276 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



had achieved any enduring success. For this end the 

 unifying influence of a central authority and superior 

 power was necessary, and this was suppHed by the 

 Rajah. We may liken the whole system of society 

 as now established to a conical structure consisting 

 of a common apex from which lines of authority 

 descend to the base, branching as they go at three 

 principal levels. If we imagine the upper part of 

 this structure cut away at a horizontal plane just 

 above the lowest level of branching, we have a 

 diagrammatic representation of the state of affairs 

 preceding the Rajah's advent — a large number of 

 small cones each representing a village unified by 

 the subordination of its members to its chief, but 

 each one remaining isolated without any bond of 

 union with its neighbours. At the present time the 

 base of the cone remains almost unchanged, but the 

 Rajah's government binds together all its isolated 

 groups to form one harmonious whole, by means of 

 the hierarchy of officers whose authority proceeds 

 from the Rajah himself, the apex of the system. 



The establishment of the Rajah's government has 

 thus involved no breaking up of the old forms of 

 society, no attempt to recast it after any foreign 

 model, but has merely supplied the elements that 

 were lacking to the system, if it was to enable men 

 to live at peace, to prosper and multiply, and to 

 enjoy the fruits of their labours. But though we 

 describe the society of Sarawak as being now a 

 completed structure, the simile is inadequate and 

 might mislead. The structure is not that of a rigid 

 building, but of a living organisation ; and its 

 efficiencyand permanence depend upon theunceasing 

 activities of all its parts, each conscious of the whole 

 and of its own essential role in the life of the whole, 

 and each animated by a common spirit of unswerv- 

 ing devotion to, and untiring effort in the cause of, 

 the whole. The Rajah's power rests upon the broad 



