CHAPTER X 



WAR 



The Kayans are perhaps less aggressive than any- 

 other of the interior peoples with the exception of 

 the Punans. Nevertheless prowess in war has made 

 them respected or feared by all the peoples; and 

 during the last century they established themselves 

 in the middle parts of the basins of all the great 

 rivers, driving out many of the Klemantan com- 

 munities, partly by actual warfare, partly by the 

 equally effective method of appropriating to their 

 own use the tracts of jungle most suitable for the 

 cultivation oi padi. 



The fighting quality of the individual Kayan, the 

 loyalty and obedience of each household to its 

 chief, the custom of congregating several long 

 houses to form a populous village upon some spot 

 carefully chosen for its tactical advantages (generally 

 a peninsula formed by a deep bend of the river), 

 and the strong cohesion between the Kayans of 

 different and even widely separated villages, — all 

 these factors combine to render the Kayans com- 

 paratively secure and their villages immune from 

 attack. But though a Kayan village is seldom 

 attacked, and though the Kayans do not wantonly 

 engage in bloodshed, yet they will always stoutly 

 assert their rights, and will not allow any injury 

 done to any member of the tribe to go unavenged. 

 The avenging of injuries and the necessity of 



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