250 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



commonly speak of Kami Menoa {z,e. " we of this 

 country") when they refer to their people as a 

 whole ; and the Kayan designation of them as Ivan 

 (immigrant or wanderer) has been adopted by large 

 numbers of them in recent years and modified into 

 I ban, so that the expression Kami I ban is now 

 frequently used by them. 



The identification of the I ban with a Proto-Malay 

 stock is justified by their language and physical char- 

 acteristics. The former seems to be the language 

 from which Malay has been formed under Arab in- 

 fluence and culture. It employs many words which 

 are no longer current in Malay, but which, as is 

 shown by Marsden's Malay Dictionary, were in use 

 among Sumatran Malays in the eighteenth century. 



Since the Mohammedan populations which now 

 are called Malay are of mixed origin, they present 

 no very well-defined or uniform physical type. But 

 of all Malays those of Sumatra and of the Peninsula 

 are generally recognised as presenting the type in 

 its greatest purity ; and it is this type which the 

 I bans most closely reproduce. The near resem- 

 blance of facial type between the Malays and the 

 I bans is apt to be obscured for the casual visitor by 

 the fact that the I ban puts little or no restraint upon 

 his expressions and is constantly chattering, laugh- 

 ing, and smiling ; whereas the Malay is taught from 

 childhood to restrain his expressions and to preserve 

 a severe and grave demeanour in the presence of 

 strangers. But in private the Malay relaxes, and 

 then the resemblance appears more clearly. 



The principal features of the Iban's culture which 

 distinguish it from that of the other tribes may be 

 enumerated here. The I ban closely resembles the 

 Kayan in his method of cultivating padi, but he is 

 even more careful and skilful, and generally secures 

 a surplus. His house differs characteristically from 

 those of the Kayan type, and resembles the long 



