive 

 further infusions of Mongol blood ; for there is 

 abundant evidence that for a long time past there has 

 been a drifting of Mongol peoples, such as the Shans, 

 southwards from China into the Indo-Chinese area. 



We may suppose that during this period the 

 knowledge and practice of working iron, of building 

 long houses and boats, and of cultivating padi, 

 became diffused through the greater part of the 

 population of this corner of the Asiatic continent. 

 This advance of culture would have rendered 

 possible the passage of these peoples to the islands 

 in boats. But it seems probable that no consider- 

 able incursion of people from this area was effected 

 until a comparatively recent date. 



In Chapter II. we have mentioned the evidences 

 of Hindu- Javan influence on Borneo, to which 

 must be ascribed the existence of the Buddhist 

 court at Bruni before the coming of the Malays, 

 as well as traces of Hindu culture in south Borneo, 

 including the practice of cremation by the Land 

 Dayaks, the burning of the bones by other tribes, 

 stone carvings,^ and articles of gold and fragments 

 of pottery of Hindu character. There must have 

 been a certain infusion of Javanese and perhaps 

 Hindu blood at this time ; but both in physical 

 type and in culture the surviving traces seem to be 

 insignificant. 



1 Nieuwenhuis publishes a photograph of such carvings found in the 

 Mahakan or Upper Kotei river. They included fragments of a cylindrical 

 column and what seems to be a caparisoned kneeling elephant. Quer durch 

 Borneo^ vol. ii. p. ii6. 



