ETHNOLOGY OF BORNEO 245 



bamboo ; this was probably their practice for some 

 few generations after they began to acquire the 

 Kayan culture. At the present day those Punans 

 who have only recently taken to the settled mode 

 of life generally make large use of the bamboo in 

 building their small and relatively fragile houses. 



The view that the Kayans have played this 

 large civilising role is supported by the fact that 

 Kayan is the language most widely understood in 

 the interior, and that it is largely used for inter- 

 communication, even between members of widely 

 separated Kenyah communities whose dialects have 

 diverged so widely that their own language no 

 longer forms a medium of communication between 

 them ; whereas the Kayans themselves do not 

 trouble to acquire familiarity with the Kenyah or 

 Klemantan languages. 



If both Kenyahs and Klemantans represent 

 sections of the aboriginal population of nomadic 

 hunters who have absorbed Kayan culture, it remains 

 to account for the existence of those peculiarities 

 of the Kenyahs that have led us to separate them 

 from the tribes which we have classed together 

 as Klemantans. The peculiarities that distinguish 

 Kenyahs from Klemantans are chiefly personal 

 characteristics, notably the bodily build (relatively 

 short limbs and massive trunks), the more lively 

 and energetic temperament, the more generous 

 and expansive and pugnacious disposition. These 

 peculiarities may, we think, be accounted for by the 

 supposition that the aborigines from whom the 

 Kenyahs descend had long occupied the central 

 highlands where most of the Kenyah communities 

 still dwell and which they all regard as the home- 

 land and headquarters of their race. 



Of the Klemantan tribes some, e.g, the Aki, the 

 Long Patas, and the Long Akars, resemble more 

 nearly the Kayans; others, e,g, the Muriks, the 



