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PREFACE 



In writing this book we have aimed at presenting 

 a clear picture of the pagan tribes of Borneo as they 

 existed at the close of the nineteenth century. We 

 have not attempted to embody in it the observa- 

 tions recorded by other writers, although we have 

 profited by them and have been guided and aided 

 by them in making our own observations. We 

 have rather been content to put on record as much 

 information as we have been able to obtain at first 

 hand, both by direct observation of the people and 

 of their possessions, customs, and manners, and by 

 means of innumerable conversations with men and 

 women of many tribes. 



The reader has a right to be informed as to the 

 nature of the opportunities we have enjoyed for 

 collecting our material, and we therefore make the 

 following personal statement. One of us (C. H.) 

 has spent twenty-four years as a Civil Officer in the 

 service of the Rajah of Sarawak ; and of this time 

 twenty-one years were spent actually in Sarawak, 

 while periods of some months were spent from time 

 to time in visiting neighbouring lands — Celebes, 

 Sulu Islands, Ternate, Malay Peninsula, British 

 North Borneo, and Dutch Borneo. Of the twenty- 

 one years spent in Sarawak, about eighteen were 

 passed in the Baram district, and the remainder 

 mostly in the Rejang district. In both these 

 districts, but especially in the Baram, settlements 

 and representatives of nearly all the principal 



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