232 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



a higher culture among the indigenous popula- 

 tion. 



There is good reason to believe that the Kayans 

 have spread across Borneo from the south and 

 south-eastern parts, following up the course of the 

 large rivers until they reached Usun Apo, the 

 central highlands, in which (see vol. i. p. 2) all 

 the large rivers have their sources. The tradition 

 of such north - westward migration is preserved 

 among the Kayans of the Baram, who, according 

 to their own account, crossed the watershed into 

 the basins of the western rivers only a few 

 generations ago. This tradition is in accordance 

 with the fact that, within the memory of men still 

 living, they have spread their villages farther 

 westward along the banks of the Baram and the 

 Rejang rivers, driving back the Muruts northwards 

 from the Baram. It is borne out by the accounts 

 of the Bruni Malays to the effect that the Brunis 

 first became acquainted with the Kayans some few 

 generations ago, and had known the Muruts long 

 before the advent of the Kayans ; and further, by 

 the fact that the Kayans have left their name 

 attached to many rivers both in the south and east, 

 where the name Batang Kayan (or Kayan River) 

 is the common appellation of several rivers on 

 which Kayan villages are now very few. 



The Kayans seem to have entered Borneo by 

 way of the rivers opening on the south coast, and 

 gradually to have penetrated to the central high- 

 lands by following up these rivers, pushing out 

 communities every few years to build new villages 

 higher up the river in the course of their unceasing 

 search for new areas adapted to their wasteful 

 farming operations. 



There can, we think, be little doubt that the 

 Kayans are the descendants of emigrants from the 

 mainland, and that they brought with them thence 



