HISTORY OF BORNEO 15 



cultures: Majapahit for Brahminism and Hindu 

 influence, Malacca for Islam and the more practical 

 civilisation of Arabia. 



In the earliest years of the fourteenth century 

 Bruni was a dependency of Majapahit, but seems 

 to have recovered its independence during the 

 minority of the Javan king. It is to this time that 

 the tradition of the Kapuas Malays ascribes the 

 arrival of the Kayans in Borneo.^ Then Angka 

 Wijaya extended the power of Majapahit over 

 Palembang in Sumatra, Timor, Ternate, Luzon, and 

 the coasts of Borneo. Over Banjermasin he set his 

 natural son. In 1368 Javanese soldiers drove from 



^ According to a Malay manuscript of some antiquity lent to us by the late 

 Tuanku Mudah, one of the kings {batara) of Majapahit had a beautiful daughter, 

 Radin Galo Chindra Kirana. This lady was much admired by Laiang Sitir 

 and Laiang Kemitir, the two sons of one Pati Legindir. On the death of the 

 king, Pati Legindir ruled the land and the beautiful princess became his ward. 

 He, to satisfy the rival claims of his two sons, promised that whoever should 

 kill the raja of Balambangan (an island off the north coast of Borneo), known 

 by the nickname of Manok Jingga, should marry the princess. Now at the 

 court there happened to be Damar Clan, one of the sons of Raja Matarem, 

 who had disguised his high descent and induced Pati Legindir to adopt him as 

 his son. This young man found favour in the princess's eyes, and she tried to 

 persuade her guardian to let her marry him. Pati Legindir, however, declared 

 that he would keep to his arrangement, and roughly told the lover to bring 

 Manok Jingga's head before thinking of marrying the princess. So Damar 

 Clan set out with two followers on the dangerous mission, which he carried 

 out with complete success. On his return he met his two rivals, who induced 

 him to part with the head of the royal victim, and then buried him alive in a 

 deep trap previously prepared. Pati Legindir, suspecting nothing, ordered his 

 ward to marry Laiang Sitir, who brought the trophy to the palace ; but the 

 princess had learned of the treachery from one of the spectators, and asked for 

 a week's delay. Before it was too late, Damar Clan, who had managed to 

 find a way out of what nearly proved a grave, reached the court and told his 

 tale, now no longer concealing his rank. He married the princess and after- 

 wards was entrusted by Pati Legindir with all the affairs of state. Having 

 obtained supreme power, Damar Olan sent his treacherous rivals to southern 

 Borneo, with a retinue of criminals mutilated in their ear-lobes and elsewhere 

 as a penalty for incest. These transported convicts, the ancestors of the 

 Kayans, landed near Sikudana and spread into the country between the 

 Kapuas and Banjermasin. It is interesting to see how this tale agrees with 

 other traditions. The Kayans state that they came across the sea at no distant 

 date. Javan history relates that Majapahit was ruled during the minority of 

 Angka Wijaya by his elder sister, the princess Babu Kanya Kanchana Wungu. 

 A neighbouring prince, known as Manok Jengga, took advantage of this 

 arrangement by seizing large portions of the young king's domains. One, 

 Daram Wulan, however, son of a Buddhist devotee, overthrew him and was 

 rewarded by the hand of the princess regent. When Angka Wijaya came of 

 age he entrusted the care of a large part of his kingdom to his sister and 

 brother-in-law. 



