254 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



Kayan, Kenyah, Sea Dayak, and Malay languages, 

 and a tolerably intimate acquaintance with a number 

 of the Klemantan dialects, we do not venture upon 

 'the task of discussing their systematic positions and 

 relations to languages of other areas. For this 

 would be a task of extreme difficulty and complexity j 

 which only an accomplished linguistic scholar could 

 profitably undertake. Nevertheless, we think it J 

 worth while to add a few words regarding the j 

 bearing of the languages on the foregoing ethno- ^ 

 logical discussion. It seems clear that in the i 

 main the differences and affinities between the 

 many languages and dialects spoken by the pagan 

 tribes bear out, so far as they are known to us, 

 the principal conclusions of our argument. The 

 Sea Dayak or I ban tongue stands distinctly apart 

 from all the rest, and is indisputably very closely 

 allied to the Malay. The Kenyahs, Klemantans, 

 and Punans speak a great variety of tongues, which 

 are, however, so closely similar, and the extreme 

 members of which are connected by so many inter- 

 mediate forms, that it would seem they may properly 

 be regarded as but dialects of one language. The 

 Kayan language, on the other hand, stands apart 

 from both the I ban and the Klemantan languages, 

 but is much nearer to the latter than the former. 

 The Kenyah dialects especially contain many words 

 or roots that appear also in the Kayan, and seem to be 

 more closely allied to it than is any of the Klemantan 

 tongues. This may well be due to the more 

 intimate contact with the Kayans enjoyed by the 

 Kenyahs, who, as we have seen, have assimilated 

 the Kayan culture more completely than any other 

 of the indigenous tribes, and who may well have 

 taken up many Kayan words together with other 

 culture elements. 



The Murut languages again seem to stand apart 

 from the Iban, Kayan, and Kenyah-Klemantan, as 



