NATIVES OF BORNEO 309 



for the first time great expanses of water. In the 

 Batang-Lupar low-country linger on the last remnants 

 of the Srus, in the Rejang the Kanowits and Tanjongs, 

 decadent tribes tottering on the verge of extinction, 

 their ancient habits and customs forgotten, melancholy 

 evidence of the severity of the struggle for existence 

 amongst savage communities. On the coast at Matu, 

 Oya, and Muka are found the Milanos, a Kalamantan 

 tribe that has to a great extent adopted the Mohammedan 

 religion and Malay customs : they are great fishermen, 

 and are perhaps in less danger of extinction than related 

 tribes ; whether they were driven down to the coast 

 by the immigration of Kayans and Kenyahs, sweeping 

 over the watershed of Borneo, or whether they, like the 

 Land-Dayaks in the west, and the Muruts and Dusuns 

 in the north-east, are "outliers" to use a geological 

 expression of a former continuous stratum, is quite 

 uncertain. Concerning one tribe, the Punans, there is 

 considerable doubt : they are a nomadic people, with 

 no fixed abode ; they wander through the jungle in 

 search of the wild sago-palm, which is their staple diet, 

 and of jungle produce such as rattans, camphor, and 

 gutta-percha, which they barter with more settled tribes 

 and with such enterprising Chinese and Malay traders 

 as penetrate to the interior. Dr. Haddon of Cambridge 

 and Dr. Nieuwenhuis of Leyden, than whom there are 

 none better qualified to pass an opinion on the matter, 

 regard the Punans as a race apart ; the former because 

 head-measurements show them to be moderately broad- 

 headed, the latter because of their singular habits 

 of life. Dr. Hose, however and I am inclined to 

 agree with him considers them to be of Kalamantan 

 stock. 



