234 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



not fear to put out to sea in their long war-boats. 

 We have known Kayan boats to descend the Baram 

 River and to follow the coast up to Bruni ; and we 

 have trustworthy accounts of such expeditions 

 having been made in former days by large war 

 parties in order to fight in the service of the Sultan 

 of Bruni. The distance from the Baram mouth to 

 Bruni (about lOO miles) is nearly equal to the width 

 of the broadest stretch of water they must have 

 crossed in order to have reached Borneo from the 

 mainland by way of Sumatra. This hypothetical 

 history of the immigration of the Kayans receives 

 some support from the fact that a vague tradition 

 of having crossed the sea still persists among them. 

 We attach some importance to this Kayan tra- 

 dition of their having come over the sea, as 

 evidence that they are comparatively recent im- 

 migrants to Borneo ; but the principal grounds on 

 which we venture to suggest this history of the 

 Kayans and of their invasion of Borneo are three : 

 first, the affinities of the Kayans in respect of 

 physical character and culture to certain tribes still 

 existing in the area from which we believe them to 

 have come ; secondly, historical facts which go far 

 to explain such a migration ; thirdly, their relations 

 to other tribes of Borneo. We add a few words 

 under each of these heads. 



I. As long ago as the year 1850, J. R. Logan, 

 writing of highland tribes of the basins of the 

 Koladan and Irrawadi and the south-eastern part 

 of the Brahmaputra, asserted that ** the habits of 

 these tribes have a wonderful resemblance to those 

 of the inland lank-haired races of Indonesia. . . . 

 There is hardly a minute trait in the legends, 

 superstitions, customs, habits, and arts of these 

 tribes, and the adjacent highlanders of the remainder 

 of the Brahmaputra basin, that is not also charac- 

 teristic of some of the ruder lank-haired tribes of 



