GOVERNMENT 275 



the same high standing and large influence ; the 

 result of which has been the creation of an unduly- 

 large number of these officers and the consequent 

 further depreciation of the dignity of the office. 



The Penghulu is the link between the native 

 system of government as it obtained before the 

 coming of the white man, and that established and 

 maintained by the Rajah and his white officers. 

 The former consisted of the exercise of authority by 

 the several chiefs, each over the people of his own 

 village only, except in so far as a chief might 

 acquire some special prestige and influence over 

 others through his own reputation for wisdom and 

 that of his people for success in war. Among the 

 Kayans and Kenyahs especially, the principal chiefs 

 have long aimed at extending their influence by 

 marrying their relatives to those of other powerful 

 chiefs. In this way chiefs of exceptional capacity, 

 aided by good fortune, have achieved in certain 

 instances a very extended influence. Such a chief 

 was Laki Avit, a Kenyah, who, some twenty years 

 before the Rajah's officers first entered upon the 

 task of administering the Baram, was recognised 

 throughout all the interior of the district as the 

 leading chief, a position which could only have 

 been achieved by the consistent pursuit of a wise 

 policy of conciliation and just dealing between 

 Kenyahs and Kayans. But the order and peace 

 maintained by the influence of such a chief depended 

 wholly on his continued vigour, and they seldom or 

 never survived his death by more than a few years. 

 In the case of Laki Avit, for example, the Bruni 

 Malays, jealous and afraid of the allied Kayans and 

 Kenyahs, soon succeeded by means of murderous 

 intrigues in bringing back the more normal condi- 

 tion of suspicious hostility and frequent warfare. 

 Thus, although several chiefs had endeavoured to 

 establish peace throughout wide areas, no one of them 



