150 MALAYAN ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. 



character of the people of Sarawak, would not interfere 

 with the solution of the causes leading to it above 

 referred to, as in all the cases above mentioned the 

 afflicted individuals were foreigners; and that first 

 described, and which was so much more than the 

 others destructive of human life, was perpetrated by an 

 Illanon, a native of one of the piratical states of 

 Magindanau. The same term meng-amuk is used 

 by the Malays to designate furious fighting- in battle. 



In arts and manufactures the Malays of Borneo 

 have not surpassed their neighbours on the peninsula 

 and in Sumatra, and are certainly inferior to those of 

 Java ; in the construction of their houses they display 

 no skih 1 or taste, and their uncouth appearance makes 

 them precisely resemble an English barn upon posts : 

 the causes of the inferiority in neatness of construc- 

 tion, and also in durability of the materials of which 

 they are built, are to be found in the insecurity of 

 property consequent on the uncertain and oppressive 

 government which has prevailed in the kingdom of 

 Bruni during the past forty or fifty years. 



We have seen that during the visit of Pigafetta the 

 town of Borneo was built of wood on strong and sub- 

 stantial posts ; it is now constructed entirely on nibongs, 

 which soon decay, and is thatched with the nipah-leaves, 

 of which the sides also are composed : under a good 

 government the natives would, however, soon improve 

 in the construction of their houses, and the people of 

 Sarawak are rapidly substituting houses of large 

 dimensions and durable materials for the small and 



