XXI ETHNOLOGY OF BORNEO 235 



Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines, Celebes, Ceram, 

 and the trans-Javan islands." ^ 



This assertion, though, no doubt, rather too 

 sweeping, seems to have a large basis in fact, so 

 far as it concerns the tribes of Borneo. 



We have not been able to find that any one 

 tribe of this part of the mainland agrees closely with 

 the Kayans in respect of physical characters and all 

 important cultural features. Nevertheless, very many 

 of the features of the Kayan culture are described 

 as occurring amongst one or another tribe, though 

 commonly with some considerable differences in 

 detail. In attempting to identify the nearest 

 relatives of the Kayans among the mainland tribes, 

 it has to be remembered that_ all these have been 

 subjected to much disturbance, in some cases, no 

 doubt, involving changes of habitat, since the date 

 at which, as we suppose, the Kayans left the 

 continent. And since the Kayans, from the time 

 of their arrival in Borneo, have played the part of a 

 dominating and conquering people among tribes of 

 lower culture, and have imposed their customs upon 

 these other tribes, without blending with them or 

 accepting from them any important cultural elements, 

 it follows that we must regard the Kayans as having 

 preserved, more faithfully than their relatives of the 

 mainland, the culture which presumably they had 

 in common with them a thousand years or more 

 ago. 



Of all the peoples of the south-eastern corner of 

 the continent, the one which seems to us most closely 

 akin to the Kayans is that which comprises the 

 several tribes of the Karens.^ These have been 

 regarded by many authors (3) as the indigenous 

 people of Burma. Their own traditions tell of their 



•^ "The Ethnology of Eastern Asia,"yi7Mrw. of Indian Archipelago^ vol. iv. 

 P- 478. 



^ We have not been able to find any full and satisfactory description of the 

 Karens, but we have brought together whatever statements about them and the 



